Corbyn & Cabinet in the Media

[Maurice Picarda]

Sorry if I have totally misread this, but are the Guardian really claiming that there will be between 171 and 200 Labour rebels tomorrow (when the supporting text says it will be at most 115)?

They got the graphic the wrong way round, and then pulled it at some point last night.

 

[Knotted]

This made me smile:
Now Corbyn's friends compare ISIS to heroes who fought Franco: Hard-Left pressure group liken jihadists to freedom fighters who battled to save Spain from fascism

The Mail calling the International Brigades "freedom fighters". Ha.

 

[nino_savatte]

This made me smile:
Now Corbyn's friends compare ISIS to heroes who fought Franco: Hard-Left pressure group liken jihadists to freedom fighters who battled to save Spain from fascism

The Mail calling the International Brigades "freedom fighters". Ha.

The comments beneath the article say more or less the same thing. This is my pick of the comments.

Sapper764, Epsom, United Kingdom, about 2 hours ago

Franco was battling to save Spain from Communism. Those that went fight him were communist sympathisers. Spain is now a constitutional monarchic democracy just like ours.

It's that last sentence...

 

[Hocus Eye.]

The Mail had christened Stop The 'War as "hard left". I don't think so, it carried a very broad spectrum of people when it was doing its marches especially the 2003 one about Iraq. Of course their intention is to depict Corbyn as hard left, but he is very middle of the road really.

 

[redsquirrel]

Dastardly thinking that ordinary members have some say in the running go the party!

McDonnell says that ordinary Labour members will have more power, however much MPs may resist. He paints the change as part of a deliberate and sweeping reform of the party’s traditionally centralised operation. “The new leader was also elected with an overwhelming mandate on a political programme that seeks to take the party in a direction that reflects the current views of party members,” he writes.

 

[agricola]

This is a real article, in a real newspaper, by a real columnist.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

This is a real article, in a real newspaper, by a real columnist.

They're really pissed off about people outside their cosy little circle daring to express themselves politically (however naively) aren't they?

 

[agricola]

They're really pissed off about people outside their cosy little circle daring to express themselves politically (however naively) aren't they?

Indeed. This is also in today's Observer.

 

[JimW]

This is a real article, in a real newspaper, by a real columnist.

No, it's another spiel-by-numbers from speak-your-branes bot Nick Cohen. I suppose he at least has the decency to use a profile photo less than ten years old.

 

[William of Walworth]

He's been a complete tosser for years. He really hates the left

 

[MarkyMarrk]

My favourite in this whole thing was the Stop the War coalition marching on the Labour Party. So Corbyn marching on Corbyn then.

 

[rekil]

This is a real article, in a real newspaper, by a real columnist.

Comics and writers tear into Daily Mail and Sun readers but never Guardian and Observer readers. They assume that you are virtuous.

He's trying to have a go at Viz's drunken bakers guys for their male online strip.

 

[rekil]

And there's more. Harsh but fair.

Far leftists do not laugh to mock communism. They laugh to forget communism. They dismiss the mass murders, and the suppression of every right that makes life worth living with a giggle and a snort, and imply that you are a bit of a prude if you cannot do the same.

 

[maomao]

This is a real article, in a real newspaper, by a real columnist.

Meanwhile in the Mail:
Syria vote had one winner. And it wasn't Dave or Hilary Benn

World's gone nuts.

 

[nino_savatte]

Another one from the Fail, this time from the dire Anne McElvoy.
ANNE McELVOY: 'Sane Labour' plot to oust Corbyn - or form a new party

 

[J Ed]

The Graunid and Torygraph are running with 'REVENGE RESHUFFLE' stories based purely on what MPs opposed to Corbyn have said they reckon might happen, but it's being reported as something that is actually going to happen. Journalism it ain't.

 

[DotCommunist]

at this rate they should be employing Dan Hodges

 

[Zabo]

There's no end to it is there?

Jeremy Corbyn urged to pull out of Stop the War Christmas fundraiser

 

[ViolentPanda]

Another one from the Fail, this time from the dire Anne McElvoy.
ANNE McELVOY: 'Sane Labour' plot to oust Corbyn - or form a new party

Although Corbyn isn't part of the comfortable neoliberal consensus - and is therefore "fair game" to the media Establishment, as far as they're concerned - it's not like anything that he proposes is in any way "hard left" as the media wazzocks like to claim, it's merely that in proposing social democracy Corbyn reminds older voters of what we've lost, and lets younger voters know that what we've lost was a reasonably-functional version of capitalism. That cannot be allowed.

 

[nino_savatte]

Although Corbyn isn't part of the comfortable neoliberal consensus - and is therefore "fair game" to the media Establishment, as far as they're concerned - it's not like anything that he proposes is in any way "hard left" as the media wazzocks like to claim, it's merely that in proposing social democracy Corbyn reminds older voters of what we've lost, and lets younger voters know that what we've lost was a reasonably-functional version of capitalism. That cannot be allowed.

This is an indication of how far to the right the level of permitted political discourse has travelled since 1997. Even the mild, piecemeal reformism of Miliband was greeted with howls of "Commie"!

 

[teqniq]

The only good thing about this endless character assassination is that it seems (at least from the comments in the Graun when I can bring myself to read the thing) that lots of people see right through it and like me are sick and tired of it.

 

[J Ed]

The only good thing about this endless character assassination is that it seems (at least from the comments in the Graun when I can bring myself to read the thing) that lots of people see right through it and like me are sick and tired of it.

They fixed that by removing the ability to comment on many of these articles.

 

[teqniq]

They fixed that by removing the ability to comment on many of these articles.

You can still comment on that Cohen piece thirty-five pages so far, but yes I take your point.

 

[ViolentPanda]

This is an indication of how far to the right the level of permitted political discourse has travelled since 1997. Even the mild, piecemeal reformism of Miliband was greeted with howls of "Commie"!

Yep, the good old Overton Window is currently way to the right of political normalcy, and Corbyn & Co trying to shift it even vaguely leftward makes the self-satisfied fuckwads in the establishment who've been taking people for a ride feel that their "hard-earned" gains are going to be snatched from them.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Daww

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Although Corbyn isn't part of the comfortable neoliberal consensus - and is therefore "fair game" to the media Establishment, as far as they're concerned - it's not like anything that he proposes is in any way "hard left" as the media wazzocks like to claim, it's merely that in proposing social democracy Corbyn reminds older voters of what we've lost, and lets younger voters know that what we've lost was a reasonably-functional version of capitalism. That cannot be allowed.

This is fucking spot on ...

 

[agricola]

Daww

... and with predictable timing, here is Tristram Hunt.

 

[gosub]

Telegraph

 

[agricola]

It continues:

Jeremy Corbyn accused of preparing to mount 'sexist purge' of his shadow cabinet

The Labour leader is said to be considering the future of six female members of his shadow cabinet

Jeremy Corbyn and his allies have been accused of preparing to mount "sexist purge" of his shadow cabinet amid claims he is planning to sack senior women in the wake of the Syria vote.

The Labour leader is said to be considering the future of six female members of his shadow cabinet including Maria Eagle, the shadow defence secretary, Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary and Lucy Powell, the shadow education secretary.

Rosie Winterton, Labour's chief whip who abstained on the Syria vote ,is also being singled out for criticism because of her key role in ensuring that he party held a free vote on the issue.

One shadow minister told The Telegraph: "They are bullying women, the way they are behaving is appalling. They are a macho bunch and it feels fundamentally sexist.

"This was a free vote and yet it feels like people are being punished. It is undermining and shows a complete lack of respect, we are being treated like the enemy."

Twelve weeks ago it was the Blairites who refused to serve who were the enemy. Now it's those that were willing to join the front bench."

Another shadow minister said that Mr Corbyn has a "woman problem", highlighting his decision to make Ken Livingstone joint head of the party's defence review with Maria Eagle.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn declined to comment on whether a reshuffle is imminent but insisted he is not sexist, adding that more than half of his shadow cabinet are women.

The Labour leader is said to be intent on using his success in the Oldham West and Royton by-election to assert his authority over the party.

The clear-out of the moderates could come as soon as next month, in a New Year reshuffle which critics said would lead to "permanent war" inside the Labour Party.

One moderate front-bench MP said: "We are on a war footing now. We know they are coming for us and we're ready for them."

Mr Corbyn's his aides and allies have vowed to act after he suffered a damaging revolt from 66 Labour MPs who defied his call to oppose air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, voting instead with the Tories to back military action.

Mr Corbyn stepped back from trying to impose a “whip” ordering his MPs to vote against air strikes, but he maintained that Labour’s official party policy was officially anti-bombing.

 

[J Ed]

Jesus.