Jeremy Corbyn, the darling of the British left, a self-ascribed dyed-in-the-wool socialist and former chair of the Stop the War Coalition recently elected to lead the Labor Party, must have believed he was destined to be a backbencher for all time. And, in truth, the sudden rise of this rebellious activist turned politician has caught the party elites on the hop especially as the odds against him were 100-1 when he initially threw his cap in the ring.
Corbyn’s biggest asset is his authenticity. He breaks the traditional politician mold by refusing to tamper his ingrained beliefs to attract middle ground voters, but ultimately his own truths are coming back like knives strewn in the way of his ever getting his foot under a Downing Street desk.
An object of derision in Conservative circles, Prime Minister David Cameron, who says he was the one who informed Corbyn that he was the frontrunner, has since described the Labor Party under Corbyn as “a threat to national security, our economic security and your family’s security.”
Guardian columnist and comedian Frankie Boyle writes: “Corbyn has survived his first week in opposition despite being attacked by the print media with such ferocity that I can only assume he’s been caught hacking a murdered girl’s phone.”
The corporate media are taking the PM’s lead digging-up as much dirt as they can unearth, beginning with Corbyn’s alleged long running affair with his shadow international development secretary, Dianne Abbot, during the 1970s and his appointment of his close friend John McDonnell whose hobbies include “generally fermenting the overthrow of capitalism” as his shadow chancellor of the exchequer.
He’s also come under fire for being unpatriotic due to his apparent support for the “terrorist” IRA and his refusal to sing the national anthem, “God save the Queen,” at a Battle of Britain memorial service. According to a report in the Daily Mail, Corbyn once gave cash to a fraudster claiming he was an IRA bomber on the run from justice. It doesn’t end there. The accusations just keep coming.
The Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan strafed the new Labor leader for his backing of Iran during his talk prior to the nuclear deal, entitled “The case for Iran,” when he called for anti-Iranian sanctions to be scrapped and an end to the country’s “demonization” by the West.
Last year, Corbyn was invited to Tehran and was pictured smiling while shaking the hand of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif. In recent weeks, he’s been praised by an aide to the Ayatollah Khamenei as “a lifelong human rights activist who understands that Iran can bring peace” to the Middle East.
Gilligan also accuses Corbyn, a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause and a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of accepting “thousands of pounds in gifts from organizations closely linked to the terror group Hamas—and it’s been widely reported that he has praised Hamas for its “social justice” and has described both Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends.”
Corbyn’s outright hostility to Israel and what newspapers are calling his “dubious ties” have alarmed Britain’s Jewish community. The Jewish Chronicle, published in the UK, wrote that Corbyn had links with “Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright anti-Semites.” Likewise, victims of IRA bombings are up in arms over his friendly relationship with the leaders of Sinn Fein.
But the most damning monkey on his back in the view of the British establishment and the UK’s closest ally, the United States, has to be the latest revelations picked up by just about every British newspaper.
The man who once referred to Osama Bin Laden’s killing by US Navy SEALS as “a tragedy” earlier crossed an establishment red line with a claim that the Sept. 11 attacks on US symbols of power were “manipulated” to paint Bin Laden as the main architect as a pretext to pave the way for the West to invade Afghanistan.
In 1991, he slammed the US-led Gulf War to oust Saddam’s forces from Kuwait and he was quoted in Socialist Campaign Group News saying: “The aim of the war machine of the United States is to maintain a world order dominated by the banks and multinational companies of Europe and North America.”
There’s little doubt that his opinions do resonate with a large section of the British public, particularly with the young who are joining the party in droves—and, certainly, editors of the leftist Guardian newspaper are devoting much of the paper’s column inches to Corbyn’s defense under such headlines as “Jeremy Corbyn won. Now deal with it” and “Jeremy Corbyn . . . couldn’t be more British if he bled tea.”
Whereas many Britons would agree that their country’s stodgy political scene requires a shake-up and while there are a substantial number who see Jeremy Corbyn as a breath of fresh air in the staleness of Westminster, he’s likely to become the shortest-lived Labor leader ever because there’s a growing feeling within the party’s hierarchy that with him at the helm Labor would be unelectable.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Media ruins Corbyn’s chances
Posted on October 1, 2015 by Linda S. Heard
Jeremy Corbyn, the darling of the British left, a self-ascribed dyed-in-the-wool socialist and former chair of the Stop the War Coalition recently elected to lead the Labor Party, must have believed he was destined to be a backbencher for all time. And, in truth, the sudden rise of this rebellious activist turned politician has caught the party elites on the hop especially as the odds against him were 100-1 when he initially threw his cap in the ring.
Corbyn’s biggest asset is his authenticity. He breaks the traditional politician mold by refusing to tamper his ingrained beliefs to attract middle ground voters, but ultimately his own truths are coming back like knives strewn in the way of his ever getting his foot under a Downing Street desk.
An object of derision in Conservative circles, Prime Minister David Cameron, who says he was the one who informed Corbyn that he was the frontrunner, has since described the Labor Party under Corbyn as “a threat to national security, our economic security and your family’s security.”
Guardian columnist and comedian Frankie Boyle writes: “Corbyn has survived his first week in opposition despite being attacked by the print media with such ferocity that I can only assume he’s been caught hacking a murdered girl’s phone.”
The corporate media are taking the PM’s lead digging-up as much dirt as they can unearth, beginning with Corbyn’s alleged long running affair with his shadow international development secretary, Dianne Abbot, during the 1970s and his appointment of his close friend John McDonnell whose hobbies include “generally fermenting the overthrow of capitalism” as his shadow chancellor of the exchequer.
He’s also come under fire for being unpatriotic due to his apparent support for the “terrorist” IRA and his refusal to sing the national anthem, “God save the Queen,” at a Battle of Britain memorial service. According to a report in the Daily Mail, Corbyn once gave cash to a fraudster claiming he was an IRA bomber on the run from justice. It doesn’t end there. The accusations just keep coming.
The Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan strafed the new Labor leader for his backing of Iran during his talk prior to the nuclear deal, entitled “The case for Iran,” when he called for anti-Iranian sanctions to be scrapped and an end to the country’s “demonization” by the West.
Last year, Corbyn was invited to Tehran and was pictured smiling while shaking the hand of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif. In recent weeks, he’s been praised by an aide to the Ayatollah Khamenei as “a lifelong human rights activist who understands that Iran can bring peace” to the Middle East.
Gilligan also accuses Corbyn, a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause and a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of accepting “thousands of pounds in gifts from organizations closely linked to the terror group Hamas—and it’s been widely reported that he has praised Hamas for its “social justice” and has described both Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends.”
Corbyn’s outright hostility to Israel and what newspapers are calling his “dubious ties” have alarmed Britain’s Jewish community. The Jewish Chronicle, published in the UK, wrote that Corbyn had links with “Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright anti-Semites.” Likewise, victims of IRA bombings are up in arms over his friendly relationship with the leaders of Sinn Fein.
But the most damning monkey on his back in the view of the British establishment and the UK’s closest ally, the United States, has to be the latest revelations picked up by just about every British newspaper.
The man who once referred to Osama Bin Laden’s killing by US Navy SEALS as “a tragedy” earlier crossed an establishment red line with a claim that the Sept. 11 attacks on US symbols of power were “manipulated” to paint Bin Laden as the main architect as a pretext to pave the way for the West to invade Afghanistan.
In 1991, he slammed the US-led Gulf War to oust Saddam’s forces from Kuwait and he was quoted in Socialist Campaign Group News saying: “The aim of the war machine of the United States is to maintain a world order dominated by the banks and multinational companies of Europe and North America.”
There’s little doubt that his opinions do resonate with a large section of the British public, particularly with the young who are joining the party in droves—and, certainly, editors of the leftist Guardian newspaper are devoting much of the paper’s column inches to Corbyn’s defense under such headlines as “Jeremy Corbyn won. Now deal with it” and “Jeremy Corbyn . . . couldn’t be more British if he bled tea.”
Whereas many Britons would agree that their country’s stodgy political scene requires a shake-up and while there are a substantial number who see Jeremy Corbyn as a breath of fresh air in the staleness of Westminster, he’s likely to become the shortest-lived Labor leader ever because there’s a growing feeling within the party’s hierarchy that with him at the helm Labor would be unelectable.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.