Webchat with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, Tuesday 30 May at midday

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello,

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday 30 May at midday.

Jeremy has been MP for Islington North since 1983, and has been Labour leader since 2015, having been re-elected when Owen Smith stood against him in 2016. Labour’s manifesto for the election on June 8 proposes ‘a Brexit deal that puts our economy and living standards first’, tax rises for the top 5% of earners, the renationalisation of the railways, free school meals for all primary pupils, the abolition of university tuition fees, and a £250 billion investment fund for infrastructure and the economy.

Please do join the chat on Tuesday at midday, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance. Please do share the webchat on social - the more, the merrier!

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question each, follow-ups if there’s time and please keep it civil .

(As we approach the General Election we will endeavour to offer you a balanced diet of webchats with politicians from different parties. More announcements coming soon.)

Thanks
MNHQ

Corbyn’s clear sympathy for republican violence and the IRA should unquestionably demolish the notion that he is a ‘man of peace’. During a recent Chatham House speech Corbyn argued firmly that he is not a pacifist. In this, if little else, he is quite clearly right. Corbyn’s role in the Northern Ireland conflict wasn’t peace maker, but rather cheerleader for the republican movement. This was the same republican movement which, through its armed wing, killed thousands of Corbyn’s countrymen, soldiers and civilians alike.

Taken from longer article

thebackbencher.co.uk/yes-jeremy-corbyn-did-sympathise-with-the-ira/

In January 2014, Corbyn was part of a group welcoming the Algerian preacher Abdallah Djaballah to the mosque. This controversial imam has called on his countrymen to “wage holy Muslim war” against Britain and the United States, and blames Israel for the 9/11 attacks...

...Leo McKinstry, a journalist who campaigned alongside Corbyn for 10 years in the late 1980s and early 90s, is worried by his old comrade’s rise to prominence. “There’s something both naïve and gung-ho about Jeremy,” he says. “He has always been drawn to terrorism masquerading as an armed struggle. He has an eternal rebelliousness. He gets a thrill out of bringing radical groups into the august surroundings of the House of Commons. He’s never seen a left-wing campaign he did not like, nor a capitalist enterprise he did not despise.”

Taken from longer article:

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.politico.eu/article/labour-hamas-london-ira/amp/

Charmageddon, you are posting articles about Corbyn.

If it is fact that he supports so much terrorist violence (and violence from such diverse factions in terms of their faith and ethnicity!) surely there must be an actual direct quote or video of him somewhere actually saying as much.

Don't you think it is odd that we are expected to believe that he is simultaneously an Irish republican and a Islamic extremist? Are we to believe that his supposed support of these two rather different causes is simply because he is bloodthirsty? It's ridiculous.

Honestly, if you believe it, report him and get him locked up as he must be a psychopath and a huge risk to British security.

Only the script in this case was strangely familiar. Facts dismissed as conspiracy. Experts vilified as establishment. Quotes half-invented for inflammatory memes. Sexism, misogyny, anti-intellectualism, homophobia, antisemitism, violent language, abuse – all of it clear to anyone at the receiving end, all of it denied by anyone on the side generating it.
The truth, however, dear comrades, is that you cannot claim hashtag collectivism one minute, you cannot gloat about how you act together as one unstoppable unit, then disown the clear patterns of wickedness among your ranks, shrug your shoulders and simply say “nowt to do with me”. If #YouAreHisMedia, then you need to own your shit and sort it out.
“Jeremy doesn't condone it.” “He can't control what every idiot says.” “I don't do that. How dare you tar me with the same brush.” “It's probably an MI5 conspiracy to smear Corbyn.” “One rotten apple.” “There are nasty people on all sides.” It is the Ukip phrasebook, terrifyingly adapted for the left.
The far right is obsessed with purging the country from anyone who looks different. The far left obsessed with purging it from anyone who thinks different. They are two sides of the same philosophy who sees progress only in homogeneity and threat in mixing, in "impurity", in dissent, in challenging the orthodoxy.

Taken from a longer article by Alex Andreou - former Corbyn supporter - about how toxic Corbyn's leadership & momentum are, and how they all use the same script about right wing press, smear campaigns, bias etc:

www.byline.com/column/11/article/1177

Well there are a few examples of Corbyn's speeches on a Tory campaign video - but you have to think exactly why would he be filmed? Corbyn was a very insignificant backbencher who no one had heard of so who would be interested in filming him anyway, and filming everything you see is a fairly recent phenomenon.

The glaring problem is, Beach, that Jeremy Corbyn was an irrelevant backbencher for his entire parliamentary career - regarded as a bit of a Trotsky joke.
Few, if any, people took him seriously so there is very little in the way of interviews etc - and as his IRA stuff was pre smart phone, there is not the mainstream footage that there is today.

This is why his team has been able to rewrite the history - completely at odds with on the record testimony of people who knew him & worked alongside him.

Xpost with Seahorses about his previous irrelevance.

The left wing ideology of the IRA is not that far removed from Islamism, TBH

I've obviously no idea about the accuracy or otherwise of this, but it was reported that MI5 did indeed give Corbyn their attention:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/19/exclusive-mi5-opened-file-jeremy-corbyn-amid-concerns-ira-links/

My main problem with JC is that I don't think his policies will work or be affordable now or in the future.

On foreign policy - can't for the life of me think ISIS will be negotiated into a long lasting peace treaty based on their actions and ideology so far. This is merely a smokescreen for people to feel morally superior about not sanctioning drone attacks whilst not counting the cost of the people still being murdered by ISIS.

The minimum wage should never have been taken out of the hands of the low pay commission - what we've got now is a free for all by politicians who don't understand the consequences for small and medium sized businesses.

Corporation tax should go up, but it would have to be raised very slowly to give firms time to adjust.

And I hate the free tuition big giveaway - it's a bribe to the middle classes at the expense of even more primary and secondary funding. More targeted bursaries and relief for shortage degree subjects that are socially useful would've been much better.

None of this is carefully thought out, researched and targeted policy.

Charmageddon, do you read your own links? Or check who has authored them?

The Andreou one is bizarre and in another one the author talks about the IRA when he means Sinn Fein. Yes I know they are linked but they are not terms that can be used interchangeably by anyone wanting to be taken seriously in discussing the minefield for offense and misunderstanding that is the Troubles.

You are linking to opinion pieces by people who seem to think that the Good Friday Agreement and the Anglo-Irish agreement are the same thing and that saying stuff like "I once heard someone say they'd heard McDonnell say he supported IRA violence" gives them legitimacy to make some very very serious accusations against the leader of the opposition.

I think someone should send those links to Mrs May cos if she turns up in Cambridge this evening she will have everything she needs to utterly discredit Corbyn and Labour and have the biggest landslide win ever. That is if they are the truth and nothing but the truth with no misrepresentation or bias. In fact I wonder why the Tories haven't destroyed the competition with this political gold yet. Most odd, no?

Sigh.

Ok beach.

You're right.

It is a Tory & elitist conspiracy against Jeremy Corbyn.

He has never once met any members of any terrorist organisations & has most definitely never championed their massacres.
He has never done anything remotely dodgy and was responsible for peace in NI.
He has never, ever, ever turned a blind eye to misogyny, anti-semitism or homophobia - all the people that have said this of him are liars with an agenda.
He is a pacifist & a peacemaker and is the second coming.

The media portrayal of Corbyn is most definitely a result of the wealthy owners of the media and their rich friends wanting to continue to have their nose in the troughs of public money.

If he was so ineffectual and inelectable, they'd could just peacefully leave him alone.

He is a pacifist & a peacemaker and is the second coming

Behold! Another has seen the light!

This is interesting. tompride.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/former-active-ira-member-serving-as-tory-party-councillor/

Also tompride.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/shocking-revelation-tories-secretly-met-ira-leaders-7-years-before-corbyn-even-visited-belfast/

So the Tories need to think back and remember what they do and who they employ.

Killdora
*
muckpup,* it would be interesting if it hadn't been linked to Every Single Time somebody dares to point out that Corbyn was a fan-boy.

Also Theresa May Sells arms to the Saudis who arm Isis.

I'm struggling to see the similarity between 'senior politicians met IRA leaders for talks' to 'irrelevant backbencher met up with IRA members and supported their armed cause'.

Perhaps you could explain how it is in any way comparable?

Charmageddon, sorry but I'm going to have to call strawman.

I'm not claiming he was the reason the peace process happened. I'm just voicing concern about what is happening to the British press and its role in our democracy.

I would be really interested in your opinion on the LSE report - it's not that long and I promise I checked out your links (some of which I'd seen before as they also are doing the rounds).

Sorry to derail for a second, but if Thefairycaravan is still watching could you please copy and paste your brilliant question about the forces into the Tim Farron webchat?

I thought it was very measured and well written.

(And I am still annoyed Jeremy Corbyn didn't address any of the defence/forces questions asked. Rant over).

supported their armed cause

Ok, I'm done with talking seriously with you. Forget what I said above about being interested what you think about the LSE report. You throw extremely serious accusations around as though these things don't really matter or should be spoken about with precision and care.

What are your views on May selling arms to Saudi Arabia, charmegeddon?

That okay for you?

Just to correct facts the British Government does not sell weapons. Private companies do. Labour and Tory Governments have ruled when UK companies sell weapons.

We often want to arm others to protect the UK of course although I am sure we like the Americans are frustrated with the Saudis at times as they do seem to play all sides and I am not happy with their role in Yemen.

It is not always a simple issue.