When Theresa May called a snap election, I'm pretty sure she was confident her Cons would be able to destroy Jeremy Corbyn.
Her campaign manager Lynton Crosby, the malignant Aussie known as the Wizard or Lizard of Oz, must have had her dreaming of making meat pies out of the mild-mannered Labour Party leader.
And no doubt also reminding her that even many of Corbyn's own MPs, the lost followers of Tony Blair, thought he was dead man walking.
After the Con media had spent years demonizing him...
In a manner that couldn't be more disgusting or hysterical.
In its editorial encouraging readers to vote for the Conservatives, the Sun said that Britain would be a “global laughing stock” if Corbyn was elected prime minister.
The newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, said: “This is not the moderate Labour of Tony Blair. It is not the Labour of Kinnock or even Miliband. Your vote would be to install Britain’s first Marxist government.
Or sound more like the garbage Lynton Crosby used to whisper in Stephen Harper's ear...
But like Harper, it only worked for Theresa May for a while, before it went horribly wrong...
May couldn't campaign to save her life. She scared people rather than inspiring them.
So she was the one who ended up as the big loser.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s bet that she could strengthen her grip on power by calling an early election backfired spectacularly on Friday, with her Conservative Party losing its parliamentary majority and May facing calls to resign.
Which normally would have had me partying until I collapsed, except for what happened in Scotland.
Where enough people voted for the Cons, just to send a message to the Scottish National Party not to hold another independence referendum, they ended up saving May and her ghastly gang from being evicted from power.
Great eh?
Which as you can imagine left me extremely depressed...
And like so many others I'm sure, ashamed of my own people.
But that gloomy feeling didn't last long. Because the SNP still controls the Scottish Parliament. It's still the third largest party in the British Parliament.
And the main thing is that Theresa May didn't get her crushing majority.
And I'd rather celebrate the achievement of Jeremy Corbyn, who by refusing to give up and performing so well, made a lot of Cons and their media stooges look like idiots. And left them eating their words.
By showing that a quiet leader with a populist left-wing message can attract a lot of support...
Including the support of many young people.
An NME-led exit poll of young voters in the 2017 UK general election shows a markedly increased turnout for 18-24 year-olds, with a majority of the youth opting for Labour.
NME‘s exit poll shows that 56% of 18-34s voted in today’s election, with 53% of those aged between 18 and 24 turning out, +12% points on the audience’s turnout of 41% in 2015. 60% of 18–34s said they voted Labour, with two-thirds of those aged 18–24 voting for Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
Who just like many of Bernie Sanders' supporters, believe in Jeremy's message of hope.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 8, 2017
Just like I do.
So all is good and I'm happy.
Rise like lions. We are many, they are few.
The future is LEFT
And it belongs to us...
Scotland Forever... part of the UK.
ReplyDeleteHi anonymous....well at least you're half right ;) My mum is English, so needless to say I have nothing against England. I just think that independence is the only way Scotland can escape from the inhuman policies of the Westminster Cons...
DeleteWell I am over 80 and I am over the moon about Corbyn. Next Canada.
ReplyDeleteHi anon...good for you I love progressives of all ages. I had originally included a tweet in this post from one of my heroes the 94-year-old activist Harry Leslie Smith where he congratulated the new generation. I cut it out for time but maybe I'll include it in my next post. Like him and you I believe the more left the better !!!
DeleteWell, I hope you'll consider that here when the NDP gets a decent leader. There are several good candidates this time.
DeleteLike Jagmeet Singh? He is as empty headed and vapid as Cons say Trudeau is. The thin skinned dippers ran Pat Stogran out for giving him a rough ride.
DeleteIt's good to know the idiots in the SNP we're so useful to the Tories.
ReplyDeleteOnce again annoying separatist party screws the lefty ability, leading to victory for Tories.
Where have I seen this happen before, oh yeah Canada.
The saving grace is that it likely means Labour will wipe out both the SNP and Tories in the next election.
Hi Gyor...I'm sorry you feel that way about the SNP which just happens to be the most progressive party in the U.K. But let's be clear if some Scots hadn't abandoned the SNP to vote for the Cons we might have had a Labour-SNP-Lib Dem coalition and the most progressive government ever. And also remember, the real government of Scotland resides at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, and soon it will be the country's only government. The young overwhelmingly support independence and as I said in my post, they are the future...
DeleteWell, my party, Québec solidaire, has won big in my riding, Gouin. We have a right to be independent or autonomous if we choose to be. Indigenous nations also have national rights of self-determination, and QS thinks any such movement would have to be in partnership with the indigenous nations here.
DeleteI used to think that many attitudes on either extreme of any given question that historically have had significance in English Canada owed much of their foundation to the influence of successive waves of Scottish immigrants. Now it appears that we've returned the favour, if it can be considered one.
DeleteThe fact May gets a chance to govern with the DUP, a extremely social conservative party with ties to both terrorism and corruption is the fault those who pushed for second referundum so soon after the first, making many Scots deseparate enough to vote conservative in order to stop it, so perhaps you admit that wasn't a good idea?
ReplyDeleteHi Gyor....the SNP had no choice but to raise the question of independence after the Cons were threatening to drag it into a hard Brexit most Scots don't support. I grant you the timing turned out to be unfortunate, but how could the SNP know that May was going to call a snap election after she had promised she wouldn't? I know all about referendum fatigue, I can't even raise the subject with the older members of my family. But as I said above the young support independence so it's all but inevitable....
DeleteBut don't you feel for the poor torys?
ReplyDeleteI even managed to type that with a straight face. :)
I have not added up all the election results but it looks to me that even with the DUP support May is in a precarious position. Pity, eh?
Jesu, a quick google on DUP suggests that they are as nutty as US Republicans, if that is possible.
We are in for interesting time in the UK but May + DUP might mean Corbyn = PM in a year or two. One can hope.
Hi jrkrideau...I know Ulster well. I am a Protestant who ever since I was a boy always supported the Catholic's human rights struggle. So I also know that the DUP is the most reactionary bigoted party in the U.K. If May thinks a party like that one can prop up her government she will do even more damage to the Cons than she has already done...
DeleteThey also have ties to terrorism. Terrorism is no nicer if it is Protestant rather than Catholic or Muslim.
DeleteIRA were murderers and bastards but if you are saying they are the same level as ISIS, you are an idiot.
DeleteHold onto your hat, Simon! Looks like Tessa's Cons are going to stay in power with the help of Ian Paisley's DUP! That would be the party behind the “Save Ulster from Sodomy!” campaign. How'd ya like them apples?
ReplyDeleteHi anon....as I said above I couldn't be more delighted. Any party that plays with the DUP will end up with a bad case of political syphilis....
DeleteTo bad the Cons found a bunch of nutters to prop them up.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve....no it's too good the Cons are trying to survive by clinging to the DUP. They will taint the Cons, cause civil unrest in Northern Ireland, and eventually help bring down the Cons in flames....
DeleteI would have voted Corbyn, but let's be real, May ran the most horrid campaign in modern history and Labour still lost by 9%. Gotta love leftist moral victories. We lost but hey we get to rage against this hideous Tory government propped up by freakish Ulster thugs.
ReplyDeleteI prefer real victories like October 19th, 2015.
Hi anon...I would prefer that kind of victory too, but remember May was hoping to exterminate the Labour Party, and that didn't happen. Corbyn is looking like a winner even though he lost, and even though she won May's days as prime minister are numbered. Those freaking Ulster thugs will damage the Cons further, and the new generation will have the last word and the last laugh....
DeleteSimon I hate the sociopathic British Tories as much as you do but Corbyn was a weak and flawed candidate. He was very obviously the lesser evil and I am glad he tore into her majority and I am so glad that the Labour party was not decimated. However, the reality is that the Tories are still there and now propped up by creationist, loyalist terrorists. Like I said, I like to play for keeps against hideous right-wing parties, because there is no victory when they hold onto power.
DeleteCentrists Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau are the two who come to mind when it comes down to destroying hideous Con options.
No post on Canada's new defence policy? Your readers are waiting.....
ReplyDeleteHi anon....maybe I will write something about that, but to be honest I'm not really interested in the subject. I'm sure it will be popular with Canadians and practically guarantee another crushing Liberal majority. And I do know a fair amount about the military. But I think I'll just wait and see what it really means....
DeleteSo basically you have no opinion now on Justin and what he is doing.....as for your support? How can you call yourself a progressive and support this war mongering?
DeleteI didn't know Theresa Mayhem's campaign manager played Karl Rove to Scumbag Steve Harper. Oh, and what is it with media outlets named "Sun" all being right-wing tabloid garbage? Toronto Sun, Sun Media (precursor to the mutant Rebel Media), British Sun... More like the dark side than sunny ways if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteEvery single one of those bullet points was used against Justin in the 2015 con attack ads (and against Obama for 8 years by the Grand Old Putinists). He's a crypto-Muslim, he's an open-borders globalist, he'll bankrupt the economy, he's a communist... They left out "he's Castro's son," "his mum is a (you know)," "his wife wants nannies," and "his brother is a propagandist for the ayatollah". Nice scruffy beard though!
Good to know there's at least some thinking people left in the Western world.
Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods (Atlantic Russia), our cons want to turn back the clock simultaneously to 2007 and the Reagan era by letting Wall Street loose from the insane asylum. Wedontcare is likely to pass the Senate through reconciliation, and the con majority is intentionally stonewalling the Russia investigation so that they can score as many victories against liberals and everyday Americans in the brief window they have before Dump falls down the stairs and cracks his head or collapses from a soda and fried chicken induced heart attack.
The last good president, meanwhile, is dining with the deputy leader of the free world in Montreal. Sad...
Hi anon....Lynton Crosby was hired as a consultant by the Cons during the last election, although he claimed he had only a passing acquaintance with Harper. And you're right, the Con attacks on Justin and Obama resembled each other. The reptilian brains of Cons are very small, while their so-called fear glands are enormous. And their attempt to unchain Wall Street will only end in disaster. But the U.S. will survive, it will free itself from Trump and his traitorous Trumplings, and won't that be the day for a great cross border party? The harder the struggle, the sweeter the victory....
DeleteCorbyn had the Blairites of the Labour Pary (and who are as both neocon and neoliberal as the pre-fanged UK Tories) trying to stab him in the back these past two years. They forced a leadership review, but he won anyway. Incredulity! He must have rigged the vote! Didn't stop the internal whingeing, though. Those two-faced Blairites wanted some more time to swan around in power themselves, kicking serfs to the kerb (British spelling), and felt old Jeremy would impede their progress towards the halls of power and rightful membership in The Old Boys Club, simply because to them he appeared like a classic Drip. Not a hard enough man. So I'm delighted Corbyn did well. Now the Blairites have to work out whether joining old Jair might not be a bad move for them in the next election, which could be in six months. Likely, once Labour gained power, the British method of skewering the PM by cabinet caucus after accusations of incompetence could well apply, leaving Corby to spend his old age pension wisely in a council flat, while the remainder went on supplying British arms to the Saudis and bombing brown people. The Tories will bring down the incredibly incompetent Reading schoolmarm PM May the same way in the coming weeks - it's a tradition of British Conservatives. Bugger the party membership. We're the ones in power! At least May has two hundred pairs or more of shoes to play with building fairy castles on the living room floor, while passing the remainder of her time writing memoirs that no one will buy.
ReplyDeleteSo the establishment has Corbyn in its sights. Murdoch and the rest of the British press is relentlessly anti-Corbyn and pro secret handshakes for a spot of favour here and there, wink. wink, nudge, nudge. Even the Grauniad had an anti Corbyn thing going on and now appears to be an establishment outlet. So Corbyn, who appears to be a normal person, albeit with an amazing ability to absorb and shrug off personal attacks, will have to tread carefully. He wants more social equality through more public ownership and actual socialist principles - theatprivately owned UK rail network is a mere crap shadow of old British Rail before Thatcher is but one example - so all business will fight him as he might slow down the gravy train of siphoning off the poor's money to oligarchic coffers. And we can't have the peons getting uppity, now can we? Would go against Glorious British History, Rule Britannia and a vast Colonial Empire.
If Trudeau wasn't a classic Blairite type of guy with no populist imagination in his chosen field of politics, I could recommend him trying out the Corbyn way. As it is, we go merrily down the neoliberal way of infrastructure banks that guarantee no loss for business investment, ooh, thanks Bill and Justin murmurs business; and that total and compleat twit Freeland utters shrill neocon rhetoric as standard slush to an totally uncaring public, who otherwise might wonder who's threatening us, anyway, that requires huge defence expenditures which benefits corporations and not the public who pay taxes. I know, I know. It's those darn Russkies.
And Scotland? On the back burner for a while unless Sturgeon gets an eyebrow lift/trim, quits wearing woolly skirts and stops acting like a weasel, at which point reasonable people of good will outside Scotland might be willing to listen to the substance of her whining. And I'm from Kirkcudbright mahself, mun! Oh-riginally. So I know Scotland got a raw deal from the UK for decades, being ruled by a single Ministry in London, who couldn't even give the place decent roads, let alone five minutes attention. But the whole UK is in a mess at the moment and a bunch of people milling about doing the Parti Quebecois thing is not appreciated at this time.
All Corbin had to do was not be Theresa May. Corbin did have a bit of luck with 2 attacks because it was Theresa May as Home Secretary who cut the funding for police in G.B. Quess they saw how that worked out.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the no small problem of the Cons dismantling of the health care system. Not all are amused by it. Its just that the former P.M. was more charming and good looking. May isn't either so there was not that much to be attracted to. Corbin, was the anti hero. he pulled in the youth vote, much like Sanders did.