How the media are smearing Jeremy Corbyn: A leadership campaign is not meltdown.

McCarthyism is alive and well in 21st century UK.

The mainstream media after smearing Nicola Sturgeon before the election and getting embarrassingly exposed after the source of the leak was revealed,  has now set it sights on Jeremy Corbyn.


HSBC propaganda leaflet, The Telegraph were chief perpetrators against Sturgeon. Now they actively encourage readers to vote for him under the pretence that his leadership will keep their beloved Conservatives in power. Or is this just a stunt to undermine him because he's a real alternative? Can he win an election? - who knows? Many thought the tories would be in permanent wilderness post-Blair. Remember baseball hat Hague and IDS's Quiet Man speech I don't recall the media being as aggressive.

A regular tactic is to ramp up the rhetoric on Labour with words like 'panic', 'existential crisis' and asking if the party will split, branding things 'dull' one minute then 'chaos' the next. Even supposedly 'left-wing' BBC is complicit - a cherished national institution but also a profit-driven global multinational. Media enterprises always sell business narratives because profit trumps public interest.

Unfortunately, the more the media scare-monger about alleged Labour disarray, the more likely swing voters will turn towards the tories or 'safe' Blairites, who then pander to the owners. Even the left-leaning New Statesman have run with this populist trend.

Ultimately it's no real surprise that Labour are having a heave-ho, they just lost an election they expected to get something from. It's easy to forget that despite attacks on Miliband and the SNP takeover, Labour increased their vote share - nearly double the tories percentage.

Those on the right of Labour are increasingly coming across as out-of-touch, something Miliband kept accusing the tories of. Most of their MPs abstained on tory cuts to tax credits for 3+ children families. This bill effectively dictates the size of a affected working families, the strivers this government pretends to reward. The media frame this as Labour in-fighting, instead of supporting those sticking up for the children who will be plunged into poverty as a result.

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So Osborne cynically plays political games with people's lives while trying to re-brand his party as pro-working people. And the Labour right allow him his win. This was a bill that could have been successfully opposed if Labour's 184 spineless MPs had grown one.

Then Blair emerged and, probably to the relief of the average citizen of the Middle East, dropped bombs on Corbyn's bid and his party. An interfering war-monger who commands huge fees to speak at world hunger events. I guess he's making the most of Chilcot report delays

To me the whole political debate since the 2008 financial crisis comes down to this:

a) Who caused the global banking meltdown?
b) Who should be protected from its consequences?
c) Who should be made accountable?

These are rhetorical questions for informed followers of news/politics with basic moral reasoning but please read/comment away if you want to discuss. Keep it constructive and witty please.

Finally, if you wonder why I am so bothered about the media, it is because key swing voters are still influenced by it, as I argue here.

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