Wednesday 16 September 2015

The Tory Media Should Grow Up

On a day when the Tories cut thousands of pounds from the pockets of millions of working families, the Tory media chose instead to focus its headlines and attention on the fact that Jeremy Corbyn did not sing the national anthem.  Odd that they never give such attention to the fact that England footballers are frequently to be seen standing chewing gum, when its being played!  The Tory media once again have shown that they are out of touch.  They are more concerned with trying to attack Corbyn on any basis than with even just reporting about the Tories attacks on millions of ordinary people.  It is the kind of disregard for the interests of the vast majority of people, by the establishment, that has swung them behind Corbyn in the first place.

The Tories cuts to Tax Credits mean that more than 3 million working people, will see a cut on average of more than £1,000 a year to their income.  Yet, instead of focussing on Corbyn's criticism of this attack on working people, the Tory media instead have focussed all their attention on the fact that Corbyn, a long-standing Republican, stood in respectful silence at the Battle of Britain commemoration rather than sing the National Anthem.  It shows just how much disregard the Tory media has for ordinary working people.

Of course, the members of this media gang were quick to point out that this fact alone shows why Corbyn needs a spin doctor, who could have told him that this is what the media would do, so that his message over Tax Credits was drowned out.  No what it shows is just how disgraceful the current Tory media is, and why we need a Labour Movement media so that we can talk direct to the working-class, on a much more extended scale than is already happening via social media.

Of course, the fact is that the Tory media would have attacked Corbyn either way, rather than cover the attack on working families by the Tories.  Had he actually sang the National Anthem, they would have attacked him for hypocrisy, as a long standing Republican, who had sung the National Anthem, only to curry favour with electors.  Had he done what John Redwood did, as Welsh Secretary some years ago, and simply mouthed the words, he would have been ridiculed and attacked for that too.

That fact, is illustrated by the fact that the Tory media have already attacked Corbyn on similar lines for agreeing to join the Privy Council.  The tory media have been full of themselves over the fact that Corbyn, who previously intimated that he would not join the Privy Council, precisely because it implies a grovelling subservience to the Monarchy, has now agreed to join.  If Corbyn can bow his knee in front of the Queen as part of that process the Tory media pundits say, why could he not likewise just sing the National Anthem.

The reason is simple.  Corbyn has agreed to join the Privy Council only because with the archaic, and arcane current nature of the British Constitution, it would be very difficult for him to operate as Leader of the Opposition, without doing so.  For example, because he would not be allowed to see secret documents and information.  By contrast, there is no reason why he has to sing the National Anthem, as a means of performing his duties as Labour Leader.

In fact, the question here is one that Cameron has to answer.  After Corbyn was elected, he and his Ministers rushed to the media to warn the British public that Corbyn and the 250,000 Labour Party members who had voted for him were an imminent threat to Britain's security threat.  We were, therefore, expecting a 3 o' clock knock from the Special Branch; when we went outside we were expecting our homes to be destroyed at any moment by a drone strike.  Instead, Cameron invites the Leader of this imminent threat to the nation's security into the Queen's very home, and opens up all the nation's secrets to him, as a member of the Privy Council!!!!!  Isn't that an act of gross betrayal and treason on the part of David Cameron and his government?

The fact, is that the British Constitution is riddled with all these ridiculous throw backs to the Middle Ages, that should have been swept away more than two centuries ago, as part of the bourgeois revolution, as they have been in other countries across Europe, and in the United States when they undertook their own revolution to replace George III, as their King.  The Tories, and the Tory media are still living in a world where people stood up at the end of cinema and theatre performances to sing the National Anthem, when the real world has moved on in to the 21st century.

When I was a County Councillor, I was one of about a dozen, from all three parties, who waited outside the Council Chamber, drinking tea, and eating biscuits, whilst the religious ceremony that began each Full Council meeting took place.  No one considered that there was anything wrong, for those of us who were not religious to do so.  On the contrary, it would have been hypocritical to have participated.  The good thing about Corbyn's election, is that he is exposing all of that stuffy hypocrisy that has infected politics for too long.

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