Simon Danczuk’s Corbyn Paranoia

Labour has had a moderately good week, with Jeremy Corbyn getting Young Dave terribly worked up at PMQs over tax credits, the Tories presiding over less than totally wonderful news on the economy, and at least one poll showing an improvement. So it is no surprise at all to see Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk take to the pages of the Mail On Sunday to say that, in reality, they are still totally rubbish.

So what is his latest predictably tedious complaint? You’ll love this: “behind the scenes there’s a worrying virus spreading through Labour’s structures”. Like what? Apparently “during Labour’s leadership contest, Corbyn supporters hurled personal abuse at supporters of other candidates. So began a lengthy campaign of vile misogynistic trolling and aggressive bullying”. Oh really?

Some who claimed to support Corbyn (not quite the same thing) were abusive on social media. But, guess what? So are many who claim to support politicians across the political spectrum. And Danczuk is the last one to talk misogyny, given his crass exploitation of now estranged wife Karen’s chest. As for bullying - sorry Si, that’s the exclusive preserve of the Tories right now, in case you hadn’t noticed.

But then his argument goes totally gaga: “A further manifestation of the increasingly nasty tone being adopted by the hard Left was seen at the Tory conference when Corbyn supporters screamed obscenities and spat in the faces of delegates”. Wrong. A few of the protesters who turned up to demonstrate misbehaved themselves. There is not one scrap of evidence to connect them to the Labour Party. Try again.

“It’s not just nastiness, though, that Corbyn seems to be unwittingly incubating – it’s offensive views light years away from mainstream opinion. His new director of communications, Seumas Milne, for example, appears to hate America, cheerlead for communism, and act as an apologist for terrorism”. Appears to? So Danczuk doesn’t know - he just makes it up. Like his pals at the Guido Fawkes blog.

But do go on. “Ed Miliband is a fundamentally decent bloke”. Really? So why did you spend the last five years remorselessly slagging him off? And then Danczuk gets truly paranoid: “When Corbyn kept rebelling against him, did Blair threaten to have him deselected?” Corbyn has not threatened to have anyone deselected. But Simon Danczuk is scared shitless that his own bad behaviour will catch up with him.

So he needs to blame someone else for it. Hence the claim to be Mr Reasonable: “I’ve said before that Jeremy is a decent bloke”. After abusing his confidence in his column last week? Try again. “But he’s caught up in revolutionary fervour and doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening”. Ageism smears - classy, eh? Then he loses it completely.

“Sooner or later his ill-defined movement for change will be revealed for what it is: an organised mafia out to destroy opponents”. Like the way you tried to run the party in Rochdale, having dissenters purged, eh Si? If Danczuk wants an example of Labour meaning nasty, he only needs to look in the mirror.

And just because he’s not paranoid doesn’t mean Jezza isn’t coming to get him.