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Monday 25 January 2016

Corbyn Calais Smears Busted

Last weekend, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited a refugee encampment near the French port town of Calais, where he concluded that conditions were dreadful, and that the Government should consider asylum applications from anyone there who can demonstrate that they have family in the UK - he used the word “connection”. He did not say that everyone there, or anyone else, should just be let in regardless.
No, he still doesn't look scary

But immigration is a key dog-whistle for the right-leaning press, and so the creative side of several variously desperate hacks was fired up, and fired up so enthusiastically that many of them are now in need of the nearest fire extinguisher, as their pants are on fire. First to induce an incendiary garment situation was Kate E McCann at the Telegraph, telling “Jeremy Corbyn: All Calais migrants should be given chance to come to Britain”.

As Corbyn said “‘everyone who wants to come to Britain and has a connection’ should be free to submit an application for processing by UK officials”, that is not true: the Tel is just making it up to suit its agenda. This did not trouble Ms McCann, who continued “Jeremy Corbyn has called on the government to allow thousands of migrants living in camps in Calais to come to the UK”, which is even more dishonest.

And, just in case you thought the Tel was not peddling nothing more than dog-whistles, the article is accompanied by a poll asking “Should all migrants [note, not refugees] in Calais be allowed to settle in the UK?” So, with a characteristic deployment of falsehood and misinformation, Telegraph readers are fed yet another totally untrue story. This has also been achieved by the Murdoch doggies at the Times.
Let Calais migrants into UK, says Jeremy Corbyn … Jeremy Corbyn has called for asylum-seekers waiting in makeshift camps in Calais to be welcomed into Britain, triggering anger among his MPs” told Sam Coates, adding for good dog-whistling measure “The Labour leader concluded a two-day visit to France by urging the British government to follow the example of Germany, which has allowed in a million migrants in a year”.

Makes a scarier proposition than “considering” applications from around 3,000, eh? And also basking in the glow of those burning trousers was Nick Craven at the Mail On Sunday, claiming “On chaotic tour of Calais camp, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calls for Britain to open doors to 'hundreds of thousands’”. Er, did he really say that?
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last night suggested Britain should take in similar numbers of refugees to the ‘hundreds of thousands’ entering Germany”. Spit it out, Nick, what did Corbyn actually say? “Germany is taking several hundred thousand people and I think we should have been part of the European programme from the very beginning in 2013”. So he’s just making it up to suit the paper’s agenda too, then.

Corbyn does not do himself any favours sometimes in his choice of words, and his chief spinner Seumas Milne, who has himself been the subject of some highly creative press attention, needs to get his boss to give the hacks less opportunity for that creativity. But there is very little they can do when faced with a press that is determined to lie to their readers for the express purpose of frightening them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Britain's far right "news"papers will lie about Corbyn whatever words he uses.

Yes, he could use "better" words. But ultimately it will make no difference because the "news"papers and their Yankified London apparatchiks actually HATE anything to do with free thinking democracy and fairness. They'll do anything to meet their ponzi mortgage payments.

He could also be a "better" orator. But so could have been Clem Atlee, a man who by today's political "standards" could almost be considered a saint.

The Nastzis will NEVER CHANGE. Nye Bevan warned what they would do as far back as 1948. Well, here they are......even worse than Bevan forecast. Much worse.

Mark my words, if Corbyn survives the New Labour Quislings there is no lie, no betrayal, no outright Murdoch thuggery that won't be used against him. Those people hate decency and loyalty too - because they don't have any.

The time is drawing near for this country to decide if it wants a just and fair society or not. Or if it wants to abandon everything to tenth rate spivs and barrow boys in Westminster's House of Scoundrels, the Poisoned Dwarfs of Whitehall and the Thieves of Canary Wharf. If it opts for the latter it will deserve every single socioeconomic disaster that befalls it - you ain't seen nothin' yet: The world according to Vauxhall Cross and Langley.

Andy McDonald said...

Well done, Anonymous! You got every cliché in!

Anonymous said...

Andy McDonald, maybe you should get out in the real world.

It might help you.

But somehow I doubt it.

Tim Fenton said...

@2 @3

Churchill says Steady Now.