Plan B Forum

Meet Jeremy Corbyn, New Head of UK's Labour Party



On Saturday, the United Kingdom’s Labour Party elected far-left MP Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader, by a landslide 59.5% majority. The vote comes as a shock to the party—only a handful of its MPs backed Corbyn—and to British politics in general. In addition to pushing for the re-nationalization of Britain’s railways and its exit from NATO, Corbyn is known for his anti-American rhetoric and associations with reactionary figures.

Among other exploits, Corbyn has:

• Compared the actions of the U.S. to those of ISIS, saying, “Yes they [ISIS] are brutal, yes some of what they have done is quite appalling. Likewise, what the Americans did in Fallujah and other places is appalling, but there has to be seen to be an acceptance of a much wider view of the world than is apparent at the present time.”

• Donated to the organization of Paul Eisen, a Holocaust denier, and appeared at his events. He later claimed he was unaware of Eisen’s unsavory views, despite 15 years of association.

• Called Bin Laden’s death without trial “a tragedy.”

• Defended vicar Stephen Sizer, who disseminated materials arguing the Mossad did 9/11, after he was banned from social media by the Church of England for posting anti-Semitic material.

• Praised preacher Raed Salah and invited him to parliament. Salah claims that Jews make their Passover matzoh with gentile blood, that Jews had foreknowledge of 9/11, and that homosexuality is “a great crime.” He has been banned from the U.K. for anti-Semitic incitement.

• Invited activist Dyab Abou Jahjah to parliament and spoke alongside him. Abou Jahjah had called the 9/11 attacks “sweet revenge,” said Europe made “the cult of the Holocaust and Jew-worshiping its alternative religion,” and called gays “Aids-spreading faggots.” He is now banned in the U.K.

• Described himself as a “very good friend” of Ibrahim Hewitt, a preacher who likened homosexuality to pedophilia and incest, and labeled it an “abominable practice.”

• Campaigned for the release of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami, who were convicted in Britain in 1996 for bombing the Israeli Embassy in London and one of the country’s largest Jewish charities.

• Recommended Russia Today, Putin’s propaganda channel, as a more reliable news source than the mainstream media.

• Hosted a show on Press TV, Iran’s propaganda channel.

And, last but not least:[my personal favorite]

• Blamed Britain’s alliance with America for its defeat in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Already, Corbyn’s election is causing consternation within Labour among its more centrist elements. Members of the party’s shadow cabinet have resigned in protest. Whether Corbyn will manage to preserve Labour as an electoral force, or preside over its splintering into a radical protest party remains to be seen.

The challenges facing Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership have been illustrated after his first major speech setting out the party’s new anti-austerity agenda was overshadowed by a series of small but symbolic blunders.

Mr Corbyn used his appearance at the TUC conference in Brighton to announce that Labour would now oppose the Conservatives’ benefit cap and fight Tory “poverty deniers” across the country. But the event was undermined when he was pictured failing to sing the national anthem at a service to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

The right-wing media seized on his silence and compared it to his participation in singing “The Red Flag” after his election on Saturday. He also appeared to have walked off with two donated packed lunches provided for veterans attending the event.

Labour was forced to put out a statement insisting that the “heroism” of the armed forces was “something to which we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude” and saying that he “stood in respectful silence during the anthem”. But political opponents seized on his silence, with Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames calling him “very rude and very disrespectful” to the Queen and “the Battle of Britain pilots who gave their all”.

there's nothing he's said so far that I have disagreed with.

Drunken Question Time

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has apologised for saying in 2003 that IRA members should be "honoured".



The MP, appointed by new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said the comments had clearly caused offence and apologised "from the bottom of my heart".

He said he had been urging militants to "put their weapons away".

Speaking on BBC Question Time, he also said he was sorry for an "appalling joke" about former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

In 2010, he said that if he could go back in time he would "assassinate Thatcher".

Challenged on this remark by a member of the audience, he said: "It was an appalling joke. It's ended my career in stand-up, let's put it that way, and I apologise for it as well."

Mr McDonnell's remarks about the "bravery" of the IRA have been highlighted since his appointment to Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet.

Speaking on Question Time, he said at the time he made the comments it had looked like "we were going to lose the peace process".

His remarks were made at a gathering in London in 2003 to commemorate IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

He said his choice of words had been wrong, adding: "What I tried to do for both sides is to give them a way out with some form of dignity otherwise they wouldn't lay their arms down."

He added: "And can I just say this, because this has been raised with me time and time again - I accept it was a mistake to use those words, but actually if it contributed towards saving one life, or preventing someone else being maimed it was worth doing, because we did hold on to the peace process.

He's chosen a balanced shadow cabinet

The true extent of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s links with the IRA is revealed by a Telegraph investigation.

It can be disclosed that for seven years running, while the IRA “armed struggle” was at its height, Mr Corbyn attended and spoke at official republican commemorations to honour dead IRA terrorists, IRA “prisoners of war” and the active “soldiers of the IRA.”

The official programme for the 1988 event, held one week after the IRA murdered three British servicemen in the Netherlands, states that “force of arms is the only method capable of bringing about a free and united Socialist Ireland.” Mr Corbyn used the event to attack the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the precursor of the peace process.

"They were enemies of the peace process. They had a clear choice between the IRA and peaceful nationalism and they chose the IRA."
Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist MP for North Belfast

He said it had resulted in no improvement in the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, adding: “It strengthens rather than weakens the border between the six and the 26 counties, and those of us who wish to see a united Ireland oppose the agreement for that reason.”

The editorial board of a hard-Left magazine, of which Mr Corbyn was a member, wrote an article praising the Brighton bombing. In its article on the IRA attack, which almost wiped out Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet, the editorial board of London Labour Briefing said the atrocity showed that “the British only sit up and take notice [of Ireland] when they are bombed into it.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... links.html