I'm what some people might describe as a fairly typical "Corbynista".
I certainly don't speak for all Corbyn supporters - not least because like any large group, we have among us a very wide range of views & backgrounds.
Time to put a few myths to bed...
Q How do you feel about being called a #Corbynista?
A Many people use the term 'Corbynista' as a pejorative, in order to scapegoat, demonize or negatively stereotype a large group of diverse people they tend to disagree with - but some Corbyn supporters embrace the term.
Q Aren't you part of an extremist Cult?
A LOL! All Corbyn supporters recognise & accept that Corbyn (like everyone else) has made mistakes. In fact, we often disagree about & debate exactly what they were, but the policies we support are popular, & normal across much of Europe.
Q Aren't Corbynistas obsessed with ideological purity?
A No. As with anyone involved in politics, some Corbyn supporters are more or less willing than others to compromise, & we all know that while it's very important to be principled, sometimes realpolitik overrides ideology.
Q Don't Corbynistas believe antisemitism in @UKLabour is all a 'smear'?
A A tiny minority might think this. While 99% of us accept it IS a real problem, which must be eliminated, there's no doubt whatsoever that occasionally its scale has been exaggerated for political purposes.
Q Do Corbynistas hate "centrists"?
A Some do, some don't! Imho, much of the animosity & distrust comes from the belief that some "centrist" @UKLabour MPs are more ideologically aligned with "moderate" Conservatives than with traditional Labour or socialist policies & values.
Q Why do Corbynistas demonize centrist @UKLabour MPs?
A SOME do. Corbynistas hate "free-market" ideology (embraced by some centrists) & many of us believe we'd be three years into a transformative @UKLabour Govt had some centrists not persistently attacked & undermined Corbyn.
Q Why do Corbynistas hate Blair/Starmer?
A Some do, some don't. Many Corbynistas voted for both Blair & Starmer. Keir promised unity, but we're disappointed in this aspect of his leadership. New Labour did some great things, but Iraq & its embrace of neoliberalism disappointed.
Q Surely any Labour Govt is preferable to any Tory Govt?
A Most of us agree. However, many of us fear that reverting back to the failed pre-Corbyn strategy of 'Tory-Lite' will alienate many @UKLabour members, is not a wise strategy, & it will result in failure. Baby, bathwater.
Q So why don't you stop moaning & get behind Starmer?
A Labour must be a democratic Party. Some of us praise Starmer when he deserves it (eg commitment to cancelling student debt) & express displeasure when we think he doesn't (eg SpyCops). Disagreement is normal in politics!
Q if you're so bloody reasonable, why do so many people in @UKLabour hate you?
We're a broad range of people, with diverse backgrounds & opinions, but given our antiquated electoral system, only one of two parties can form a Govt, so many very left-wing people choose Labour.
Q So what is a Corbynista?
A Depends who you ask! Language is malleable, & meaning is always context-dependent. But if I were to try & define it, I'd say it's simply someone who was inspired by Corbyn's values & the policies he introduced. We know he wasn't perfect - nobody is.
Q So why are so many Corbynistas so rude?
A Quite often, people who feel very passionately about the disgusting way already vulnerable people are treated by the Govt & the press, & who are angry about grotesque wealth inequality, let their tempers get the better of them. I do.
Like I say, I don't speak for all Corbynistas - that would be ridiculous. I feel angry about the direction our country is going in, & I feel anger toward the Govt. I try to be civil on Twitter, but sometimes I fail - we're all stressed, & we're all human.
It's fine to disagree.
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GB "News"/TalkTV regular, Chair of the National Jewish Assembly & JC columnist, Gary Mond, liked posts by far-right extremist Pamela Geller (banned from entering the UK) & posted on FB in reference to Muslims “all [of] civilisation… is at war with these evil bastards”.
In January 2022, it was reported that then Board of Deputies Senior VP Gary Mond had been asked to “step down from his duties” while an investigation took place.
Evidence appeared to show Mond had liked two posts made by Geller in 2017, during his 6-yr stint sitting on the Board’s Defence Division, including one saying France was “finished” after voters picked current President Emmanuel Macron over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Tory donor Bassim Haidar is the latest multimillionaire to say he'll leave the UK to avoid paying £millions in tax following plans to scrap the “non-dom” regime, which has allowed him & 68,800 other non-doms to avoid paying UK tax on overseas income for 225 years.
Haidar, who owns “more than 10 properties” in central London, including a £20 MILLION flat near Sloane Square, "gave" the @Conservatives £450,000 last year - including £10,000 worth of advertising to Lee Anderson in November, who promptly joined Reform UK. search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=2…
For decades the UK news media, owned by fellow non-dom billionaires, regularly run stories warning how 'superrich wealth creators' will leave Britain.
It's a bold & often-made claim, but is there any truth in it? Will many - or indeed any - of our 68,800 non-doms leave Britain?
The #Rwanda Plan, based on deterrence, is ineffective, expensive, & thoroughly neoliberal: based on rational choice theory, it assumes people act based on the costs & benefits of different actions. But the Plan ignores the evidence & the complex reality of the situation.
Tensions are rising between the UK and Ireland, as asylum seekers cross into Ireland from Northern Ireland, reportedly fearing that if they remain in the UK, they will be sent to Rwanda. But all is not as it seems, as Matilde Rosina demonstrates...
Rishi Sunak has claimed that this shows the Rwanda plan is working as a deterrent. For over two years, the government has insisted that the policy to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda would deter potential asylum seekers from making dangerous journeys across the English Channel.
Batshit Truss was stopped, “ambushed” & held “at gunpoint” by the “Deep State”, the “anti-growth coalition” & “declinists” - defeated by a progressive & Marxist alliance which includes Joe Biden &, er, Michel Foucault!
For all this, however, Truss’s book offers some important lessons for future PMs, albeit more in terms of what NOT to do than how to do the job well.
Prime ministers, for a start, need to listen. All PMs stop listening eventually - but it seems Truss never even started.
Even before becoming prime minister, her own husband warned it would “all end in tears”. Truss reveals that even her agent said “I should run – but he thought it would be best if I came second”!
The Queen warned Truss to “pace yourself”. As we also know, she didn’t.
In 2022, the Home Office considered giving Gideon Falter a role advising the Commission for Countering Extremism, but antisemitism tsar John Mann told Braverman he'd quit if Falter was appointed.
However, the MUCH BIGGER story concerns CCE Commissioner, Robin Simcox...
This is a thread about how the UK Govt appoints extremists to influential positions in order to manufacture a perception of impartiality, while in reality helping to push through harmful ideologically extreme free-market policies which serve the interests of the rich & powerful.
Robin Simcox, who has worked for the Henry Jackson Society AND the Heritage Foundation - two of the most ideologically extreme 'think tanks' in the western world - downplays the threat of far-right terrorism while talking-up the threats from Islamism AND environmental protestors.
The government claims to have secured the airfield and charter flights necessary for removing people to Rwanda. However, campaigners who oppose the scheme are targeting these elements of the policy in an attempt to make flights logistically impossible. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-688718…
In October 2022, the charity Freedom from Torture successfully convinced the airline Privilege Style to withdraw from the government’s Rwanda scheme.
In 'free-market' societies like ours, consumer pressure in the form of protests & boycotts often work.