Say what you like about the BBC – and a lot of people do – but it is meticulously even-handed. Last night Jeremy Corbyn produced a performance that left Theresa May looking like a woman who had supped full of horrors, but you’d never guess from listening to the Today programme on BBC radio this morning. It was all on-the-one-hand-on-the-others, so you came away with the feeling it had been an honourable draw. It was nothing of the kind.
However, let’s be fair: Theresa May performed better in her interview with Jeremy Paxman than she did a few days earlier with Andrew Neill. But then she could hardly have performed worse, given that the Neill interview had Theresa virtually wrapping her legs around her head in her effort to squeeze free of her manifesto fiasco. Theresa is clearly a woman who doesn’t enjoy being questioned on things political, which is why she funked a straight debate with Corbyn in the first place. And if the audience laughs at your words, not once, not twice but three times, as last night’s audience did, the brutes, it’s hard not to think that interviews and the public generally are a bottle marked ‘Poison’.
Corbyn, in contrast, breezed through his interview with the Sky reporter and the audience. He wasn’t quite as good when talking to Paxman, but he was still several furlongs ahead of Theresa. The twittersphere confirmed this judgement, leaving you wondering how the Daily Mail and its right-wing warriors ever got away with spinning Theresa as strong and secure and Jeremy a hapless joke.
People are indeed guffawing, but not at the one the script says they should. Stand by for Tory spin-meisters on overdrive in the next ten days.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/30/jeremy-corbyn-david-dimbleby-rightwing-bias-british-newspapers?CMP=fb_gu
I am not sure what we can glean from beauty contest events like this but tome neither of them did all that well.
Both seemed to view it as a test of how well they can dodge difficult questions.
Corbyn is clearly the more likeable and relates to people well,but he is still vulnerable on his past record and the issue of the monarchy is surely valid, since SF supporters here so strongly resist any republican showing even superficial allegiance.
So why is Jeremy let off that hook?
May of course is a disaster and she is doing her best to throw away an unassailable lead.
Paxman is clearly rusty and he succeeded in eliciting sympathy for both of them with his over eager interruptions.
Since only the Unionist parties wish to attend Westminster, ( that includes the SDLP ) and with no discernible benefits except for the wage-packet of the few I find little enthusiasm for what happens across the water in Britain. If their electorate vote for May ,that to me would confirm that they are easily brainwashed or utterly racist and xenophobic ….. either way ” Is cuma liom ” Here 50+1 is in sight and if England doesn’t do what it’s infamous for ,we can shortly decide our own collective future. From then on in ,we will be confronted by the same right-wing media bias that tortures Corbyn…..1000% worse than at present …..will be attacked on all fronts ,by politicians ( home and abroad) , by church and state , by former friends and long term enemies, a nightmare scenario which we must prepare for now…..the future, in the beginning, will not be easy.
The SDLP are a strange kind of Unionist party Eolach, as Colum Eastwood has today called for a border poll post BREXIT and even says they will campaign for Irish unity.
Weird branch of Unionism altogether.
I don’t agree with Corbyn’s stance on abortion, I oppose abortion totally. I agree with most of his other policies though, it really is time austerity was finished and the wealthy paid their fair share. He certainly gave a great performance last night and came out better than Theresa May did. It got embarrassing for May at times, with the audience laughing at her replies or openly expressing their lack of trust in her, like the man mouthing “bollocks” or the midwife saying “I’ll believe it when I see it”.
Corbyn handled the Loyalist plant with ease. When I heard the accent everyone sort of knew what was coming but Jeremy handled it very well.
Paxman was really going out of his way to live up to his reputation to the point where it was very obvious. He was nearly shouting questions at one point and wouldn’t even give May or Corbyn time to reply. A bit of advice Paxman: don’t over do it.
social medias doing a job on him showing how it is on the ground far more than any debate.
Paxman’s questioning of the two candidates was certainly a game of two halves.
Corbyn must have thought he was being questioned on a murder charge, as Paxo was strident, loud and aggressive, interrupting every ten seconds, and not allowing Corbyn to properly answer one question.
In the other half, he lowered his voice, showed no aggression, and allowed May to complete most of her answers in her own time.
Was it sex discrimination or just Paxman’s natural political bias?
PS: Why has there been such scant coverage, especially on Nolan, of the brutal murder on Sunday afternoon in Bangor, of a UDA man, apparently as part of the UDA power struggle?
Had Provos or Dissidents been possibly involved he would have been ‘all over it’, putting Jim McDowell in the front line, due to his inside knowledge of these terrorists, or Allison Morris who seems to know the identity of the gunman.
Then he would have had unionist politicians telling us how dangerous it was for the future of the Stormont assembly.
Has there been one unionist politician who has condemned this murder?
Surely Arlene Foster, who has given £200k to her friends in the UDA should have an opinion on their present murder campaign!
I didn’t see the debate last night but I am hoping to catch it later.
I think, Jude, no matter how credible Corbyn presents himself, no matter how many debates he wins, no matter how many of his policies make sense (or better sense than Tory policies), the media will only serve to present a different story and prevent any chance of him coming out on top. The difficulty we have in this part of the world is many see the media as gospel – how many people read the trash that’s written in tabloids and consider questioning it’s objectivity, its impartiality, it’s truth? Never mind the broadsheets. Corbyn, is up against it. He’s up against the Tories, he’s up against the dissent within his own party and he’s up against a mere brick wall, the media. May, may well come out on top, not because of her abilities, skills or leadership but because of the inability of Corbyn to overcome the difficulties that have been put in his way.
We have witnessed the media attempting to build a mountain for Corbyn to climb. The avalanche of allegations in recent weeks about his involvement with the PIRA and Sinn Fein were pathetic But it sticks in the minds of many. Yet many other politicians were doing exactly the same thing – only difference was that some of them were perhaps a little more discreet about their dealings with the Republican Movement. Its the old flinging mud analogy – you keep throwing it, it will eventually stick – and Corbyn has been in the firing line of the mud-slinging.
May and her Tory cronies have only served to destroy the social fabric of society and it seems they are not finished where they have temporarily left off. Where next for health? Where next for education? Where next for the most vulnerable? Where next for the youth and future generations? Where next for Northern Ireland? What confuses me is that support for the Tories is an endorsement of their austerity policies, vision of bringing society to it knees at the behest of the elite who become more powerful, greedy and wealthy. But they are given the mandate to do this, which is frustrating!
Cameron called for a BREXIT referendum confident that the result would come down firmly on his side. It didn’t. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if May, calling an election, confident of strengthening her majority in the House of Commons was to “fall on her own sword” – just like Cameron?