Politics is a rough trade and parties and individuals should have their policies, characters, records and competence examined by the media on the public’s behalf.
In a perfect world.
In an imperfect world a reasonable person might hope for a choice of competing media to offer honestly held opinions on parties, policies and persons.
(In the world as it is we have no such luck. It should never have been necessary for then Labour leader Tony Blair to fly to Australia for the Benediction of Press Baron Rupert Murdoch, accurately nicknamed The Dirty Digger, before contesting an election..
Nor should other Labour leaders (in normal times) have to seek acceptance by the White House as legitimate candidates for 10 Downing Street. Ronald Reagan allowed one such candidate into the Oval Office and gave him short shrift.
In times like these, totally out of kilter, both Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have sought and got the backing of Donald Trump)
Forgive my digression.
Jeremy Corbyn is lampooned from Right, Left and Centre in Britain as an-anti Semite. True, he is not a paid-for hater of the Palestinian Arabs, “ethnically cleansed” from homes their people had inhabited continuously for thousands of years. “Cleansed” as if they were filth in various stages since their eviction from Haifa, a city where they were a majority, in 1948, by Zionist militants who burned Churches and Mosques, and visited outrages on men, women and children. (I was first told of this, when working as a librarian in Tottenham in the 1990s, by a Jewish woman who said she was there at the time. She had selected a book on the Middle East and volunteered the information. I never discussed such issues with anyone at work, but realised that amongst Jews as amongst Irish people there are many views on issues affecting us)
A few weeks ago THE TIMES published its charges against Corbyn, collated by one Dominic Kennedy . It appears that Corbyn supports terrorism against Jews, and against Britain and he has associated with terrorists. Amazingly, he’s not in jail!
He is alleged to have hosted IRA terrorists or their political associates in the House of Commons. There should be an investigation of the Security Services for failing to recognise the danger. Time was when elected Sinn Fein personnel, for whom no warrants for arrest were outstanding, were barred from crossing the Irish Sea,or having their voices heard over the airwaves. At the time Corbyn was hosting Sinn Feiners in Westminster, the IRA’s Chief of Staff, Martin McGuinness was in regular contact with a British Official exploring ways to let normal politics (such as communication via the airwaves) replace war. Obviously Sinn Feiners visiting Labour MP Corbyn, and GLC Leader Ken Livingstone were engaged in peace-building alternatives to war. Or would THE TIMES have us believe that Corbyn was plotting with Fenians a Guy Fawkes Spectacular in Westminster?
Could Dominic Kennedy and THE TIMES be unaware that THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND has made her peace with Martin McGuinness, the unrepentant former Chief of Staff of the IRA?
THE TIMES recently had a cartoon of Corbyn,” a Supporter of Latin American Dictators” because of his admiration for Fidel Castro.
Castro was an admirer of Eamon de Valera. Both Castro and de Valera stood up against predatory super-powers and did good for their own and the international community. Castro gave military aid to Angola when it was attacked by South Africa, and gave medical aid to millions of people in the “third world.” De Valera, at the League of Nations, offered the League Irish Troops to defend Ethiopia from Fascist attack when Britain profiteered from it, collecting Suez Canal tolls on Mussolini’s troops and materiel, and Winston Churchill praised the Duce to the skies. Thatcher was a great friend of Apartheid South Africa and Chile’s Traitor Dictator General Pinochet amongst other grisly monsters. Corbyn is not and never was a warmonger.
The late Jack Doyle claimed that he could sing like John McCormack and box like Jack Dempsey. To which Dempsey retorted that he should have said box like McCormack and sing like Jack Dempsey. I have not commented on Corbyn’s expertise in the ring or the concert hall, nor his artistry in any other sphere.
But he is entitled to his character, which is not bigoted, racist nor malevolent.
An interesting aspect of Dominic Kennedy’s piece was the revelation that between 1969 and the ceasefire in the 1990s the IRA killed approximately 1,800 persons including 650 civilians,
When Albert Reynolds was seeking an American
Visa for Gerry Adams, in pursuit of peace, Sir Simon Jenkins, quondam Editor of
THE
TIMES advised the White House that the IRA had killed “3,000
Britons”.
In 1981 THE TIMES asserted that the IRA had killed over “2,000 Protestants” since 1969 and it sought to defend that lie before the PressCouncil.
It has taken 38 years for THE TIMES to publish a reasonably correct figure for the number of fatalities inflicted by the IRA. It should be noted that THE TIMES has described the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a body equipped with firearms and practised in their discharge, as “Civilians”,
The infliction of death on anybody is not a trivial matter. Nor is lying about the perpetrators or victims, lying which some allege is habitually practised by THE TIMES, THE DAILY MAIL, THE DAILY EXPRESS, THE DAILY STAR, THE NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE and other British Agencies.
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