Sitting Down For Socialism: Jeremy Corbyn infuriates the British Establishment – again.

By
Chris Trotter
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34
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RICHARD BRANSON, the billionaire owner of the Virgin Group, paints himself as a progressive, twenty-first century capitalist. With his trademark long hair and beard, and his very public concern for the environment, he has created a brand which suggests to the world, especially its younger inhabitants, that you can be a friend of the planet, make a profit, and have a tremendous amount of fun in the process.

Beneath the hip-billionaire image, however, lurks what can only be described as an old-fashioned, Mr Moneybags loathing of socialism and all its works.

Confronted with a video produced by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign-team, in which the Labour leader is shown sitting on the floor of one of Virgin Trains’ ridiculously overcrowded passenger services, Branson saw red.

Stung by Corbyn’s criticism of Britain’s privatised railway system, and rattled by his plans to renationalise it, Branson released security-camera footage, purportedly showing Corbyn and his crew walking past multiple empty seats, to the media.

Predictably, the conservative British press have had a field day. Corbyn has been painted as a liar and a cheat, and his Blairite opponents in the Labour Party have lost little time putting the boot in.

Unfortunately for Corbyn’s critics, a number of people who were on the same train as the Labour leader have come forward to corroborate his version of events. The apparently empty seats had, according to these witnesses, been “reserved” by passengers placing bags and clothing upon them for their friends – something missed in the Virgin Trains’ video on account of the elevated positioning of its security cameras.

Corbyn’s team has not been unduly fazed by Branson’s tactics. Alluding to a letter released by Virgin Trains, in which an attempt is made to justify its overcrowded services, Sam Tarry, Corbyn’s campaign director, was reassuring. “Some of you might have seen on social media today there’s been a little bit of a spat,” he told an East London Corbyn rally. “Richard Branson has decided he’s very upset about our not particularly radical plans to renationalise our railways, so he’s having a little pop at us […] I’d just say that’s very, very indicative – the establishment is absolutely petrified about what this campaign is about, what this movement is about.”

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Corbyn’s rival for the Labour leadership, Owen Smith, was careful to keep his own response light-hearted. “My campaign remains on track.”, he tweeted. “Proud to be genuinely standing up for ordinary people.”

The entire episode epitomises the way in which the British Establishment and its media attack-dogs have sought to deal with the Corbyn threat. Not even Branson was prepared to argue that the privatised railways aren’t an inefficient and unreliable mess. But if the message is irrefutable, the messenger is not. Every opportunity is, therefore, taken to discredit Corbyn as both a human-being and a political leader.

It remains to be seen just how successful Corbyn’s enemies have been in undermining his support among Labour Party members and the broader Labour-voting public. If the tens-of-thousands of Britons who have joined the Labour Party over the past few weeks are any indication (most of them with the express purpose of voting to keep Corbyn at Labour’s helm) one would have to say that the Establishment hasn’t been very successful at all.

The image of Corbyn sitting on the floor of a railway carriage, alongside the many other passengers unable to find a seat, sends a powerful political message about how strongly he identifies with the frustrations of every citizen forced to depend upon sub-standard public transport. That he so unabashedly links their frustrations with his party’s determination to renationalise the service is taken as proof of Corbyn’s readiness to be guided, not by the demands of Tony Blair’s billionaire buddy, Richard Branson, by the priorities of the long-suffering British people.

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34 COMMENTS

  1. Well said!
    The media attack dogs mental rants in Britain were equally matched by a display by Paul Henry this morning that could only be described as unhinged, cowardly, venomous and showed himself to be completely around the bend.
    It just highlights how thin the veneer is of the smiling assasin ‘born to rule’ types out there.
    Threaten their ability to make as much money as they can off the back of other people’s misery and the toys go straight out of the cot.
    It’s time to get these hideous people out of our lives.
    Shame on media works management for employing this out and out tosser and good on Hillary Barry for having the courage of her convictions !

  2. The surprising aspect is that Jeremy Corbyn hasn’t had a fatal ‘accident’ yet. After all, people do fall onto railway tracks in front of approaching trains, especially when pushed.

    Political position vacated: only business-as-usual puppets need apply. (The same applies in NZ, of course.)

    As for Richard Branson……’his very public concern for the environment’???? Isn’t his motto ‘Fuck the planet for personal gain’?

    Awaiting the inevitable implosions -economic, environmental and political.

  3. Well said!
    The media attack dogs mental rants in Britain were equally matched by a display by Paul Henry this morning that could only be described as unhinged, cowardly, venomous and showed himself to be completely around the bend.
    It just highlights how thin the veneer is of the smiling assasin ‘born to rule’ types out there.
    Threaten their ability to make as much money as they can off the back of other people’s misery and the toys go straight out of the cot.
    It’s time to get these hideous people out of our lives.
    Shame on media works management for employing this out and out tosser and good on Hillary Barry for having the courage of her convictions !

    • One News “faithfully” followed the narrative of the UK media, mentioning no word that the seats may have been reserved. A video clip shown did though show something like cards or stickers at the top of some seats, which may actually have indicated those seats were RESERVED.

  4. I bet you Branson is a manipulative rich prick. His charming image is just one of his faces, when it comes to protecting their privileges, their wealth and personal reputation, virtually ALL rich and powerful will pull out any trick they can out of the tool box.

    Any person who will have travelled on the trains in Europe will know that it is common on many trains to have reserved seats, that cannot be used, even if they may appear to be “vacant” at the time of boarding a train, or even during a trip between stations. Passengers who booked a seat may board a little later, perhaps even at the next station on the line.

    Usually a sticker or sign tells the passenger that a seat is reserved, i.e. booked by another passenger, who may have paid a bit more for that privilege to have a secured seat.

    We get shown a video where Corbyn walks past some apparently vacant seats. Oh yeah, big scandal, he sat down and claimed he had to do this as the service was so poor and there were not enough seats for passengers. At least that is what I heard.

    So have any idiots in the MSM, who jump to conclusions and fall for any tricks by the rich power players, bothered to actually check whether those seats may have been RESERVED???

    I bet they have not, and present us this “news” to discredit Mr Corbyn by gradually dismantling his reputation as a staunch socialist standing for more equality and fairness.

    Richard Branson has lost all credit in my eyes for playing this dirty game. And the MSM are just up to the usual, either full idiots with too much air space, or manipulative facilitators of the dirty politics game.

    NEVER simply believe the MSM we have, they do not deserve worth to be believed.

  5. Ha!… if Branson gets his way with rocket ship tours to Mars or where ever he was planning – better book a seat …

    Else you will be sitting on your arse on a cold , Tungsten steel floor for a very long , long time and getting piles for your troubles to boot.

    Privatization my bloody arse !!!

    Public services were state owned for a very good reason before the fanatical far right wing neo liberal managed to con western politics with their bullshit and lies.

    • “Tungsten steel floor for a very long , long time and getting piles for your troubles to boot.” you still believe you get piles from sitting on a cold surface!…now who is talking bullshit?

    • Not if enough voters support him, Andrew. It’s called free choice in a democracy. Funny old thing that, eh?

    • Corbyn is a the only hope for the continued existence of the UK Labour Party.

      Neoliberalism is dying. Google it. Do some reading.

      Labour NZ needs a Corbyn

  7. Bang on as we are being manipulated by MSM cooperate control moguls and we need to get opposition Parties world wide to mount a campaign now to legally take back our public media everywhere as the corporate are now moving to take all media private & public .

  8. I’m a Corbanista through and through – I don’t read any articles that criticize him because I find it too painful. He is the only genuinely left wing leader of a major party in the Western world for over 30 years. We saw what happened to Bernie in the US – smoothly and coldly shunted to one side by a very well oiled establishment machine – the Democratic Party.
    In the UK another very well oiled establishment machine – the UK Labour Party – is not having such an easy time of it but the battles that Corbyn has continually faced as leader may be the very thing that shapes him into a tough and articulate socialist UK Prime Minister. That’s if the British voters actually ever get the opportunity to hear what Corbyn is saying on policy and the economy.

    • “I’m a Corbanista through and through – I don’t read any articles that criticize him because I find it too painful” So you don’t read much then?
      Corbyn will cause the UK Labour party to split, he will be on the far left and thrown into the dustbin of political history. UK Labour, like NZ Labour, are in deep trouble and the next election in NZ will determine whether they actually survive as a party (will need to get at least 30% anything around 25% again and they are finished)…If Corbyn wins the UK Labour leadership the PM will call an early election and really put the left to the sword once and for all….happy times…happy times 🙂 🙂

  9. Is it not interesting that none of the people on the train noticed that the leader of Britain’s opposition party was looking for a seat on the train and offered him one?

    I’d be fascinated to see any major politician on public transport and love the opportunity to have a seat next to them and have a chat.

  10. You can tell the effectiveness of a left-wing leader by the amount of vitriol levelled at them by right wing tabloid media, politicians, and their fellow travellers like Andrew.

    There has been so much heaped on Corbyn. He is clearly effective in his policies.

    By contrast, how much time to we spend on the current Act leader (forget his name)??

    Point.

    • The UK MSM are afraid, someone stands his ground and does not give in the misinformation fed public frenzy, and thus does not fall on his knees in front of media.

      They are afraid that someone is principled, not a sell-out like the Blairites that occupy too much space in the MSM.

      The establishment is afraid, it seems, so afraid, they are facing a real challenge now.

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