A homeless man takes the microphone at a Corbyn rally. Just kidding, it's Corbyn himself. |
You think British Prime Minister David Cameron is soft on Islamic terrorism, consider Jeremy Corbyn, his potential rival in the next general election.
The 66-year old hard-left Labour MP surprised even himself by narrowly getting enough votes to stand as a nominee, but is now running first in the polls for new leader of the Party.
The Economist describes his general politics thusly:
Mr Corbyn stands out as a (socialist) throwback. For him no policy is too dog-eared, no intellectual dead-end too futile. Public spending? Yes, please. Higher taxes? Soak the capitalists and the landlords. State ownership? Nationalise the railways and utilities, get the private sector out of public services and reopen the coal mines. If that were the secret of prosperity, Britain would never have fallen apart in the 1970s and Tony Blair would not have won three elections at the head of a modernised centre-left Labour Party.
No prizes for concluding that Mr Corbyn would not get The Economist’s vote. He is stridently anti-American and anti-Israel—though he is a “friend” of Hamas and Venezuela. To him, Britain’s nuclear weapons are evil and always were. NATO is a warmongers’ plot to enrich the military-industrial complex. The European Union risks being a Trojan horse for liberalism.In other words, he's the British Pope Francis.
He also appears to be almost an apologist for ISIS. From Yesterday's Daily Mail:
Jeremy Corbyn compared Islamic State brutality to US military action in Iraq in a TV interview, it emerged yesterday.
The Labour leadership frontrunner called for 'acceptance and understanding' of IS supporters while speaking on Russia Today, the Kremlin-backed broadcaster, in June last year.
He only condemned 'some' of the brutal regime's actions in Iraq, saying: 'Yes they are brutal, yes some of what they have done is quite appalling, likewise what American forces did in Fallujah and other places is quite appalling.'
On the day he spoke, there were 32 people killed as militants fought for control of an oil refinery. Just weeks later, the first video of a hostage beheading was released.
Former Labour adviser John McTernan said Mr Corbyn's comparison was 'nauseating' and showed he was 'not fit to be the leader of the party'.No one seems to think that if he becomes leader he could lead his party to win an election, but we've heard that one before. These are strange times we live in. And the Economist and others have pointed out the negative consequences even he goes no further than becoming Shadow Prime Minister.
On the brighter side, could Corbyn vs. Cameron help UKIP?
No comments:
Post a Comment