Comment by pmachinery | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pmachinery | Hacker News Reader

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In case anyone (else) is wondering why a right-wing Tory supporting organ of Rupert Murdoch would effectively defend Corbyn and his policies by implying Labour was recently defeated because it secretly promoted right-wing policies to the voters, this story is from 2018.[0]

To be fair, it's not (overtly) trying to make the reverse claim but mostly sticking to the point about political advertising.

> "Corbyn’s aides sometimes demanded big spending on Facebook advertising for pet projects which Southsiders [officials at Labour HQ] regarded as a waste of money" Baldwin writes.

> He quotes an official explaining: "They wanted us to spend a fortune on some schemes like the one they had to encourage voter registration"

[...]

> A Labour source said [in response to this activity]: "At the next election, we’ll have a fantastic and co-operative party machine to match our incredible mass membership and popular policies.”

Unfortunately for Corbyn by the next election (three years earlier than expected) the attacks and undermining had got drastically more abusive and destructive, and the kind of people who think voter registration is a waste of money are now back in control of Labour.

In the 2019 election it was reported that "almost every Tory [Facebook ad was] dishonest, compared with none of Labour's"[1]; or as reported by the BBC - brazenly pro-Tory in the election[2] - dishonesty "across the party spectrum"[3].

[0] http://archive.is/HuMeO

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/03/electi...

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50726500

Apologies for neglecting the date in the title. Seemed worthy of discussion given the other recent #LabourLeaks news. I can't edit the title anymore but would appreciate if a mod could add the year.

I suppose that this "right-wing Tory supporting organ of Rupert Murdoch" is "effectively defend[ing] Corbyn and his policies" for a simple reason - it's fun to stir the Labour party up.

In truth, electorally the Tories would far rather face Corbyn and the tankies at each election. Starmer looks like he's going to be a far greater challenge. It is good however that there is a functioning opposition that will apply effective scrutiny now, as that is good for governance, whether you're on the left or the right of things.

> I suppose that this "right-wing Tory supporting organ of Rupert Murdoch" is "effectively defend[ing] Corbyn and his policies" for a simple reason

No, as I stated in that sentence you are quoting from, that is exactly what they are not doing.

> In truth, electorally the Tories would far rather face Corbyn and the tankies at each election.

They faced Corbyn less than three years ago and failed to secure enough MPs to form a government by themselves and had to bribe a loony right-wing extremist party with £1,000,000,000 of British taxpayers' money to grab power[0].

In that election Corbyn received a (far) higher percentage of the vote than every winning Prime Minister of the previous three elections, including Tony Blair in 2005.

So no, what you said is not even remotely the truth, which is exactly why so much time, energy and money was spent trying to destroy/remove Corbyn.

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-d...

Corbyn is absolutely not a tankie, he's a social Democrat.

If you've learn a bit of history, tell me, once capitalism starts degenerating and the left gets kneecap by the center, what exactly is it that happened? What happened when the SPD alienated the KPD and it's own left wing in order to triangulate itself into having slightly more votes?

What you're seeing is party infighting that likely cost Corbyn the 2018 election, and if you think that suppressing the left is going to be a viable tactic as you just need to compromise ever more with the right, I'd suggest opening your favourite history manual to Germany in 1929 :). Because that really, really doesn't end well.

He may not be a tankie, but all his best friends are, such as Milne, etc. If you note my grammatical construction I did not call him a tankie.

Regarding the Weimar Republic, I don’t know the history So your analogy is wasted on me, but to suggest the Tories are proto-Nazis seems absurd to me.

You should read about it. The Tories may not be proto-fascist, but the willingness of the entire political system to compromise towards the right is what meant that fascist uprisings were successful in the 1930s and not when they tried earlier (it was shut down by the KPD and SPD prior to it)

Same thing happened this time in the US, with Trump/GOP and Bernie

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