Jeremy Corbyn may no longer be Labour leader but he’s still parroting the Kremlin’s lines. It seems like just yesterday the former Leader of the Opposition was accused of siding with Moscow over the Skripal poisonings, having suggested that Novichok samples from the Salisbury attack should be handed over to Russia. Undeterred by the opprobrium he received in 2018, the Islington North MP is one of the usual suspects arguing that the current crisis in Ukraine is the result of – shock, horror! – those dastardly democracies in the West.
For Corbyn is part of the gang of hard-left MPs who have signed up to a ludicrously one-sided ‘open letter’ by the ironically-named Stop the War coalition. All the old favourites are there: John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Diane Abbott, Claudia Webbe. The group’s letter argues that that it is ‘the policies of the British government which have poured oil on the fire throughout this episode’ – quite a claim when one side has 190,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and has occupied part of the other country for the last eight years.
Stop the War also argues that ‘the British government has talked up the threat of war continually, to the point where the Ukraine government has asked it to stop’ (not true) that ‘unlike the French and German governments’ the UK has ‘advanced no proposals for a diplomatic solution to the crisis’ (not true) and ‘has contributed only sabre-rattling’ (not true) with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accusing those ‘seeking a peaceful settlement of preparing “another Munich”‘ (again, not true).’
Ironically, the most mealy-mouthed line in the group’s statement is about the, er, Putin government, when it claims that ‘in taking this position we do not endorse the nature or conduct of either the Russian or Ukrainian regimes.’ Talk about apportioning blame. If only Stop the War would occasionally save some of the vitriol it reserves for London and Washington to unleash on Moscow instead.
A dozen Labour MPs – as well as Corbyn – signed up to the statement, despite the protestations of the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer. Not so much useful idiots as just, simply, idiots.
And people wonder why the Tories won by such a large proportion at the last election, because Labour had a crackpot at their head.
Siding with Russia is very different to being against having a war with them.
If you are going to use this logic, you have to also say that Johnson and Starmer are actively seeking to start a war with them.
Unless you are mental, I don’t think anyone wants to start a war with Russia.
Lets face it, “Steerpike”, the Spectator’s editorial is little better than the “Sun Says” column, and probably only then because they use slightly longer words to confuse their readers.
Don’t agree with Corbyn’s basic bitch “both sides are bad” stance, but this is a really trash opinion piece. Spectator is routinely a pile of useless, biased wank.
“We are the patriots remember the Falklands lets all *come together under a flag of blue*” vs “Look will you proles LOOK, omg Labour are siding with Russia”
Seems like Tory HQs PR department are well on top of the situation and the media will be all too happy to roll with it.
Sad thing is that the base will respond to this and it’ll also suck in the sort of casual patriot who doesn’t necessarily vote blue but unironically likes seeing Union flags being waved at the Proms… Just like it did in the 80s.
Edit: As serious as the geopolitical situation is around Ukraine right now, *and it is serious*. Don’t be under any other impresson- Boris is absolutely loving it.
And why shouldn’t he, from his perspective? Its only been a week or two and we’re not even talking about lockdown parties, cases, deaths, Brexit etc any more… Right now this is more of a distraction than he could have ever dreamt of. And he’s going to get away with it all.
I hate Corbyn. But he isn’t siding with Russia and he’s basically right about the Ukraine. We shouldn’t get involved.
The right-wing press is still obsessed with Corbyn. Nice to know he lives rent-free in their heads.
Better still, the Spectator doesn’t once back up this claim in the article. It’s just another character assassination piece.
He sides with not having war and he is pretty consistent:
> Protesters against the war in Chechnya have gathered to stage a rally in central London.
Around 200 demonstrators, led by Labour MPs Tony Benn and **Jeremy Corbyn**, plan to march from Westminster past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square.
March organiser Mark Osborn said there was a growing peace movement in Russia because of the number of young men who were dying in the fighting.
“We are appalled about the carnage that the Russians are inflicting on the Chechens,” he said.
“This war is wrong, outrageous and barbaric and should end. The Chechens should be free to decide their own future.”
“We think there is a need for a demonstrative show of outrage in Britain.” he added.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/632026.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/632026.stm)
>
>That this House condemns the Russian military action in Chechnya and calls for troop withdrawal and a political solution that recognises rights of self-determination; is also concerned that the Russian action is partly motivated by demand for control of oil and gas pipelines running through Chechnya; and is concerned that the criticisms of Russia have not focused sufficiently on supporting peace and anti-war groups in Russia.
Signed by Corbyn [https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/18596/russian-action-in-chechnaya](https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/18596/russian-action-in-chechnaya)
That this House notes with grave concern the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Chechnya; notes that Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of Chechnya has led to the maiming and killing of innocent civilians and caused over 200,000 refugees to flee to neighbouring republics; and calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to take a lead role within the international community to get humanitarian relief to Chechen refugees to intensify economic and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Government to bring about a peaceful resolution of this conflict.
Signed by Corbyn [https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/19080/humanitarian-crisis-in-chechnya](https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/19080/humanitarian-crisis-in-chechnya)
​
The Tories are awash with Russian money and have failed to investigate Russian influence in politics. These pro-Tory papers need to deal with the actual problems in our government, rather than wasting time on Corbyn. The Tory Party are Russian stooges.
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No surprise.
I live in Portugal. The Portuguese Communist Party is a reasonably large political force here. The far left communist bloc often get about 10% of the vote in elections and they’ve just come out and condemned the EU and NATO for “aggression” and “escalation”.
(not true)
Wow journalism is easy, I don’t even need to elaborate? I can just put it in parentheses? Amazing. (Not true)
Huh, I’ve not seen an article on The Spectator deriding the Tory government of doing the exact same thing but to a much more nefarious degree.
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Given their somewhat “chequered” history wrt global human rights violations The Spectator is frankly in no place to call anyone else out for having a bad take on Russia/Ukraine.
(Indeed I vaguely recall at least one pro-Putin editorial in the magazine’s recent past even.)
15 comments
Jeremy Corbyn may no longer be Labour leader but he’s still parroting the Kremlin’s lines. It seems like just yesterday the former Leader of the Opposition was accused of siding with Moscow over the Skripal poisonings, having suggested that Novichok samples from the Salisbury attack should be handed over to Russia. Undeterred by the opprobrium he received in 2018, the Islington North MP is one of the usual suspects arguing that the current crisis in Ukraine is the result of – shock, horror! – those dastardly democracies in the West.
For Corbyn is part of the gang of hard-left MPs who have signed up to a ludicrously one-sided ‘open letter’ by the ironically-named Stop the War coalition. All the old favourites are there: John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Diane Abbott, Claudia Webbe. The group’s letter argues that that it is ‘the policies of the British government which have poured oil on the fire throughout this episode’ – quite a claim when one side has 190,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and has occupied part of the other country for the last eight years.
Stop the War also argues that ‘the British government has talked up the threat of war continually, to the point where the Ukraine government has asked it to stop’ (not true) that ‘unlike the French and German governments’ the UK has ‘advanced no proposals for a diplomatic solution to the crisis’ (not true) and ‘has contributed only sabre-rattling’ (not true) with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accusing those ‘seeking a peaceful settlement of preparing “another Munich”‘ (again, not true).’
Ironically, the most mealy-mouthed line in the group’s statement is about the, er, Putin government, when it claims that ‘in taking this position we do not endorse the nature or conduct of either the Russian or Ukrainian regimes.’ Talk about apportioning blame. If only Stop the War would occasionally save some of the vitriol it reserves for London and Washington to unleash on Moscow instead.
A dozen Labour MPs – as well as Corbyn – signed up to the statement, despite the protestations of the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer. Not so much useful idiots as just, simply, idiots.
And people wonder why the Tories won by such a large proportion at the last election, because Labour had a crackpot at their head.
Siding with Russia is very different to being against having a war with them.
If you are going to use this logic, you have to also say that Johnson and Starmer are actively seeking to start a war with them.
Unless you are mental, I don’t think anyone wants to start a war with Russia.
Lets face it, “Steerpike”, the Spectator’s editorial is little better than the “Sun Says” column, and probably only then because they use slightly longer words to confuse their readers.
Don’t agree with Corbyn’s basic bitch “both sides are bad” stance, but this is a really trash opinion piece. Spectator is routinely a pile of useless, biased wank.
“We are the patriots remember the Falklands lets all *come together under a flag of blue*” vs “Look will you proles LOOK, omg Labour are siding with Russia”
Seems like Tory HQs PR department are well on top of the situation and the media will be all too happy to roll with it.
Sad thing is that the base will respond to this and it’ll also suck in the sort of casual patriot who doesn’t necessarily vote blue but unironically likes seeing Union flags being waved at the Proms… Just like it did in the 80s.
Edit: As serious as the geopolitical situation is around Ukraine right now, *and it is serious*. Don’t be under any other impresson- Boris is absolutely loving it.
And why shouldn’t he, from his perspective? Its only been a week or two and we’re not even talking about lockdown parties, cases, deaths, Brexit etc any more… Right now this is more of a distraction than he could have ever dreamt of. And he’s going to get away with it all.
I hate Corbyn. But he isn’t siding with Russia and he’s basically right about the Ukraine. We shouldn’t get involved.
The right-wing press is still obsessed with Corbyn. Nice to know he lives rent-free in their heads.
Better still, the Spectator doesn’t once back up this claim in the article. It’s just another character assassination piece.
He sides with not having war and he is pretty consistent:
> Protesters against the war in Chechnya have gathered to stage a rally in central London.
Around 200 demonstrators, led by Labour MPs Tony Benn and **Jeremy Corbyn**, plan to march from Westminster past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square.
March organiser Mark Osborn said there was a growing peace movement in Russia because of the number of young men who were dying in the fighting.
“We are appalled about the carnage that the Russians are inflicting on the Chechens,” he said.
“This war is wrong, outrageous and barbaric and should end. The Chechens should be free to decide their own future.”
“We think there is a need for a demonstrative show of outrage in Britain.” he added.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/632026.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/632026.stm)
>
>That this House condemns the Russian military action in Chechnya and calls for troop withdrawal and a political solution that recognises rights of self-determination; is also concerned that the Russian action is partly motivated by demand for control of oil and gas pipelines running through Chechnya; and is concerned that the criticisms of Russia have not focused sufficiently on supporting peace and anti-war groups in Russia.
Signed by Corbyn [https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/18596/russian-action-in-chechnaya](https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/18596/russian-action-in-chechnaya)
That this House notes with grave concern the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Chechnya; notes that Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of Chechnya has led to the maiming and killing of innocent civilians and caused over 200,000 refugees to flee to neighbouring republics; and calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to take a lead role within the international community to get humanitarian relief to Chechen refugees to intensify economic and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Government to bring about a peaceful resolution of this conflict.
Signed by Corbyn [https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/19080/humanitarian-crisis-in-chechnya](https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/19080/humanitarian-crisis-in-chechnya)
​
The Tories are awash with Russian money and have failed to investigate Russian influence in politics. These pro-Tory papers need to deal with the actual problems in our government, rather than wasting time on Corbyn. The Tory Party are Russian stooges.
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[removed]
No surprise.
I live in Portugal. The Portuguese Communist Party is a reasonably large political force here. The far left communist bloc often get about 10% of the vote in elections and they’ve just come out and condemned the EU and NATO for “aggression” and “escalation”.
(not true)
Wow journalism is easy, I don’t even need to elaborate? I can just put it in parentheses? Amazing. (Not true)
Huh, I’ve not seen an article on The Spectator deriding the Tory government of doing the exact same thing but to a much more nefarious degree.
[removed]
Given their somewhat “chequered” history wrt global human rights violations The Spectator is frankly in no place to call anyone else out for having a bad take on Russia/Ukraine.
(Indeed I vaguely recall at least one pro-Putin editorial in the magazine’s recent past even.)