'Jihadi Jez' headline by Sky News is a disgrace

[Oswyntail]

That's not a reasonable comparison because the pig story has never - to my knowledge - been used by the Labour leadership or the Labour Party as a means to attack Cameron.

Fair enough.

I think your observation is correct. However, a common characteristic of many of the groups Corbyn has talked to is that they often represented (or claimed to represent) groups who were arguably marginalized or discriminated against. ....

That feels a little weaselly. The fact is that there were other groups who also represented the marginalised, but Corbyn chose to share platforms with the men of violence. I don't doubt he is sincere in not wishing to use violence. However, by sharing the platform, he shows that he sympathises with those who consider terrorism a viable path. At best, he is horribly naive.

 

[St Rollox]

Fair enough.
That feels a little weaselly. The fact is that there were other groups who also represented the marginalised, but Corbyn chose to share platforms with the men of violence. I don't doubt he is sincere in not wishing to use violence. However, by sharing the platform, he shows that he sympathises with those who consider terrorism a viable path. At best, he is horribly naive.

Wouldn't go overboard, Cameron and Prince Charles were high five with the Saudi's recently.
No Saudi's no Islamic fanatics.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Possibly because he is not "Leader of the Opposition". When Corbyn took the job - voluntarily - did he really expect not to have his background mentioned? If complete fabrications like the pig story can be used in one direction, rather more relevant indiscretions can be used in another.

Corbyn has been very clear that he found the Pig Story- which was, lets not forget, an act of revenge from a former Conservative Party deputy chairman- to be disgraceful and it was something he did not use.

Peter Robinson is Leader of a Government-allied party. If you are to criticise Corbyn for "sharing a platform with terrorists" (whatever that means; is Prince Charles a "terrorist sympathiser" for shaking Gerry Adams' hand?), then it is only fair to criticise those who have genuine and long-standing relationships with one of the most brutal and bloody terrorist organisations the UK has even seen.

Put simply, if Corbyn "shares a platform with terrorists" by talking to Sinn Fein then so does Cameron by allying himself to a political party with terrorist links.

 

[Oswyntail]

....Put simply, if Corbyn "shares a platform with terrorists" by talking to Sinn Fein then so does Cameron by allying himself to a political party with terrorist links.

Corbyn was snuggling up to these people when they still espoused violence, and were outside political processes. That is the - rather big - difference.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Corbyn was snuggling up to these people when they still espoused violence, and were outside political processes.

Did he? The closest that Andrew Gilligan's hatchet job got was to claim that Corbyn met with Sinn Fein (referring to them as "the Provos' political wing") during the 80s.

They may well have been "the Provos' political wing", but a) they were and are a legitimate political party with MPs elected to Westminster and the Dail and b) the DUP (set up by the convicted terrorist Ian Paisley) were the mouthpiece of the UVF and the UDA.

I don't say this to pick on Robinson or the DUP, I just find the hypocrisy rather distasteful. Either they're all terrorist sympathisers or they're not.

 

[RichmondCommu]

However UKIP are an irrelevance, a political party with one MP (having lost 50% of their MPs at the general election) is simply not relevant in Westminster politics. They're as relevant as the Greens or Sinn Fein. What UKIP do have is great PR, naturally helped by the far-right presenter of the Today programme and ex-BBC political editor Nick "Tory President" Robinson, a man so far to the right he's happy to be involved in photo ops with Britain First.

As for Middle England, bear in mind that the Conservatives only won a majority due to the votes of around 900 people, even though Miliband was (according to the Blairites) a walking policy disaster. They are very fine margins.

Labour's vote collapsed in Scotland because the Scots don't want Tory and they don't want Diet Tory. UKIP and the Greens are gaining popularity because of anger at 30 years of Tory and Blairite policies; UKIP's supporters are not racist, they're just angry.

I certainly don't think you can call UKIP an irrelevance. Yes they only have one MP but at the last election a lot of voters switched from Labour to UKIP which indirectly caused the party to lose seats. Not only that but it reduced our chances of taking seats from the Tories. You need to remember that in terms of Labour's 'target seats' very few were won. Off the top of my head I can think of one on the Wirral but very few if any others.
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Might be a daft question, but how do Momentum know that you oppose Jeremy Corbyn? Have you emailed them and told them?

No I haven't but on the other hand I've made it no secret that I oppose Jeremy Corbyn. The abuse that I have received from two individuals who are supporters of the local Momentum group has been nothing short of vile. Personally unless they are prepared to kick these thugs out Jeremy Corbyn needs to act to disband Momentum.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

So how will attacking Syria help combat this?

The strategic bombing of the oilfields in eastern Syria is one way of degrading the source of ISIL money flow.

 

[Spamcan81]

Really? This is just that old "mainstream media has a liberal bias" myth that is repeated so often that people start to accept it as fact. If anything the BBC has a slightly centre-right bias in my opinion. Listening to 5Live is like a Daily Mail audiobook!

And Radio 4 can be like a Labour Party broadcast at times. Most people will see the BBC as biased against their own particular political standpoint. The fact that both left and right see the BBC as biased against them tells me the BBC is probably striking the correct balance.