By Petr Navovy | Social Media | December 10, 2019 |
By Petr Navovy | Social Media | December 10, 2019 |
The UK General Election is now just two days away. It is the country’s most important political moment in living memory. The lead up to Thursday 12th has been marked by an ever-increasing mad frenzy from the British establishment, as their fear of the prospect of a socialist Labour government ending the decades-long gravy train ride has boosted the carnival of lies, smears, and distortions into spittle-flecked overdrive. It can all be a bit too much to keep up with. So for those not following it as closely as others—and I wouldn’t blame anyone for not having the emotional energy to stay fully on top of things—here’s a quick catch-up of a few recent events:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was confronted with a rare tough interviewer who implored him to address nine years of savage Tory cuts to the National Health Service. The interviewer, Joe Pike, showed Johnson a picture of a young boy with suspected pneumonia lying on a pile of coats in Accident & Emergency as a result of those cuts reducing even the emergency services to a skeleton (the British Red Cross declared the situation a ‘humanitarian crisis’ two years ago). Johnson’s response? A refusal to look at the phone, a dismissal, and then taking the phone from the reporter and pocketing it.
Tried to show @BorisJohnson the picture of Jack Williment-Barr. The 4-year-old with suspected pneumonia forced to lie on a pile of coats on the floor of a Leeds hospital.
— Joe Pike (@joepike) December 9, 2019
The PM grabbed my phone and put it in his pocket: @itvcalendar | #GE19 pic.twitter.com/hv9mk4xrNJ
7,900,000 views of this. 7.9 million. Boris Johnson will be livid. You acheived this. There is only way something can ever go viral & that is if you make it happen. You are making a real difference to this election. pic.twitter.com/XJDsOOPOwd
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) December 10, 2019
Call me cynical but there's something about the way Johnson hid a journalist's phone rather than look at a photo of a sick 4-year-old boy forced to lie on a hospital floor (on his watch) that makes me think he doesn't really give a shit about anything other than his own career
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) December 9, 2019
Be in no doubt: Boris Johnson’s Conservatives caused this crisis by depriving our NHS of the funding it needs.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 9, 2019
No wonder he can’t bring himself to look at the photo.https://t.co/SEZhk4p1Zw
In response to the news of a child lying on a pile of coats in A&E, as well as other, similar photos emerging, members of the right-wing press and others tried to claim that photos like that were ‘staged’ and not to be trusted. This among repeated reports over multiple years of lines in hospitals getting so bad that patients in need of urgent care often have to use improvised means of rest due to chronic understaffing and Tory cuts—and of this year bringing news that A&E waiting times have reached ‘worst ever recorded’ levels. This also with the hospital in the story above confirming the reality of the situation at hand, and apologising to the parents of the child.
"100% faked" pic.twitter.com/v0lYTlhjvZ
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) December 9, 2019
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Two of the country’s most senior political journalists uncritically amplified Tory spin about a minister getting ‘assaulted’ by Labour protesters. Among numerous reports of Labour canvassers getting threatened or assaulted—including two in their seventies who ended up in hospital after getting attacked on the doorstep—Laura Kuenssberg (political editor of BBC News and descendant of aristocracy) and Robert Peston (Political Editor of ITV News and son of a life baron) spread a message from a ‘source’ in the Conservative party that claimed that an aide of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, was punched by a Labour activist during their visit of a hospital, and that Labour protesters had been taxi-ed in for the event. Millions saw this reporting, and newspapers based stories on it. A video of the event later surfaced, which showed what actually happened: Hancock’s aide walked into a protester’s arm while on the way to his car. No punch was thrown.
Latest video footage here clearly shows that Tory aide walked into protestor's arm.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) December 9, 2019
He wasn't punched, protestor wasn't arrested and activists weren't taxi-ed in by Labour.
Lots of fake news doing the rounds today, much of it apparently from Boris Johnson's campaign. https://t.co/2JHpskiaGb
This never happened.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 9, 2019
Invented by the Tories to divert your attention from a child having to lie on a hospital floor; reported by media that didn’t bother to check if it was true.
This is what media bias looks like. pic.twitter.com/LQsBv2jZzB
While the apology is welcome. This is just incredibly poor. It's bad at any time, but especially during an election. When our senior political journalists simply parrot the ruling party's lies without question, we are in very dangerous territory pic.twitter.com/PyrDS4Nuxq
— Jeff Goulding (@ShanklysBoys1) December 9, 2019
You have long been regurgitating Tory lines fed to you without proper scrutiny or due diligence.
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) December 9, 2019
There are so many talented journalists who can’t get into the profession from under privileged backgrounds. If you can’t do your job properly, let them do it instead. https://t.co/5CATJ4LpPZ
"It’s as though the act of journalism is limited to getting the quote and distributing it, and does not extend to verifying it, contextualising it and making sense of it." https://t.co/hWP9Aw3xYd https://t.co/cO8w1s74zi
— Gary Younge (@garyyounge) December 9, 2019
Sorry, dead cat lovers, but @Peston and @BBClauraK spreading fake news provided by ‘senior Tories’ *is* a story in itself, and an important one. We shouldn’t stop talking about it. The role of the ‘senior Tories’, not just the roles of Peston and LauraK.
— Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) December 9, 2019
If there hadn't been video at Leeds Hospital, we would have heard about nothing else this election.
— Chris Henry #TimeForLabour (@Socialist_Chris) December 9, 2019
The press would have dubbed us thugs, the media machine would have gone into overdrive and that would have been that.
What will tomorrow bring?
Ignore it all. And vote Labour.
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Boris Johnson pocketed his racist dog whistle and took out his more general xenophobic one, pivoting hard to hoover up any wavering Brexit Party voters in a speech in which he vowed that the days of EU migrants ‘treating Britain as part of their own country’ would soon come to an end.
Oh apologies Boris Johnson. For paying taxes every year, university fees, teaching UK students and contributing to social and political life here. Apologises for treating the UK as as I would treat my own. Glad to know where I, EU migrants, stand. Really glad. #GE2019 https://t.co/Vr2Zof27c3
— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) December 9, 2019
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The S*n published a list of left-wing journalists and activists in the form of a conspiracy-style diagram, using sites like ‘Aryan Unity’ as a source.
I’ve yet to hear from @tnewtondunn about why he published an article (which has since been taken down) in The Sun which named me and hundreds of others in a mad conspiracy theory about the left, and used the Nazi website “Aryan Unity” as a source.
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) December 9, 2019
Isn’t this worth an apology? https://t.co/pHGIF1DVWA
Hey @tnewtondunn! You might not give a toss that you published a bonkers conspiracy theory which cited a neo-Nazi website called “Aryan Unity” as a source, but I really do.
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) December 9, 2019
Care to apologise? Or are you going to ignore this as well. https://t.co/fwcwSHRfvC
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Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education Angela Rayner tried to discuss the looming existential threat to all life on earth that is climate change and Labour’s ambitious plans to tackle it on the BBC. A BBC reporter interrupted Rayner to ask if Labour were planning to ‘nationalise sausages’.
The big question in this election: â¦@Emmabarnettâ© asks â¦@AngelaRaynerâ© if Labour plans to nationalise sausages? #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/znBf3RyCrA
— Ian Birrell (@ianbirrell) December 9, 2019
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Angela Rayner also delivered an impassioned plea to undecided voters on a day time talk show on why Labour represents the only way out of the national crisis that Britain finds itself in thanks to the Tories:
At the end of our debate with undecided voters, a few revealed they had made up their mind. I spoke to a couple of them afterwards and they all said Labour would get there vote because of Angela Rayner's performance #VictoriaLIVE https://t.co/M5Sx6UEYQI
— Anna Collinson (@AnnaCollinson) December 9, 2019
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Continuing her streak of excellence, Rayner also stared down a fascist and didn’t flinch.
BREAKING: Angela Rayner owns racist hate-monger 🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/B2Ip3kAeS8
— The Agitator (@UKDemockery) December 9, 2019
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held a rally in Bristol, the crowd for which was impressive even by his standards.
The size of the crowd waiting for Jeremy Corbyn in Bristol right now is incredible. I hope they show this on the TV news bulletins. Please share it. #VoteLabour #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/RkX8k9ApoA
— Sarah #VoteLabour 🌹 (@ScouseGirlMedia) December 9, 2019
Thousands at Corbyn rally - Hello Bristol
— Jerry Hicks (@JerryHicksUnite) December 9, 2019
'Oh Jeremy Corby, oh Jeremy Corbyn'#GE2019 #VoteLabour #GE19#VoteLabourDecember12 #NHS #ToriesOut #GetBorisGone #Bristol#HelloBristol #Corbyn #bristolnewspic.twitter.com/8ttW0dFwnz
This rally was the latest in a series of events up and down the country which the seemingly inexhaustible Labour leader was holding in the run-up to the election.
Another great reception for Jeremy Corbyn at the rally in Bangor just now. #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/X8csIzvbVf
— Sarah #VoteLabour 🌹 (@ScouseGirlMedia) December 8, 2019
Today in Swansea, the rally inside was full so Jeremy Corbyn came and spoke outside to the people who couldn’t get in. But he’s not popular. #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/M096D9Wpgm
— Sarah #VoteLabour 🌹 (@ScouseGirlMedia) December 7, 2019
Huge crowd gathering for the Jeremy Corbyn rally in Whitby this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/hd9wp1ykoQ
— Matt Thomas #JC4PM (@Trickyjabs) December 1, 2019
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There was a brief trend of people going through Jeremy Corbyn’s old Tweets, and mostly just finding instances of him trying to stop something bad from happening before it happened.
Every time the UK government does something stupid, there is a record of Jez trying to stop it happening. https://t.co/K2AV9CQRFn
— Crémant #CorbynByChristmas ✋ 🥂 (@0Calamity) December 5, 2019
Which is pretty much par for the course for his entire political career.
There are many reasons why the war-mongering, faux pious, privatising British elite - from Eton to Fleet Street - loathe Jeremy Corbyn. But his defiance to illegal, murderous wars is right at the top. #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/S6Sar1eHWo
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) December 1, 2019
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Amidst the most crazed and tireless blanket propaganda campaign against a politician in modern political history, a few moments slipped through the mainstream media filter which accurately reflect the character of Jeremy Corbyn.
To think this gentle soul and the vast movement around him have the most merciless, most vicious, most rapacious interests in these islands and beyond huddled in fear.
— Hatt Mancock's Handsome Mattock. (@joejglenton) December 4, 2019
Once in a lifetime, comrades. Not one step backwards now. Not one inch. ✊ https://t.co/PBQpfThnyg
Finally, a positive word from the media on just how popular Jeremy Corbyn is. Treated like a 'rock star' everywhere he goes. Election 2019. @SkyeCity_ @jeremycorbyn @TomLondon6 @JamesEFoster @johnmcdonnellMP @lewis_goodall @WPMTESE @mojos55 @chunkymark pic.twitter.com/x7kyjdAhs0
— Della (@poetinpyjama) December 8, 2019
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And finally, in response to Stormzy’s heartfelt endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to vote in a politician of decency and compassion, the sight of senior Tory politicians deploying racist ‘jokes’ in an effort to mock and minimise.
How senior Conservative politicians have reacted to a young black man expressing opinions about politics. pic.twitter.com/DFHqAWtGvw
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) November 26, 2019