The Chairman Mao resembling, Monarchy hating, threat to Britain, Labour Party thread

[Awol]

Why don't the Guardian support Corbyn that much?

The Guardian has been notorious for not being able to make up its mind for decades and so backing Corbyn would be too near to actually making a choice between left and right.

And he lacks any feminist credentials, which he addressed with his women-only railway carriages, which sadly misfired.

They describe Cooper (their choice) as a 'down to earth feminist'.

 

I don't really think this is true. They know exactly what they support - centre-left candidates. Certainly not far-left candidates. They have changed which party they officially support at an election, between Labour and Lib Dems, but each time it reflects a perception of which party is closer to that centre-left position, what they would probably describe with a naff term like 'capitalism with a conscience'. 

As you might expect I am more cynical than that.

I just see it as a paper for privileged middle-class people in the educational sector who want a left-wing government to expand their budgets and increase their wages, but don't want anything too radical which might undermine their pay differential or class privileges.

Just saying, like.  

I'd add the BBC to the educational sector as both the largest consumers of and contributors to Guardianism (a cosy, mutually reinforcing circle of sneering self-regard), but apart from that, spot on.

[Seat68]

Why don't the Guardian support Corbyn that much?

The Guardian has been notorious for not being able to make up its mind for decades and so backing Corbyn would be too near to actually making a choice between left and right.

And he lacks any feminist credentials, which he addressed with his women-only railway carriages, which sadly misfired.

They describe Cooper (their choice) as a 'down to earth feminist'.

 

I don't really think this is true. They know exactly what they support - centre-left candidates. Certainly not far-left candidates. They have changed which party they officially support at an election, between Labour and Lib Dems, but each time it reflects a perception of which party is closer to that centre-left position, what they would probably describe with a naff term like 'capitalism with a conscience'. 

As you might expect I am more cynical than that.

I just see it as a paper for privileged middle-class people in the educational sector who want a left-wing government to expand their budgets and increase their wages, but don't want anything too radical which might undermine their pay differential or class privileges.

Just saying, like.  

I'd add the BBC to the educational sector as both the largest consumers of and contributors to Guardianism (a cosy, mutually reinforcing circle of sneering self-regard), but apart from that, spot on.

Not quite, thats been proven to be a fallacy.

The corporation now purchases more copies of the Daily Mail (78,463), The Times (77,167), The Daily Telegraph (75,308), The Sun (66,202), The Independent (61,339) and Daily Mirror (60,528) than The Guardian (45,672).

The BBC buys fewer copies of the Daily Star (17,988), Financial Times (40,253) and Daily Express (42,263) than the titles above.

In total, the BBC bought 563,183 daily (Monday-Saturday) newspapers in 2014.

The corporation’s most popular Sunday newspaper in 2014 was The Sunday Times (9,035), followed by The Observer (7,620), The Mail on Sunday (7,591), The Sunday Telegraph (7,243) and The Independent on Sunday (6,079).

 

 

 

[Awol]

Why don't the Guardian support Corbyn that much?

The Guardian has been notorious for not being able to make up its mind for decades and so backing Corbyn would be too near to actually making a choice between left and right.

And he lacks any feminist credentials, which he addressed with his women-only railway carriages, which sadly misfired.

They describe Cooper (their choice) as a 'down to earth feminist'.

 

I don't really think this is true. They know exactly what they support - centre-left candidates. Certainly not far-left candidates. They have changed which party they officially support at an election, between Labour and Lib Dems, but each time it reflects a perception of which party is closer to that centre-left position, what they would probably describe with a naff term like 'capitalism with a conscience'. 

As you might expect I am more cynical than that.

I just see it as a paper for privileged middle-class people in the educational sector who want a left-wing government to expand their budgets and increase their wages, but don't want anything too radical which might undermine their pay differential or class privileges.

Just saying, like.  

I'd add the BBC to the educational sector as both the largest consumers of and contributors to Guardianism (a cosy, mutually reinforcing circle of sneering self-regard), but apart from that, spot on.

Not quite, thats been proven to be a fallacy.

The corporation now purchases more copies of the Daily Mail (78,463), The Times (77,167), The Daily Telegraph (75,308), The Sun (66,202), The Independent (61,339) and Daily Mirror (60,528) than The Guardian (45,672).

The BBC buys fewer copies of the Daily Star (17,988), Financial Times (40,253) and Daily Express (42,263) than the titles above.

In total, the BBC bought 563,183 daily (Monday-Saturday) newspapers in 2014.

The corporation’s most popular Sunday newspaper in 2014 was The Sunday Times (9,035), followed by The Observer (7,620), The Mail on Sunday (7,591), The Sunday Telegraph (7,243) and The Independent on Sunday (6,079).

 

 

 

I meant consumers and contributors on an intellectual level, rather than how many physical copies of the Guardian were bought by the BBC as a corporation.  Besides, with the whole lot of them online I can't believe they waste that much money on buying papers at all!

[MakemineVanilla]

Why don't the Guardian support Corbyn that much?

The Guardian has been notorious for not being able to make up its mind for decades and so backing Corbyn would be too near to actually making a choice between left and right.

And he lacks any feminist credentials, which he addressed with his women-only railway carriages, which sadly misfired.

They describe Cooper (their choice) as a 'down to earth feminist'.

 

I don't really think this is true. They know exactly what they support - centre-left candidates. Certainly not far-left candidates. They have changed which party they officially support at an election, between Labour and Lib Dems, but each time it reflects a perception of which party is closer to that centre-left position, what they would probably describe with a naff term like 'capitalism with a conscience'. 

As you might expect I am more cynical than that.

I just see it as a paper for privileged middle-class people in the educational sector who want a left-wing government to expand their budgets and increase their wages, but don't want anything too radical which might undermine their pay differential or class privileges.

Just saying, like.  

I'd add the BBC to the educational sector as both the largest consumers of and contributors to Guardianism (a cosy, mutually reinforcing circle of sneering self-regard), but apart from that, spot on.

Not quite, thats been proven to be a fallacy.

The corporation now purchases more copies of the Daily Mail (78,463), The Times (77,167), The Daily Telegraph (75,308), The Sun (66,202), The Independent (61,339) and Daily Mirror (60,528) than The Guardian (45,672).

The BBC buys fewer copies of the Daily Star (17,988), Financial Times (40,253) and Daily Express (42,263) than the titles above.

In total, the BBC bought 563,183 daily (Monday-Saturday) newspapers in 2014.

The corporation’s most popular Sunday newspaper in 2014 was The Sunday Times (9,035), followed by The Observer (7,620), The Mail on Sunday (7,591), The Sunday Telegraph (7,243) and The Independent on Sunday (6,079).

 

 

 

I meant consumers and contributors on an intellectual level, rather than how many physical copies of the Guardian were bought by the BBC as a corporation.  Besides, with the whole lot of them online I can't believe they waste that much money on buying papers at all!

I suspect that one of the privileges of working for the BBC is that certain staff can't be expected to buy their own newspapers.

 

[HanoiVillan]

Why don't the Guardian support Corbyn that much?

The Guardian has been notorious for not being able to make up its mind for decades and so backing Corbyn would be too near to actually making a choice between left and right.

And he lacks any feminist credentials, which he addressed with his women-only railway carriages, which sadly misfired.

They describe Cooper (their choice) as a 'down to earth feminist'.

 

I don't really think this is true. They know exactly what they support - centre-left candidates. Certainly not far-left candidates. They have changed which party they officially support at an election, between Labour and Lib Dems, but each time it reflects a perception of which party is closer to that centre-left position, what they would probably describe with a naff term like 'capitalism with a conscience'. 

As you might expect I am more cynical than that.

I just see it as a paper for privileged middle-class people in the educational sector who want a left-wing government to expand their budgets and increase their wages, but don't want anything too radical which might undermine their pay differential or class privileges.

Just saying, like.  

Of course it's a newspaper predominantly read by upper-middle class professionals, but your comment that it's only read 'in the educational sector' is of course nonsense. It is disproportionately read by public sector workers (from all branches of the public sector) which is not unrelated to the fact that it's the only newspaper that doesn't discuss public sector workers as if they're parasites. With the audience it has, and with the position on the political spectrum that it occupies, it does tend to view government managerialism as an answer to problems. 

I agree that it's not radical. There's no reason to expect the Guardian to support Corbyn - the Guardian is on the Hattersley/SDP side of Labour, exactly opposite to the Corbyn side. More Coldplay than 'The Internationale'. Is The Morning Star still in print? That's the only paper that would support Corbyn. 

[chrisp65]

Morning Star still very much in print.

It's twitter feed is fantastic! 

You do sometimes have to take some of it with a slight squint of scepticism.

Another good one, Communist Party of Great Britain - London branch. CPGB - L is now up to about 3 members, so it shouldn't be long before they have an ideological falling out and split into a minimum of 4 new twitter feeds, mostly concentrating on rubbishing the other 3. Brilliant.

[snowychap]

Is The Morning Star still in print? That's the only paper that would support Corbyn. 

It is and it's online, too - and it does [support Corbyn] as you say.

[mjmooney]

I read The Guardian (although I only buy the print version on Saturday). Thanks for the patronising sneers, everyone.

BTW very good half hour programme on Radio 4 this morning, Gordon Brown on Keir Hardie. Timely.

Check it out on the BBC iPlayer.

[HanoiVillan]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

[Jon]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

same here hanoi. I'd say it's a centre to centre-left  paper. Certainly isn't far or hard left. I like it in the main,  and like the moon man, only buy it on a Saturday. I read the online stuff regularly. I'm a big Jez  fan,  and would have voted for him if I wasn't a green supporter. My dad is also a regular grauniad reader, but has never voted labour in his life.  Lib dem at every election without fail. 

[mjmooney]

The Grauniad has its faults, many of them in fact. But it's still better than the alternatives. The Telegraph is dry and Tory, The Times is utter trash - The Sun for well paid people - and The Indy is really, really dull. The tabloids are toilet paper.

[MakemineVanilla]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

I was only saying, like.

[HanoiVillan]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

I was only saying, like.

Sorry, I should have quoted him but that was a response to Mooney in the comment above mine. I replied to yours on the previous page!

[mjmooney]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

I was only saying, like.

Sorry, I should have quoted him but that was a response to Mooney in the comment above mine. I replied to yours on the previous page!

And my comment wasn't aimed at HV, particularly. Just the general "Who reads the Guardian?" stuff.

[choffer]

 

Another good one, Communist Party of Great Britain - London branch. CPGB 

I think I've got one of their t-shirts at home.

[tonyh29]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't. 

 

I was only saying, like.

 

Sorry, I should have quoted him but that was a response to Mooney in the comment above mine. I replied to yours on the previous page!

 

And my comment wasn't aimed at HV, particularly. Just the general "Who reads the Guardian?" stuff.

yeah but isn't that just a VT thing rather than a sneer thing ? You know  something has made it when it guarantees an automatic VT stereotype 

[mjmooney]

I don't know if that was directed at me, but I certainly didn't mean to be patronising . . . indeed, I'm also a Guardian reader. I just believe in being clear-eyed about what it is and what it isn't.  

I was only saying, like. 

Sorry, I should have quoted him but that was a response to Mooney in the comment above mine. I replied to yours on the previous page! 

And my comment wasn't aimed at HV, particularly. Just the general "Who reads the Guardian?" stuff.

yeah but isn't that just a VT thing rather than a sneer thing ? You know  something has made it when it guarantees an automatic VT stereotype 

Yeah. I was being a wee bit faux-outraged myself!

[Richard]

Come on Labour dont let me down today, do the crazy thing! 

However, win lose or draw this divisive contest will not be good for their electoral chances

 

 

[Awol]

Cor blimey guv'nor, they've only gone and done it!  Congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn. RIP Labour.

[Wainy316]

An opportunity for genuine change. Surely it can only be a good thing?