We must celebrate all that unites us as we choose a new leader
JVL Introduction
Jennie Formby pays homage to all those members of the Labour Party, newly joined or old, and calls for unity as we set about our task of ” reaching out to people in every community, in all regions and nations, and listening seriously to their concerns”.
She pays special tribute to Jeremy Corbyn who “faced merciless attacks and criticism from all sides, including from the most hostile media I’ve ever witnessed” and who maintained his dignity throughout, refusing to reply in kind or to attack his critics personally.
He leaves us a dramatically changed Party, and a new, socialist, political narrative.
This article was originally published by LabourList on Tue 7 Jan 2020. Read the original here.
We must celebrate all that unites us as we choose a new leader
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Beautiful Guy. True words also.
I just wish as part of his powers, he could have fought back over so many things the media put over. I mean ridiculing the right-wing media, taking them on! Think he would have gained some massive support. For it is his very Sane and good policies that have not been able to be put into action!
However, I do love and respect his evolved-nature, maybe too evolved for our perhaps quite media-stupid citizens…
Jeremy I joined the Labour party because you woke me up to politics and both inspired me and gave me hope. I am very saddened that you have decided to step down but I understand why you have made this decision. Your work here is not done Jeremy and I hope at least one of your sons will follow in your great footsteps.
Brilliant article and great reference to Jeremy Corbyn, a man who lead us with morals, dignity and above all humility, he will be missed, but the movement he shaped will continue.
A very moving and accurate tribute to JC! Time will show what a decent human being and leader of the Labour Party he has been and how he was hounded by the media including the BBC and the Guardian I respect his fortitude and strength and wish him well in the future.
How wonderful to know the legacy Jeremy Corbyn has left us. He has made the labour party one of the biggest parties in Europe. So he is not a loser he is an inspiration and just the start of something that could make tthis country a wonderful place to live in. Yes we must all be united and get it out there as well that the press are nothing but comics. Every year from the beginning of November they say we are going to have artic weather with 10 foot of snow. I given up long ago in believing a single word of the press. Even I didnt vote for Jeremy Corbyn first time round as I heard he was radical. We need radical to repair this country. Thanks Jeremy Corbyn for giving prople hope and fire in their bellies.
Julian Bates: When you say “so many things” Jeremy could have “fought back over”, I assume you are mainly referring to the anti-semitism smears. And it wasn’t just the traditional right-wing media that colluded in the A/S smears, but the WHOLE of the corporate media AND the BBC, so given that that’s the case, just precisely how would Jeremy have ‘fought back’ – ie through what medium exactly? The very MSM that participated in the A/S smear campaign?
And what have these ‘powers’ you refer to got to do with ‘fighting back’, as if to imply that he had some power over what the MSM could do – ie over what they could or couldn’t dissemble? You imply – if I understand you correctly – that he DID have some ‘power’ of some sort to influence the MSM but chose not to use it, but he didn’t of course and so he couldn’t, and I’m at a loss as to why you should say such a thing when it is totally and utterly divorced from reality.
Julian Bates: And I should have added that I take issue with your description of much of the electorate as ‘media-stupid citizens’. I can only assume you mean in respect of all the lies and falsehoods and smears the MSM and other media outlets have been churning out on an almost daily basis for most of the past four years or so in relation to Jeremy and the left. But how would they know that they are being lied to and deceived and duped? And especially when the falsehoods are being dissembled and repeated by the BBC as well!
People to some degree may very well say that they don’t believe everything they read in the newspapers – ie in the newspaper(s) they read – but if they REALLY thought and believed they were being lied to and deceived and mislead on a regular basis, they would of course stop buying and reading said newspaper(s). The reality is that it is inconceivable to them that not only is the newspaper (they read) conspiring and colluding in a black op smear campaign, but also the various people who are quoted in any given article, whether it’s the likes of Margaret Hodge or Ian Austin etc OR a spokesperson for the JLM or the CAA etc. The people you refer to as ‘stupid’ are in fact victims, victims of the trust they have in the media to convey the truth to them.
The question time audience tonight had one member who stated that no socialist party will ever be allowed to govern in England. Its too much of a threat to the Establishment. There was dead silence and the chair Fiona Bruce passed over it.
Jeremy is a beautiful soul. He has brought our party back from the brink, financially and morally. He has shown true grit. Never once raised his voice, has always shown respect, even when the other leader shouted him down, in Westminster.
He has triumphed over adversity.
He has faced the greedy, insane right wing MSM, like the true statesman he is, they villified him, as did some of our own, sadly .
People know not what they have allowed to slip away.
Thank you Jeremy Corbyn for your tireless work, in trying to make this a better world for the many.
A man for the people. Need not Greed