In spite of a stellar start to his campaign that has Theresa May in hiding and social media buzzing, the Tory and MSM (mainstream media) narrative is that Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign has no chance of success.
If that were true, you’d think the Tories would be relaxing, taking it easy, waiting for the inevitable to happen.
Instead, they appear to be going to desperate – and foolish – lengths to smear him, as a recent exchange on Facebook showed.
Suzan Walsh is, according to her Linkedin profile, an information officer for the Tory party:
Over the last few days, it appears – if the pictures and account are genuine – that Ms Walsh has shared a picture apparently showing Jeremy Corbyn receiving short shrift from a resident whose door he knocked on while campaigning:
Others have jumped at the opportunity to propagate the jibe, such as the vice-Chair of the Young Liberals:
Others jumped to draw conclusions based on the image:
There’s a slight problem with the picture. Well, if you call being completely fake ‘a slight problem’ – as a post on Occupy London‘s page pointed out:
As you can see, the woman – whom the SKWAWKBOX has learned is called Catherine Finney – is actually giving Corbyn a ‘come on Jez’ clenched fist and an extremely friendly welcome – she engages him in conversation that, from the look on his face in the lower right image, Corbyn was also enjoying enormously.
Edit 23/4: for further images of Corbyn’s interaction with Ms Finney – and with other residents of Leyland – click here.
The text of the Occupy post poses a very apposite question and makes an extremely pertinent point:
Why is an information officer for the Conservatives – apparently – creating or spreading photoshopped pictures about Corbyn (the woman pictured is a Corby supporter raising her fist in solidarity, the two fingers are photoshopped) and posting them to right wing groups to disseminate?
When Britain First did this it became a national story.
It’s a desperate attempt – and not a very well-executed one, as the Tories or whoever created the image in the first place have photoshopped what looks like a man’s hand onto the lady’s arm to try to create the desired impression. It certainly does not suggest that the Tories genuinely think Labour’s chances can be written off.
As Occupy rightly point out, when right-wing extremists Britain First photoshopped an image for propaganda purposes in 2015, it quickly became a national story and triggered a national outcry.
It remains to be seen whether the national media will do their job and expose this nonsense – or do the job the Tories want and quietly ignore it.
The SKWAWKBOX is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you found this information helpful and can afford to, please do click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your support so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
The Tories tactic. Propaganda, Propaganda, Gerrymander, Propaganda. Second verse, same as the first. Notice also in recent speech May says “Strong and Stable” multiple times. Following the advice of Goebbels and sticking to a few key points and repeating them over and over.
I found this Hamas/Hezbolah video today and it will look terrible to the public when the media have edited it properly. This will be plastered on every news channel in the final couple of weeks before voting day if we dont do something about it now. Please help
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj1PheWiFQ
Reblogged this on discordion {Artist Ian Pritchard} and commented:
IF CORBYN HAS NO CHANCE, WHY ARE TORIES SPREADING #FAKENEWS ABOUT HIM? #GE17
The Right running scared!
Two fingers are always better than one!
Linkedin is a site for very professional people with decorum and style!
Suzan Walsh with a (Z) is very portentous!
Suzan Walsh, take your cabbage head off and BOIL IT!
Then put your thinking head on.
“What”, you haven’t got one!
That makes sense then!
Your an IDIOT, posting fake news and lies, hoping other IDIOTS will believe it!
They will, I know, the RIGHTS full of em!
The Tories failed to win a majority in 2010 and they scraped home on a wafer thin majority in 2015.
Since that election they have been defeated in 70% of parliamentary byelections held, including losing a majority of 23,000 in Richmond. In addition, they have been defeated in every single mayoral contest including London and they have lost over 50 council seats.
Labour, meanwhile, has won 60% of byelections held, half of those with increased majorities. Labour has won every mayoral contest and also increased its national share of the vote by 4% in the local elections.
Yet the polls claim the Tories are sitting at 50 points.
I have never heard such bollocks in my life. The polls do not reflect in any way, shape or form the disastrous electoral record of the Conservative Party. The polling claims are simply laughable.
May has had a rush of blood to the head and has made a fatal miscalculation. One based on desperation and on foolishly believing the polls.
The Tory propagandists who take the public for fools will not decide the outcome of this election, neither will the chattering classes, neither will the newspapers, neither will the BBC or Sky.
It is the British public that will decide who will be the next prime minister of the country. That is their exclusive prerogative.
The company that counts the vote papers is tory owned we have no chance.
In Scotland this has been reported. Not sure if the same applies in E W & NI.
There have only been 10 byelections and only two seats changed hands. The Tory seat was lost in very unusual circumstances in a very untypical comstituency in what was formerly a Lib-Dem seat anyway I believe (I know the area and from my layman’s untrained eye it seems prime Lib-Dem territory even without Brexit and Heathrow).
On the other hand the Tories gained a seat, which you have to admit is not an ideal state of affairs from our point of view – an incumbent Government gaining a seat is hardly a sign of electoral weakness – and you also omit to mention that our share of the vote has fallen in byelections and council elections. This is not reassuring.
I’m not a psephologist so I’m not entirely sure of the signficance of local and mayoral elections to the national vote, but I can see many obvious problems – the often very low turnouts, the fact they are local and have no formal effect on national politics and so on.
I want to hear reassuring news as much as the next man, but is it wise to tell ourselves what we want to hear by making the evidence fit the conclusion?
Reblogged this on sideshowtog.
ALL the original images of Corbyn and this voter Catherine Finney (who was doing the socialist salute and dear me this is a bad photoshop!) are here http://www.gettyimages.in/event/the-labour-party-announce-plans-for-free-school-meals-for-all-primary-school-children-700031045#leader-of-the-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-mp-shares-a-laugh-with-local-picture-id665320706 one of them is highlighted at the top, the rest are further down.
I just came to post the same info as labourvoicesite did above but they beat me to it. 🙂 This is the rights page for the image with the fist: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/665320678
Is it known that she created it or did she just repost it?
It is incredable the publicity against Jeremy Corbyn. I hope most people think for themselves and see through the garbaget Tories are spreding.
Interesting article and good job for spotting the fake photo. The original image is from Getty Images it seems, the Daily Express even used it here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/789551/Labour-party-defeated-poll-results-local-election-Jeremy-Corbyn-politics
Reblogged this on perfectlyfadeddelusions.
Well done with this blog, Steve. I put a link for this article on the page Suzan Walsh was using, and guess what, she has turned off commenting on the post. She is one of the admin on what is supposed to be a mixed group site. I guess she has probably posted it more than once on different groups, however.
Keep up the good work!
The argument is a bit thin to be honest.
The fact that the Tories are playing dirty has no bearing on their opinion of Corbyn’s chances. They’re Tories – ruthless and unprincipled.
They will try to inflict the heaviest defeat possible. If they thought we would get two seats they would pull out all the stops to reduce us to one – if they thought we’d only get one they’d try to reduce us to none.
I really don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade – I’d love JC to beat the odds, but it would be completely unprecedented. Even Truman was only 17 points behind and he didn’t have the forces of the entire media attacking him. He also partly turned things around by relentless personal attacks on Dewey – a tactic which JC is unlikely to follow.
I’m worried that the sort of Panglossian stuff online might be in danger of making a large defeat even more paralysing if it does transpire. It’s a;alarming that so much is being made of the ITV poll for example – a poll which is deeply flawed to say the least.
This sort of thing just sets people up for a potential huge fall. Far better to fight as hard as we can, but to be realistic, hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Progress are certainly going to be in the latter camp and the last thing we need is True Labour people shocked into submission having believed the cheerleading while Progress are mobilising.
Read the article about the ITV poll again. It doesn’t say what you seem to think it does.
Thank you for the insights 👍