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.