add Thornberry and her second referendum blurb yesterday to the list
Current Affairs The Labour Party
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He can't lead on anything can he? Absolutely nothing.
The coat thing I find fascinating in its own way because loads of people who are going out of their way to call him disrespectful are huge trump fans and he couldn’t make it to a service due to the weather . On all sides it seems So many people are prepared to tie themselves in all kind of knots to support and keep supporting their position .
I’ll be honest The coat seems much ado about nothing to me but I can also accept it would perhaps have been smarter to avoid the opportunity for others to have a pop.
tsubaki
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The coat thing is an absurdity, I mean literally thousands of people attended that event and others across the country not wearing black overcoats.
That these people do it on that day of all days shows what they actually think of the dead (if that wasn’t already crystal clear by the fact that loads of them have seemingly not met a war that they wouldn’t want someone else’s family to go and fight in).
As for Brexit, he was right. A second referendum on these terms, leaving this government to implement it and deal with the outcome, is beyond daft. We as a nation have to deal with why half the country voted to Leave first - which means solving the real problems in the parts of the country that isn’t served by the Underground railway, which means dealing with dark money, lobbying and a client media, and it means recognising what is wrong with the EU and trying to fix it.
It is largely meaningless, which is why it's such a stupid gaffe to make. The vast majority of people attending weren't wearing ties, but there is nonetheless an expectation among male dignitaries to do so. Had he rocked up without one it would have been similarly daft. People saying it's disrespectful or whatever are being silly and you sense they'd hate him regardless, but if he didn't once think that getting himself a sober overcoat rather than one with a hood might have been more sensible, then you do have to question his judgement. It's such an unnecessary gaffe.
@tsubaki re Brexit, the issue isn't that he thinks what he does, that's up to him entirely, it's that he and his shadow Brexit minister have contradicted themselves within a day of each other. Indeed, if you listen to Starmer his tone was very much one of correcting Corbyn for not seeming to know the policy the party had agreed on. I get that he's your guy and you'll defend him come what may, but these are such silly gaffes to make.
The binman chronicles
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It is absurd of course that we break things down to 'what they wear' but on the other hand we expect our leaders to think of the smallest details and quite clearly he hasn't or has chosen to be anti-establishment/man of the people at this huge event. It all adds up to make me think he cannot run the country because he is too busy trying to be Citizen Smith.
zzr45
#MURDERINGSCUM
What exactly would the government have to deal with if the country remained in the EU, exactly as it is now? We might need to pay them for the expense incurred in the process, but I’m not sure what fallout would come with things remaining as is.
The EU isn’t perfect, but it’s increasingly evident that it’s a far better system than we can implement ourselves.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
It would be handy if 'our leaders' thought of the big details, and how to implement them ; I couldn't give a toss about politicians' apparel.
tsubaki
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He was wearing a grey coat, not a Mao jacket and the Order of Lenin.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
How is it even a gaffe? The only people who are going on about it are the people triggered by everything he does; in fact if he had turned up in the black coat he wore last year the headlines would have screamed "Corbyn recycles old coat in new attack on the War Dead" and you wouldn't be able to move on twitter for #FBPE types saying this was why they'd left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats*.
The agreed party policy is that they will vote down any deal that does not meet the six tests; both of them said that. The difference is whether or not Brexit can be stopped - legally it can be (despite May's insistence) but what Corbyn was pointing out is that to do so without doing any of the work necessary to deal with (or even acknowledge tbh) the reasons why seventeen million people voted to Leave is very wrong.
There was a list of things in that post, but briefly they would have to deal with the chaos that is the immigration system, they'd have to sort out access to housing and the decline in stable / secure employment, and they'd have to sort out various sectors of the economy (manufacturing especially) that have been in decline for years - all of which were blamed on the EU but were actually HMG's responsibility.
Then they would have to deal with the political fallout, not only in terms of the establishment effectively ignoring a referendum result but also (and especially) with regards to the way money flows into politics in the expectation that politics will do something in return (the scandals highlighted by the Guardian and OpenDemocracy are only the tip of the iceberg) and the role that the media is playing in our politics.
* obviously not in the sense of actually joining them
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I suspect it was the fact it had a hood on it tbh rather than the colour. Either way though, it's poor judgement for him not to have realised that it would have generated headlines. You could argue that it shouldn't do, and I'd largely agree, but you can't complain about things Mail readers care about in one sentence (in understanding Brexit) and then dismiss them in the next (re the coat).
Re Brexit, I think everyone knows that Labour has six tests (how many could name them is perhaps another matter), but the fact remains that Corbyn and Starmer gave different answers to the question of whether Brexit can be stopped within a day of each other. That's muddled in anyone's book.
You're far too intelligent to have even batted an eyelid at the coat furore, Bruce.
To be fair, I noticed it straight away but simply shrugged it off. I'd suggest it's more of him failing to follow the usual etiquette be that intentional or unintentional.
At such occasions, you're expected to respect the conformity whether you agree or not. How many people begrudgingly wear a suit and black tie for funerals?
Like @Bruce Wayne mentions, it is more a question of the naivety of him and his aides; it's not hard to notice that people usually a plain black, hood less coat.
The leading party (royalty, dignitary etc.) are expected to follow the historic etiquette; if they choose not to, then so bet it but you expect people to highlight it.
As I said, it doesn't bother me in the slightest what he wears, but he should have known that some people would kick up a stink about it. A simple measure (wearing a bog standard black overcoat) would have prevented this issue, yet he, or those advising him, didn't seem to think it worth taking. That's what I find baffling.
Socrates
Player Valuation: £6m
Yeah he wore coat with a hood.
While all those in the "proper" attire retired off to a slap up lunch paid for most probably you and me, Corbyn stayed behind to talk with veterans.
He also spoke about the disgrace that 13,000 ex-servicemen and women are homeless and promised action if Labour were in government.
But none of that made the headlines. Or even the news at all for that matter.
While all those in the "proper" attire retired off to a slap up lunch paid for most probably you and me, Corbyn stayed behind to talk with veterans.
He also spoke about the disgrace that 13,000 ex-servicemen and women are homeless and promised action if Labour were in government.
But none of that made the headlines. Or even the news at all for that matter.
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