Jeremy Corbyn turned in one of his most assured media performances in the Sky / Channel 4 ‘Battle for Number 10’ programme. Answering questions from the audience, Corbyn was confident and kept his temper under some hostile questioning. He took every opportunity to return to his key messages. He framed them in a reasonable, rather than ideological manner.
Now, this is not to say that Corbyn was telling the whole truth. On Northern Ireland, he suggested that all he had ever wanted was a peace process and a dialogue. But his activity at the time was far closer to sympathy for the IRA, then support for a peace process. It is worth remembering that he opposed the Anglo-Irish agreement and that Seamus Mallon, the deputy leader of the Nationalist SDLP, said of Corbyn that he ‘very clearly took the side of the IRA and that was incompatible, in my opinion with working for peace’.
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