After Jeremy Corbyn opted to use a speech which dated back to the eighties at this year’s Labour conference, commentariats and party members alike were quick to question whether the left-wing messiah was really offering the ‘straight talking’ politics he promised. Happily Austin Mitchell, the outspoken former Labour MP, has come to Corbyn’s defence.
Writing on his personal blog, Mitchell says — with trademark tact — that party members should not ‘commit suicide or take a pick axe to Corbyn’s head’ when it comes to the state of the party. Instead, he says that rather than any leadership issues, the problem lies with the pesky media:
‘Labour Party members wondering if they should commit suicide now or take a pick axe to Corbyn’s head shouting “No to Trotsky and Juncker” should wait because the lads are only writing what their bosses want them to. They don’t really mean it.’
Mitchell claims that the lukewarm reception Corbyn’s re-used speech received was unfair:
‘After the worst reception given to any leader since Aethelred the Unready they had to give his conference speech a grudging thumbs half way up while quibbling that part of it was written in the eighties.
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