Jeremy Corbyn can't blame the 'commentariat' for public opinion

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party conference speech started pretty well, with him poking fun at the newspapers’ more apocalyptic predictions of what would happen should he become Prime Minister. He teased the Daily Mail for a story saying that he once welcomed the prospect of an asteroid hitting the earth.*

And then, a wee joke. ‘It’s not the kind of policy I’d want this party to adopt without a full debate in conference.’ Everyone, even the press, had a laugh at the press. They were probably even laughing in Iran, where the state broadcaster was showing his speech.

But then Corbyn had to go and spoil it all by denouncing the ‘commentariat’. Again.

‘No one, not me as leader, not the shadow cabinet, not the Parliamentary Labour Party, is going to impose policy or have a veto. The media commentariat simply don’t understand it. They report disagreements as splits, agreement as compromise or concessions as capitulation. No, sorry commentariat: this is grown up, real politics where real people debate real issues.’