Swinson tries to attack Corbyn on the BBC, but it totally backfires

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson is currently trying to convince Britain that her party – and not Jeremy Corbyn’s – is the ‘progressive one in town’. But with basic scrutiny, her attempts crash and burn like a Lib Dem tuition fees pledge.

Lib Dems? ‘Fair and inclusive’? Lol.

On 15 September, Swinson spoke to the BBC‘s Andrew Marr. And she lumped Corbyn into the same bag as Boris Johnson, saying:

I want to build an open, inclusive, and fair society – and they do not.

Firstly, Johnson is doing his best to push through a potentially disastrous no-deal Brexit (which was not on the referendum ballot in 2016). And he’s trying to ignore a large chunk of parliament and the British population in the process. So on top of his hard-right government’s elitist policies, it’s clear that inclusivity and fairness aren’t on his agenda.

But Corbyn? Well, his message has long been precisely what Swinson spoke about: openness, inclusivity, and fairness. And his plan to offer UK voters a second referendum – to choose between a Brexit deal or Remain – could hardly be clearer in its effort to bring people together via democracy rather than dividing them by siding completely with one camp.

Swinson’s Lib Dems, meanwhile, only seem to be ‘fair and inclusive’ of anyone who strongly opposes Brexit. Because they’ve promised to revoke Article 50 and just ignore voters who opted to leave the EU. At the same, they’re welcoming Tories into their party with open arms as long as they back this anti-Brexit mission. And many people have suggested that Swinson is prioritising opposition to Brexit over any kind of commitment to inclusivity or fairness in British society:

I think we’ve worked out the Liberal Democrats aren’t particularly democratic. But it’s fair to say they’re exceptionally liberal when it comes to welcoming bigots, warmongers, austerity lovers, big business backers and any other MP with a shameful anti-social voting record.

— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) September 15, 2019

To join the Lib Dem’s you just need to be anti Brexit. You can be pro austerity, a racist or a homophobe… all perfectly acceptable as long as you are anti Brexit.

— Marc Green (@jazzblogz) September 14, 2019

Last 4 MPs to defect to Lib Dems

• One is a homophobe
• One tried to criminalise homelessness
• One voted Bedroom Tax & cuts against disabled
• One called folk of ethnic minority a ‘funny tinge’

We know LDs aren’t very democratic but seems they ain’t very liberal either

— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) September 15, 2019

https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1173190900039725057?s=20

#YellowTories

As a case in point, new Lib Dem MP Sam Gyimah has a terrible voting record, opposing “equality and human rights” laws, higher taxes for the super-rich, and climate action – all while backing privatisation, welfare cuts, and military interventions abroad. In short, he’s Tory through and through. (Note also that Swinson has a similarly poor record on most of these issues.)

So easy for young former investment bankers to accidentally work for a Conservative thinktank, then join the Tories and get elected as an MP. Before you know it, you're a Tory minister and find yourself consistently voting to make people's lives worse! Tale as old as time pic.twitter.com/p5aijdgLXi

— RopesToInfinity (@RopesToInfinity) September 15, 2019

As people pointed out, meanwhile, Gyimah once sabotaged an effort to get justice for gay men:

The Lib Dems are becoming the David Cameron Tory party: pro-market dogma, pro-cuts, but claiming to be socially liberal.

Except even that claim is dubious: one recent defector didn't back equal marriage, this one sabotaged an effort to pardon gay men convicted by anti-gay laws. https://t.co/j1Z9NE8KHx

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) September 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/liamyoung/status/1172950310739959808?s=20

And the record of Tory-turned-Lib-Dem Phillip Lee is just as bad. In fact, his stance on LGBTQI+ people pushed the Lib Dems’ LGBT chair to quit the party and call him “a homophobe, a xenophobe”.

Considering that the Lib Dems happily propped up the Tories’ devastating ideological austerity regime between 2010 and 2015, however, their current behaviour perhaps comes as no surprise.

Just two months ago Sam Gyimah wanted to lead the Conservative Party. Today he joined the Liberal Democrats. This says so much.. There really is very little difference between the two. #YellowTories

— Cat✌🏽🌱 🍉 (@CatAldgate) September 14, 2019

There’ll soon be more Tories than Lib Dems in the Lib Dems https://t.co/AWtmG7qHsP

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 14, 2019

Real inclusivity

Statistics show that around half of the British population don’t feel strongly about either Leave or Remain and prioritise other issues instead. Yet the Conservatives and Lib Dems seem to be basing their entire strategies around hardline Brexit positions.

If anyone is trying to be inclusive and fair to all voters, meanwhile, it’s Jeremy Corbyn. And that’s why Swinson’s shameless attacks on him keep falling flat on their face.

Featured image via screenshot and Sophie Brown

Comments 2

nobodylicksme says:

7 years ago

Her hatred of Corbyn seems almost unhinged and that’s why I think she’s paid to do it, probably from the war criminal Blair and Campbell elements within the Labour Party. She’s an anti-democratic schemer who lies in almost every sentence and who shamelessly claims c.£4k a week expenses. A greedy, self-centred and unpleasant woman.

Shaolin12 says:

7 years ago

It is surely time for us to do away with ALL politicians (sorry Jeremy) and ALL political parties, and replace the entire shebang with publicly scrutinized and elected people who actually have the requisite skills for the post they’ve been voted in to work at.

Political Parties are a sure-fire guarantee of interest only being about ensuring the other parties don’t get in, rather than what actually works for the benefit of our Nation. How many more cycles of this farcical, undemocratic, corrupt and vile behaviour of politicians must we endure?

Political parties are all about claiming power for themselves in order to RULE over the rest. THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY!!! This is an OLIGARCHY !!!

We are told we live in a Parliamentary Democracy, and that we practice adversarial politics … how is ANY of that even close to democracy? We are a Monarchistic, Oligarchy, with the ability to vote dictators into power over Us. The joke is that without US, THERE IS NO COUNTRY!

Without us there are no soldiers, no workers, no civil servants, no taxes, no Nation, no national pride, no rulers, no anything. WE are the power, and our corrupt inherited system is nothing to be proud of, because all it has done is given us false perspectives, and a history of pain, and a nation of misery.

It is OUR children who they turn against us and beat us with, and murder foreign peoples with, it is our sweat, blood, and tears which make this nation alive and productive, and it US, NOT the Bank of England, NOT any political party or politician, who make the money and taxes a reality.

We need to change our political system to one without wasteful, bigoted, myopic politicians and political parties, where the people we vote into office/s have been properly vetted as being the best for the post they were picked for, and if they do a good job they stay where they are, but if they do a bad job, and depending on how badly they do their job, they can be immediately sacked and replaced, or arrested and jailed if there is criminality involved.

No more should our laws be split between the rich and the poor, whereby the poor must obey every law, but the rich may get away with whatever their money can buy. WE are the Law of this land, we live it, we breath it, we break it, and we make it, anyone who tells you different is lying. This Nation does not exist without us, period. Without us there is no power, only nature.

The time has come to replace political parties with something better, something we can already achieve, something that does not enshrine the idea that money makes a person more important than another, but says that whatever you earn, you are genuinely an equal, because at the end of the day, the power we give to idiots and criminals IS equal, it is OUR power, and we must take it back!