Jo Swinson probably wishes she hadn’t posted that latest lie about Jeremy Corbyn

Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn


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On 20 August, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson lied about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (again). But people were quick to call her out. And now, she probably wishes she hadn’t bothered.

“Fake news”

Swinson tweeted:

 

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But as numerous Twitter users pointed out, that was “fake news“. In fact, many people pointed out just how ‘invisible’ Swinson and her party were during the 2016 referendum:

Indeed, as University of Manchester politics professor Andrew Russell wrote previously, “the most pro-European political party in Britain was nowhere to be seen” in the 2016 referendum. He continued by stressing that:

Structural problems caused the Liberal Democrats to go AWOL in the Referendum campaign.

This was partially because voters turned away from the Lib Dems en masse after they propped up Tory austerity for five years.

Swinson pushing us towards a no-deal Brexit

Some commentators, meanwhile, pointed out just how damaging Swinson’s cheap political smears could be:

Indeed, the Lib Dems’ anti-Corbyn efforts come at a time when Leave voters seem more united than ever. But despite Swinson’s apparent preference for Brexit over a Corbyn-led government, around 70% of Lib Dems would still prefer to back Corbyn over a potentially devastating no-deal Brexit.

Media complicity

The mainstream media, however, is failing to hold Swinson to account for her lies. In fact, it has long failed to give Britain political balance. For example, the New Statesman previously reported that UK broadcasters took 71.2% of their EU referendum political sources from the Conservative Party and only 18.4% from Labour.

The very Guardian article Swinson tweeted alongside her lie about Corbyn, meanwhile, really stretched the truth to its limits. Because the title – Labour may stay neutral if referendum is between its Brexit deal or remain – had little justification. There was no assertion from Corbyn that Labour would be neutral in such a situation. Instead, he simply stressed that the party would seek to offer the public a referendum choice “between a deal or remaining in the European Union”. And he insisted yet again that the country’s issues are much bigger than Brexit, saying:

However the Brexit crisis is resolved, the country faces a fundamental choice. Labour offers the real change of direction the country needs: a radical programme to rebuild and transform communities and public services, invest in the green jobs and high-tech industries of the future, and take action to tackle inequality and climate crisis.

But because Corbyn has consistently refused to give the EU blind support in everything it does (such as potential limits on nationalisations), some hardcore Remainers see Corbyn as the enemy, no matter how much he fought for Remain in 2016, or fights to give the public the final say today.

Maybe it’s not about Europe, though. Maybe it’s just that the centre-right establishment will do everything it can to stop Britain electing a democratic socialist government. But that couldn’t possibly be the reason, right?

Featured image via YouTube – Good Morning Britain / Wikimedia – Sophie Brown

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  • Show Comments

    1. It didn’t take long, did it. Swinson quickly proving herself even more disgusting than some of the worst Tories. I really can’t wait for the election. I think LibDems are finished. What a good-riddance it would be!! A silver lining of Brexit.

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    2. So what if Corbyn’ s a Brexiteer? Brexit got the majority vote. Remainers talk as though it’s a vice but anybody who tries to turn overturn the democratic will can never call themselves a democrat again.

      Never.

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      1. Seems to me that both camps (Brexit and Remain) are just as bad as each other. Brexiteers for ignoring the fact that a Referendum is not a binding thing like in an Election, and Remainers for not realizing that a Referendum is at least a sign of majority will, even if not enforcable.

        However both are just as guilty of ignoring the fact that we were all lied to about both Brexit and Remain, and to make such a democratic decision based on lies is pure folly. Each of the positions (Brexit and Remain) are guilty of deliberately trying to further political agendas with no regard whatsoever for the truth or the real damage being done.

        What we need is a GENUINE referendum, with a GENUINE guarantee that our vote WILL be adhered to, and ONLY when we are in possession of truthful facts.

        I, like Jeremy Corbyn, believe that there was a good reason to reform the EU (Britain too), however it was America that wanted us to have this visceral, nation-breaking, false debate, and all because we became aware of their TTIP deal, you know, the one they tried 3 times to foist on us without public knowledge.

        This was the deal that would allow US corporations to sue our government (it all comes out of our pockets btw) over things like plain tobacco packaging, or even promoting smoking as bad, being damaging to their businesses (Australia signed up and got sued almost immediately and successfully by Phillip Morris a US Tobacco giant).

        It is no accident or coincident that Trump is now offering practicality the same deal to encourage us to go for a no-deal-brexit. It was no coincident when unlike Russia, America (Obama) came over to tell us how to vote. It was no coincidence that Brexit became a thing right after TTIP was exposed for what it was by 38 Degrees and others.

        It’s not Russian meddling, it’s American meddling that led to the debate in the first place.

        Yes we should have a say in what our country does, but for goodness sake can we please stop dividing ourselves in exactly the way the USA wants, just so it can bolster its own failing economy, and increase their global hegemony.

        Divided we fall, United we stand is not just a clever saying, it is a very well established FACT throughout history.

        I advise both camps to review what really happened together, to lift the US imposed wool from our collective eyes, and to forgive each other, whilst directing the blame to where it really should be going;

        a) The Conservative Party who are onboard with American desires and
        b) The US administration.

        Some of the pulling out of The EU is a Sovereignty thing, but how is pulling out of The EU, to become highly dependant on the US and loosing what precious things we have left in our Nation like the NHS, a show of our Nation’s desire to be a Sovereign Nation?

        Our Nation has been, and still is under attack from America (John Bolton’s recent visit should really wake us up to that), admittedly on the surface it can be confusing, but look just under the surface and you will see the sheer audacity and machinations of our supposedly best ally.

        Surely if we can debate whether being in The EU is good for us, we should also be discussing whether America is good for us too? Maybe we should be having 2 referenda, one on the EU, and the other on our American relationship (Amexit). Then maybe we can do the sensible thing and trade with Russia, a Nation that has been wrongfully accused over and over (again because of the Americans and their need to have bogey-men to justify their disgustingly militant World view).

        Regardless of whether we do or not, one thing I am certain of is that Brexit, like Austerity, is a tool to divide and conquer our Nation, to rid it of socialistic tendencies once and for all, and to essentially make our Nation utterly reliant on the US.

        If we love our Nation we should not be dividing ourselves into ‘Brexiteer’ and ‘Remainer’ camps (MSM created those names btw), we should instead be sticking together, getting the real facts, then make a democratic decision for our Nation together.

        If we can at least agree on the fact that both the Brexit and Remain positions were inflicted with lies and ulterior motives, then we can all move forward together to discuss the whole business of all our alliances soberly, and most importantly united (even if we have differences of opinion, that should not get in the way of factual contemplations).

        Regarding whether someone who wants to have a re-vote is undemocratic……well that really depends upon whether the first vote was democratic in the first place, and in this case it most certainly wasn’t, therefore we were not really given a vote.

        If you believe that it was a real vote (i.e. based on solid evidence and truth with an enforceable outcome) then what would your position be if we were given a referendum to decide if we should all take a revolver (with half the chambers filled with bullets), spin it, then pull the trigger, and that was the majority viewpoint?

        Would you not, regardless of whether the majority voted for it, want to ignore that referendum’s outcome, perhaps even suspecting the whole thing to be a conspiracy to destroy our nation? and yet in a sense that is what we were asked to do, and we fell for it, only in this case it just wasn’t as honest as the ‘revolver-referendum’.

        In our referendum we were all told each side had the true facts, when in fact they didn’t. What we played was American Roulette whereby 3 of the six chambers are loaded in whatever order. By comparison, Russian Roulette is fairer and less dangerous, but we shouldn’t be playing either version if we truly care about each other and our nation.

        So in my opinion, if a re-vote is necessary because of the bullet-like lies we were told (bullet-like because they are so damaging hence the comparison), then yes you can consider yourself not only democratic, but a protector of democracy.

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    4. On another note, Graun’s Jessica Elgot is at it again today. Ev’ry Corbyn smear ev’ry Labour bashing report in the Grau seems to originate from her. She seems to be working in unison with Watson in their wrecking effort and I think she’s been fed Labour internal stuff by Watson. Watson’s attack on Formby was also penned (or typed) by her and then she kind of mocked Formby in another article. But it was retracted later, after the backlash. Quite a shameless mercenary.

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    5. The Party of Remain? Looks more like the Party of careerism, opportunism and jump into bed with the first Tory you can get your hands on. Such a blatant and easily disproved lie shows up in a bright light the immaturity and instability of Swinson. A moment’s reflection would have told her such a bald distortion would be shredded in seconds. The kindest interpretation would be that she meant Corbyn didn’t campaign hard enough for Remain, but a Party leader can’t make schoolgirl mistakes like that and not be roasted. What does she stand for? She always say “liberal values”; but doesn’t that mean that individuals are the best judges of their own interests? How can individuals prevail against the free market she believes in? How could they prevail against the cruel austerity her party implemented? How will they fare if we leave the EU with no arrangements in place? Liberal values? Jo Swinson’s career more like.

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