The Guardian’s latest hatchet job on Corbyn would make a Daily Mail column look left-wing [OPINION]

On Tuesday 9 May, The Guardian published an astonishing yet predictable editorial regarding its opinion of the two main party leaders. And it was unequivocal in its conclusion: Theresa May, good; Jeremy Corbyn, bad. But the supposedly ‘left-wing’ paper failed to spot the steaming irony in its analysis. Because it, in part, is to blame for the allegedly negative public view of Corbyn that it’s happily cheerleading.

‘We love you, May!’

The thrust of The Guardian‘s editorial was about the “credibility” of both leaders. It cheerily noted that May has allegedly:

established herself in many voters’ minds as a believable leader and the Labour leader has not… That gives her great scope to launch raids on the centre ground…

By “raids on the centre ground”, the paper was referring to May’s pledge to cap energy prices. Something that Labour had previously touted as a policy in 2013. It said this was a signal that the Tory leader could “advance deep into Labour territory” as it shows “Labour voters that the Conservative party could be a home for them”. It duly noted that:

It is significant that some commentators on the right are already speculating that Mrs May looks set to be the most leftwing Conservative leader for 40 years…

But it is here that the noxious editorial began to fall apart.

Left-wing? Really?

Even the metropolitan, liberal team at The Guardian must realise that May is in no way a ‘Red Tory’. Unless of course three UN investigations finding the Tories guilty of “grave” and “systematic” human rights violations is an indication of a party with some hidden egalitarian tendencies. Or unless eerie similarities between May’s current policies and the BNP’s 2005 manifesto betray an organisation with the teachings of Engels running through its blood.

But The Guardian didn’t even attempt to argue against the assertion that May is somehow ‘left-wing’.

Where’s Blair?

This is probably because the paper’s stance on left-wing politics was clear from the editorial. It praised the more centrist Andy Burnham’s mayoral election campaign as a “triumph”, “exceptional”, and a “success” that ” mobilise[d] a victorious coalition around a progressive platform”. But it viewed Corbyn’s campaign as consisting of “red-blooded attacks” that would be “unlikely to win over Tory-leaning voters”.

This implication that progressive centrism is good and socialist left-leaning politics is bad makes a mockery of the paper’s earlier statement. The one that May was going to launch “raids on the centre ground”. Because surely, if she was appealing to the ‘centre ground’, Labour would have to show that its position was markedly different? Right?

Just. Shut. Up. Now.

The Guardian has always been vocally anti-Corbyn. Probably because, from its position, he represents everything it hates: an understanding of working people/the precariat/the underclass, their problems and struggles, and the kind of egalitarian mantra that Blair and his cronies, including The Guardian, deserted. But in repeatedly denouncing the Labour leader, the paper has surely done as much damage to his public image, and that of the party’s, as the attempted coups by backbench MPs.

And this is why The Guardian represents everything that’s wrong with the liberal, privileged, virtue-signalling ‘left’. Looking down on the rest of us from above, patting us on the head and telling us ‘it understands’, while doing little about any of the problems we face. Apart from sniping at the main left-wing opposition leader, of course. So hats off to ‘The Grauniad’. If there was any confusion as to where its loyalties lied, there isn’t now. Because they’re not with the majority of struggling people in this country. They’re somewhere on the south coast of France, sipping a glass of Bollinger while the sun sets on the last flickering hope for millions of ordinary British voters. So thanks for nothing, Guardian. No wonder your readership is nosediving.

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Featured image via Inverse/Apadmi