Back to Corbyn and Referendum - What Happened?

Current phase of tweets etc around Corbyn and racism is taking up too much time to check out facts. Still important but I think I will go back to the referendum time and try to work out more about what happened. It may turn out to be one continuing story.

Stephen Bush in the Sunday Times speculates that some centrist Labour MPs have changed their point of view. Just after Corbyn was elected leader they thought there was enough time to wait for him to fail. But recently there are more Corbyn supporters joining as members. So some sort of new party is possible.

I am trying to find out more about "United For Change" . I am following them on Twitter. No clues yet on who is connected.

But what about "Saving Labour" ? This was a massive social media presence during the second leadership election. Still not much info on who was organising it. The main decisions about how Labour was organised for the referendum were taken before Corbyn became leader. It appears he did not have complete influence on the statements being made. the "blame Corbyn" trope came in a press release very rapidly after the result. Mandelson was quite keen to follow the Cameron lead even though upset by a lack of defence against misinformation. When the latter polls looked dodgy Cameron made space for Labour which turned out to include Lord Darling sharing a platform with Osborne. My guess is this was less convincing than had Corbyn been better reported for arguments based on worker rights and environment.

So I hope to go back to some of this. There may be clues on which MPs and journalists were concerned with different outcomes.

Continuing queries

Channel 4 blocked Corbyn from using complete clips from Last Resort. why? Anyone got a copy?

Thing is, for those worried about Brexit, and Corbyn "Fudge" as claimed by @BBCnews paper review yesterday evening, what he said in referendum is worth quoting. He did campaign for Remain, whatever version of history suits the people who need an issue to contest around him.

Two heckles reported by BBC seem to be not from upset Labour supporters but from Lib Dems and Portland. Has this been checked out? Where is Newsnight getting info or leads?

The Shadow Cabinet resignations started with reports in Observer and Sunday Times that Hilary Benn had no confidence in Corbyn. No way he could continue though this was later reported as "sacked in the middle of the night". What was the source of the story?

new one

Gavin Esler recently writing about the poor reporting on Brexit so far. He probably cannot go into detail about the BBC but maybe info will emerge around how things worked out. I got the impression that there was pressure from both sides in government. So reports tended to be a collection of conflicting statements with no way to judge any assessment. Left little space for Corbyn or other views.

Seems much the same at the moment. Reading the Observer today you would think that this week Corbyn has no way to exist. But probably something continues.

Canary Story basis for long format next May

The Trump and Brexit story has been coming together. Still some missing bits on possible Russia connection but a lot on social media advertising. I still think the newspapers had more influence in the UK than is being mentioned at the moment. But some comparison stats my yet turn up.

The Canary reports on UK response to a Reuters report that Steve Bannon intends to be active in EU elections next year. and that he is in contact with Boris, Gove and Farage. Canary notes that Dan Hodges has reservations about the links. He tweets " What the hell are Johnson, Mogg and Gove doing palling around with this guy. Johnson and Mogg I can sort of understand, they're just opportunists. But Gove? ".

This blog can look back on what different people have said since Brexit started. The gap between official and unofficial Leave campaigns was not that great as reported. Gove has worked as a Times journalist, including a Trump interview.

Probably UK will be out of EU in time for the elections. But still plenty of media comment, one would imagine. Possible news angles to rework previous posts as background.

BBC R4 Today and National Government

Need more space than a tweet. Just to check what I think I heard was right. Was half asleep for most of it but I think today the Today prog included both sides of the Brexit argument, that is Remain and Cabinet inside the Conservative Party. Closes with discussion of National Government as suggested by Remain. But nothing from the Labour Party, either front bench or supposed to be closer to Anna Soubry.

Unless I fell asleep and missed it this seems to me to confirm an impression of how the BBC covers Brexit. They were under two lots of pressure during referendum, both Conservative. Partly because of the views of most of the PLP at the time there was very little reporting of what Jeremy Corbyn actually said. Mandelson then as now sticks to trade and economy. He is right about the disaster but my point is that just backing up Cameron did not persuade anyone.

Dutch MP seems about right on high chance of a "chaos Brexit" , not as a choice from anyone but because Rees-Mogg and others can disrupt any sort of process. Many see some cross party opposition to this. But the danger meanwhile is that most of the country, the left behind, the just about managing, the north and midlands are left out of the picture. Persuading them requires attention to the issues Corbyn raised in the referendum. On Sunday Politics a Labour MP started to talk about worker rights and environment protection and was very quickly wound up."Please don't go through the six tests again" , sorry can't remember the name, will check later.

So BBC seems to follow the newspapers, mostly a debate between Conservatives, maybe the Guardian with a guest Anna Soubry fan from various sources. Am I being unfair? time will tell.

"chaos Brexit" may well happen before an election. At some point in time the wider electorate opinion will matter. Corbyn is part of a discussion. Suggest he be allowed space, not bashed about by Remain fans. If he is on the Today prog he may be allowed time to explain something before an editor arrives to tell us that actually the Labour Party is confused.

Guardian on UK newspapers and Trump

I have done a post in the readG blog as it started with Guardian today, comments by Roy Greenslade and Matthew d'Ancona.

With this blog I will be going back to what happened in the referendum and the issues that were raised. I do not think the Brexit / Trump links just started a few weeks ago.

Many things are impossible to measure. My guess is that UK newspapers have an older readership but not much info available. Circulation declines quite large for Mirror group  but have the readers moved online? where?

The newspapers were still strong in 2016, social media had more influence in the 2017 election. But now the newspapers and social media will work together. Leav.EU , Breitbart London, Westmonster, for example. So far I have done some retweets with comments. In future I will just put screenshots in this blog.

Slightly off topic, Guardian could report Corbyn differently if they really wanted to shake up the UK news scene. Just my opinion. More or less on topic as the limited reporting of Corbyn during the referendum could be a large part of the explanation of how other ideas gained strength.

Telegraph links Trump and Brexit

Today the Telegraph links Brexit with Trump visit by  a front page story on remarks by trump that he would like to meet Boris Johnson when in the UK. Gordon Rayner reports that this is a blow to Mrs May's authority and will bolster Mr Johnson's support amongst Brexiteers.

Previously there has been speculation that Nigel Farage could meet with Trump. He suggested a role for himself soon after Trump was elected. Later Gove met with Trump for an interview when working as a journalist. Tweets will be interesting this week to see where the links are now and which tags crop up.

Cannot find photo of Trump and Boris but maybe later. Also in first photo, Arron Banks

Back to Corbyn pro Remain in referendum

This blog is going round in circles, maybe because the story will turn out to be the same one over several years. I have stopped posting so much as things just repeat but maybe there is a claity phase soon?

Papers review last night seemed to me to include a statement that is just not so. Shaun Ley suggested Corbyn is critical of EU policy on worker rights and environment. Maybe he could suggest changes but the main thing is that Corbyn spoke during the referendum pro Remain based on these concerns. So I recorded this bit for review and comment.

Compare recent statement in Commons, Daily Mail version.

Four minutes in defends EU position on worker rights. This bit has not been widely reported, not at all in print Guardian that I can find.

See previous posts in this blog for what Corbyn said and how reported. the "blame Corbyn" phase was so strong that the actual referendum was forgotten. Not airbrushed out, I have to conclude most BBC reporters have genuinely forgotten.

Comment welcome. Other links? bloggers cannot expect interviews but some sort of retrospective may turn up.

My guess is that most of Westminster / print and TV are in one world , with another outside it until / unless there is an election or something. These gaps in memory are part of it.

Brexit Endgame and UK newspapers

Found this blog through Chris Grey - mainly macro by Simon Wren-Lewis.

Brexit Endgame has a reasonable take on what may happen towards the end of this week.

Note the bit at the end suggesting newspapers have been a crucial influence. There may be more on this, even questions about broadcast media and how far they have questioned the news agenda. Maybe this will be mostly online.