Update and fiction around May / Corbyn on TV re Brexit

This blog has not been updated for a while. I have done a lot of tweets - @will789gb - and also added to the playlist on YouTube. But often I have just repeated previous questions. Looking for info on how things came to happen.

I am still interested mostly in the newspapers at the time of the referendum. There is interest now in social media and links to Trump etc. but in 2016 the newspapers still had clout. Hard to tell how much, but a lot of influence on the debate.

So I am going to look at the background to the proposed May / Corbyn TV debate on current Commons vote. Follow on Twitter and look for clues on what is going on. Could be very similar to what happened during referendum.

Big difference is that Corbyn is more in control of Labour Party press and PR. In 2016 there were organisations set up by Mandelson and Alan Johnson. Speculation has it some opponents inside Labour wanted to oppose him following an election defeat. The shadow cabinet resignations came soon after the referendum result. One campaign had a press release including an attack on Corbyn as part of their conclusion at the referendum result.

Corbyn did not share a platform with Conservatives and did not follow the same arguments. He avoided "catastrophist" claims about the economy.Concentrated on employment and consumer rights, the environment, positive aspects of EU.

For ref, this from Sky

Unfortunately the clips from Last Led on Channel 4 now very limited. Edits claim to show 7/10 score for EU as not positive enough. The complete clip was uploaded to his own YouTube channel, then taken down at Channel 4 request. It would be interesting to know how these decisions happened. Possibly thought to be helping someone inside Labour? Hard to tell. When the polls were tricky and media space was cleared for Labour it was taken by Gordon Brown and Lord Darling, sharing a platform with Osborne and sticking to claims about crashing the economy and a difficult budget. Not much reporting on Corbyn.

So how will decisions in TV be made over the next week or so? According to Buzzfeed there may have been discussions between BBC and May about a format that assumed an audience 50:50 in support of May to start with, limited time for Corbyn and May. So the ITV option makes sense for Labour.

Between the referendum and the second Labour leadership election there were heckles on Corbyn reported on BBC. But on Twitter there are stories that one was associated with Portland and the other with Lib Dems. Again this might have been sen as helpful for some sort of Labour or central view. Hard to tell. But maybe someone can remember and info will turn up as part of the chat this week.

So far the BBC has not reported on a story that May blocked an inquiry into Banks when Home Secretary before the referendum. Reported by Daily Mail and Channel 4 and mentioned in Commons by Ben Bradshaw MP. This should be part of a Brexit discussion as connects to Trump investigations and Russian cyber actions. Carole Cadwalladr is often queried on Twitter, in ways supported by some comments on BBC such as paper reviews and guests such as Banks. Another reason to avoid BBC if they continue to block the story. If they know it is wrong they could say so.

I am sometimes uncertain what the priority is for people supporting a second referendum. Corbyn is clear enough that this is a possibility though he prefers a general election. Is the aim to persuade him or to show he is just wrong and should be replaced? Surely things have changed? He is the Leader and you might think he would get media support. But Observer newspaper for example seems to ignore this. Interesting to see comments around the TV options.

Probably continues as tweets - @will789gb - other topics also.

Not much fiction yet, maybe later.

BBC view seems much the same as newspapers, so critique unlikely

A few thoughts after watching Dateline London on BBC News.

Brexit has a few issues for the UK but the discussion made no mention of Jeremy Corbyn or opposition in parliament or anywhere. Apart from Conservatives in newspapers. So the scope for Steve Richards is the current government and the BoJo supporters. As far as I can tell there was almost no BBC reporting of PMQ this week, my take Corbyn was effective, all questions about Brexit. The official story is that Corbyn has failed to get message through, though BBC editorial may have more to do with it. My guess is that Corbyn at PMQ will matter eventually, even if not reported by BBC and newspapers. RT on YouTube continues, not sure how this can be blocked.

So the strange world of Brexit newspapers is actually shared by the BBC and presumably other broadcasters. Debate about Brexit is entirely inside the Conservative Party. there is no interest in what Corbyn says in the Commons. Labour supporters online are so rude best avoided. ( btw there are some very elegant insults coming from proper journalists so maybe versions of Twitter do appear eventually as part of the debate @steverichards14 will notice).

I used to think the BBC read out opinions from newspapers as something they just had to do. Still listen to Today sometimes and now think they look out for the ones that defend Brexit  /  attack Corbyn. seems to fit with their own point of view.

So however bad things get, BBC is not going to comment on the situation of Mail / Sun / Telegraph / Express .  Circulation may decline. Research may show remaining readers are older even than BBC audience. There may be yet more outrage opinion as much cheaper than reporting. But BBC support could well continue. No analysis to be expected. ( The socalled paper reviews will increase the trend to ramble off into other opinions, not based on any substance in the actual papers, just my guess time will tell)

Actual news? Search on PMQ and Corbyn on a Wednesday.

Link to blog about Guardian

Just done a post in blog about Reading the Guradian.

Responds to Open Door today looking for reasons why readers complain about G take on Corbyn.

Mostly, I mention the way they use opposition to Brexit as a way to knock Corbyn, not covering what he has actually said. So I would like to go back to what happened during the referendum, how that was reported, the "soft coup" whatever you want to call it, how the G opinion supported this.

there is going to be news over the next few months but how did Brexit happen? Quite possibly the pressures and situations around now are similar to then. Many of the same people.

Today news Guardian mentions Labour strategic concern with working class voters who supported Leave.  From the space given to Lord Adonis this is not a concern they consider news for the people they think are readers. Was it much the same during referendum? Corbyn arguments aimed at Labour voters or lost Labour voters. Alan Johnson, Lord Mandelson and others supporting lines from Cameron. Newspapers ignoring Corbyn or getting briefed for a blame game. Speculation obviously but there may be info somewhere.

Just that the Brexit decision seems so strange there must be an explanation as to why the media did such a bad job at explaining the downside. Failure to report what Corbyn was saying is part of this, so need to explore why knocking Corbyn is such a priority.

Links on Boris , Sky , and Tweet pressure

Trying to track what turns up on Twitter.

Starts with comment on Sky blog by Lewis Goodall about class in Britain, how it allows views such as from Boris to go unchallenged.

But the episode adverts to something else, something which though not shifting in the mantle of our politics, has long been an irreducible, solid part of its core: all that is important in these matters in Britain, is that you are powerful - that you can say what you like, as long as you're posh.

Evidence then from a wide range of media support.

Then you get @mediaGuido objecting and then @montie who remarks "Big Questions here for  @SkyNewsHead"

So by the way, there have been recent statements by Rowan Atkinson and others about the value of free speech. So how often should line management get involved with opinion for journalists?

Anyway, my main question is still on looking back to the referendum and what happened. What was Boris allowed to get away with? Was there any journalism as in questions or review as to what he was saying and did it make sense? My memory suggests probably not.

Boris situation continues, maybe further clues as to who might have done better reporting and what actually happened.

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Meanwhile I think Sky is able to resist this kind of pressure. BBC seems to think they have a duty to support HMG so EU is something of an enemy. Sky more likley to report facts such as lorries near Dover. Robert Phillips

‏ @robbyyy 5h5 hours ago

Replying to @montie @SkyNewsHead

Tim, I think @ofcom need to investigate Sky News bias. When was the last time you saw Faisal Islam cover a positive Brexit story? How about Conway? Boulton? Allegretti?

This might work on the BBC. Something Brexit positive turns up so they have to find some balance?

Draft for current Futurelearn course on British Empire

I am well into the time this course but dipping in and out. I did it previously in 2017. ( The stats on dropouts for a MOOC often ignore how people can dip back in again later or find something similar)

I think this is needed towards the end of August. Comments and suggestions welcome. Should be 300 words, getting too long already.

Blog is the first draft of journalism, history some weeks later. (Continental Drift book found in Blackwell's bookshop under Politics, not History)

Legacy of British Empire

( draft for current course , updated from previous course Feb 2017 )

The present situation is part of European history and empires, the Dutch and Portuguese included. The financial aspect of the British Empire is now part of the USA dollar situation. So there is a wider context than first appears.

Public opinion is influenced by empire, notions of jingoism (UK) and exceptionalism (USA) for example. These seem to be less rational than could be shown as related to anything specific. Hitchcock remade the 39 Steps as North by North West , there was not much need to describe the external threat.

History as a subject can cross over with journalism or just speculation. The book Continental Drift by Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon describes UK policy on Europe up to the time of John Major. It shows how attitudes to Empire led to expectations of a role in Europe that turned out to be quite different to reality. The move towards leaving Europe has been based on an idea of “post-Geography” . Brexiteers such as Liam Fox see buccaneers as a role model. In the last year as the arrangements with the EU seem to be more complex than first claimed there has been a switch to more emphasis on issues around race and identity. Boris Johnson is now working with Steve Bannon on concerns around Islam.

How much sense the claims about the economy will make remains to be seen. It is possible that the British government is deluded, as are most of the newspapers and the public. Will a global market be less of a threat for the “just about managing”? It is not yet possible to discuss this as history but whatever happens will be explained as part of a longer story. Possibly the post imperial idea of a Global Britain will fail but the blame will be sorted out by a retreat to a culture that could still be explained through imperial history.

Some links to clarify what was in my original text, based on comments

Katherine Whiteley

"post-Geography" is a term used by Liam Fox. It might be futurist but I think it looks back to a previous time for UK options.

https://www.ft.com/content/e456c008-8642-11e6-8897-2359a58ac7a5

Hitchcock continued Buchan themes in film from novels. The course included the adventure stories in print. Hitchcock developed repeated ideas in USA from UK and they fit with Empire and Cold War.

Bonginkosi Sunday

More about Continental Drift

Intro as free PDF

http://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/71261/excerpt/9781107071261_excerpt.pdf

Full info

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9781107071261&ss=exc

You have to fill in the gaps towards the end. But it is clear enough about the Empire expectations post WW2 and the early approach to Europe from Heath and Wilson.

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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.