Is Donald Trump helping Jeremy Corbyn get elected?

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, June 7th, 2017 - 17 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, International, Jeremy Corbyn, uk politics, us politics - Tags:

The current incumbent in the White House is an unusual person, even when compared to other right wing American politicians.

He lacks even a basic sense of humanity.  And his approach to all issues is that superficial it can be captured in a tweet.

Exhibit A are his recent tweets following the terrorist attack on London.  Including this one:

The police shot the offenders within minutes of the attack happening. We should all breathe a sigh of relief that the offenders were not armed.

Then Trump chose to attack Labour London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is also a Muslim.

The context of Khan’s statement is contained in this article in the Independent:

But Mr Trump’s criticism is based on a quotation entirely removed from its context. He appears to be confused about what happened in part because Fox News repeated the same short quote but without the full remarks from the mayor of London.

“My message to Londoners and visitors to our great city is to be calm and vigilant today,” Mr Khan said. “You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers.

“There is no reason to be alarmed by this. We are the safest global city in the world. You saw last night as a consequence of our planning, our preparation, the rehearsals that take place, the swift response from the emergency services tackling the terrorists and also helping the injured.”

Get that?  Khan was assuring people not to be alarmed about increased police numbers, not about terrorism itself.

I am sure this was pointed out to Trump.  So how did he respond?  Not well …

Defending Fox News seems to be of more importance to Trump than maintaining international relations with one of America’s oldest friends as well as one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

On Morning Report yesterday morning Simon Marks called the action unprecedented.  Have a listen to it.  I am not sure I have ever heard a reporter described the POTUS in such trenchant terms.

This is the sort of behaviour you would expect from someone in Primary School, not the President of the United States and the former leader of the free world. And sticking to an interpretation which is clearly wrong shows a level of belligerence and lack of sophistication that is terrifying.

I posted some English responses earlier this week.  They deserve repeating:

https://twitter.com/stavvers/status/871147509145645056

Even the acting US Ambassador in London disagreed with the POTUS.

And this has caused more controversy.  From the Guardian:

In more normal times, such a message of solidarity with a host mayor in an allied state would be unremarkable, but it unleashed a torrent of online abuse from Trump’s supporters, accusing Lukens of disloyalty. Some focused on the fact that the acting ambassador was offering support for a foreign official who is Muslim, rather than echoing the president. There were calls for Lukens to be replaced.

You have to wonder why Trump chose to attack the Mayor of London and not the Mayor of Manchester.  Could this be the reason?

https://twitter.com/hourlyterrier/status/871733115470962689

Khan has taken the opportunity to oppose the planned State visit by Trump to England.  As well he may.

Theresa May must be willing Trump to STFU. And she must be deeply regretting the closeness of their relationship …

 

17 comments on “Is Donald Trump helping Jeremy Corbyn get elected? ”

  1. Ad 1

    I hope I’m wrong but I think Prime Minister May will get a 3 point bump out of this.

    It’s a pretty damn cruel world when the bullies like Trump get to win again.

    Dignity is great, until you lose too often.

    • mickysavage 1.1

      I’m hoping the people of Britain will see things differently. Time will tell …

      • Ad 1.1.1

        Aye

      • Anne 1.1.2

        I’m hoping the people of Britain will see things differently.

        Well, the people of Wellington told the world what they think of Donald Trump, so I think the people of Britain (London in particular) just might give Trump’s mate, Theresa May a similar message:

        Up yours.

    • swordfish 1.2

      Blimey, you’ve changed your tune ever so slightly, Ad.

      A few days ago you asked …
      ____________________________________________________________________________________

      Ad

      4 June 2017 at 3:32 pm

      Swordfish, call me ‘too soon’ but does this gain Corbyn an extra % point?
      ____________________________________________________________________________________

      To which my response would almost certainly have been …

      My intuition tells me quite the opposite – swift swing back to the Tories amongst heightened popular hawkishness as Theresa gets to play the strong Stateswoman, courageously protecting her wonderfully colourful and authentic little subjects against “far too much tolerance” from those softie liberals and socialist surrender-monkeys for these Murderous Islamic Extremists. (The Guardian headline: Seven dead, 21 critically hurt: May says ‘Enough is Enough’ !!! … Might as well be the Daily Mail for all the difference it makes – the Tories will be very happy with The Grauniad Editor).

      She’ll be playing Dirty Harry c 1972: “And if those cowardly liberal pen-pushers in the Labour Party don’t like it, then Mister they can swivel like a pig on this mid-digit !!!”. The inconvenient wee fact that she was, you know, Home Secretary for 6 years in the very recent past … all forgotten amongst the immediate fallout … and let’s hear no more about it.

      Corby ?: Well, we know he’ll be ruthlessly smeared as “soft on terror, soft on terrorists”,

      MSM – Tories = “He’s too spineless to defend us … stockholm syndrome !!! Cowardly Corbyn !!! … blaming us !!! … blaming the victims !!! Just like he did with the IRA and Hamas !!! … Wants to give murderous Terrorists a big bunch of flowers and a bear-hug”.

      Then again, what do the Polls suggest ?

      6 Polls conducted immediately after the 22 May Manchester Arena bombing.

      – 4 recorded narrowing Tory leads …

      – Down by 3 points (Opinium/Observer)
      – Down 4 (YouGov/The Times)
      – Down 6 – both (ORB/Sunday Telegraph)
      and (Com Res/Sunday Mirror, Independent on Sunday)

      – 1 suggested neutral / no change – (ICM/The Sun on Sunday)

      – 1 = Tory Lead: Up 2 – (YouGov/Sunday Times)

      So, on the face of it – no Right-wing backlash … in fact, if anything, quite the opposite.

      Problem is – it’s difficult to isolate the specific impact of the Manchester bombing because it was so soon after the politically disastrous 18 May Conservative manifesto launch and the subsequent weekend furore (20–21 May) over the “dementia tax”

      Just 2 Polls – (1) the neutral / no change ICM and (2) a Kantar Poll – were carried out during the brief space between the “dementia tax” debacle and the bombing … The Kantar is a relatively infrequent Poll – fieldwork for the subsequent one took place after Corbyn’s 26 May speech on terror and suggested a slight swing to the Tories (albeit well within the margin of error – Tory lead up by 2)

      But then, somewhat surprisingly, most Polls in the post-Corbyn terror speech period recorded narrowing Tory leads again – so Manchester might simply have temporarily delayed (or very briefly reversed) an on-going Tory-to-Lab swing … Arguably, then, a strictly temporary neutral-to-mildly-pro-Tory effect

      Latest post-London attack Polls …

      Survey Monkey – Tory lead Down 2

      ICM – Unchanged

      Opinium – Tory lead Up 1

  2. weka 2

    I put this comment up on 2nd June, so I’m guessing the you’ve poll was from just before that,

    Yougov poll on Londoners puts Corbyn ahead of May as preferred PM, and Labour 17 points ahead of the Conservatives.

    “Asked by YouGov who would make the best Prime Minister, 37 per cent picked Mr Corbyn and 34 per cent Ms May. A survey taken just after the manifesto launches last month had Ms May ahead by 38 to 32.

    On voting intention, Labour now stands on 50 per cent, up from 41 per cent a month ago, according to the new poll. The Tories are on 33 per cent, down from 36 per cent last month.”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-poll-latest-jeremy-corbyn-london-labour-prime-minister-theresa-may-conservatives-a7766941.html

  3. bwaghorn 3

    ”Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!”

    what an incredible stupid man he is, if the fucking scum bags had guns they would have killed hundreds.

    • dukeofurl 3.1

      Very difficult to buy assault rifles in UK- imagine that.
      50 dead Orlando
      14 dead San Bernadino
      32 Virginia Tech
      etc etc

    • Draco T Bastard 3.2

      Would be good if a major news organisation did a report that highlighted that fact.

  4. Macro 4

    If Trump visits, let’s greet him with the chorus of mocking middle fingers he deserves
    I think the Londoners get the message.
    May is under attack for her cuts to Police spending – reducing the number of armed officers by over 1000 during her time as Home Secretary, when there we obvious indications of increasing threat. Furthermore, her initial cosy relationship with the Chump is also hurting her now as he carries out his obscene attacks on a well liked London Mayor.

  5. Tanz 5

    the mayor of London is an Islam apologist, what a surprise. He doesn’t seem to care that Londoners are being held to ransom. Has made ridiculous statements and does not even condemn the actions of the murderous bastards. Mind you, people here on this site don’t seem to either, all in the name of PC. That is typical of the left, the rights of radical islamists are more important than the lives of innocent Brits. Madness.

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