Jeremy Corbyn has announced that he will appear on tonight’s election debate (BBC1, 7.30pm) after all – in his only u-turn of the election campaign.

This Writer reckons it is a good move, wrong-footing certain newspaper writers who (falsely) claimed that both he and Theresa May had refused to appear. In fact, Mr Corbyn’s initial reluctance was only because Mrs May had already ruled out a direct confrontation.

His change of heart means he will be able to face Conservative representative Amber Rudd and ask the question on everybody’s mind: “What is your boss afraid of?”

Jeremy Corbyn is set to take part in Wednesday evening’s televised leaders’ debate, reversing his original decision – and has called on Theresa May to join the event as well.

Speaking at an earlier event in Westminster, Corbyn recounted Monday’s television debate, in which he and May took questions from an audience and presenter Jeremy Paxman, but did so separately, never being in the studio at the same time.

“How ridiculous is that?” he said. “Come on, prime minister, come and have a chat, come and have a debate. I can be ever so polite, but there are a number of questions I want to put to you.”

.@Theresa_May come & debate me. Any time. Any place. Britain deserves to see the only two people who could be the next Prime Minister debate pic.twitter.com/hM6wK9e32B

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 31, 2017

At the same event, Corbyn criticised the prime minister for her language when she said he would be “naked in the negotiating chamber” if he led Brexit talks.

“I certainly wouldn’t use language like that myself,” Corbyn said when asked about May’s comments, following a press conference to lay out Labour’s plans to commit extra resources to health, education and social care.

“I think it’s totally inappropriate to describe anyone as naked. Even me.”

Source: Corbyn to take part in TV leaders’ debate | Politics | The Guardian

This Writer can reveal that I think we’ve discovered the reason Theresa May came out with this inappropriate comment. It seems she had something on her mind…

(Mm… Maybe not. The image arrived on This Writer’s Twitter feed during a segment of the BBC’s Daily Politics suggesting that Mr Corbyn’s advisors have smartened him up sartorially.)

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This is very amusing, from Kevin Mckenna in The National:

In view of what’s at stake in this election I’ve drawn up a list of suggestions on how we can subtly tweak the public consciousness to ensure that they don’t do anything silly.

1. When interviewing Theresa May sit forward attentively at all times and smile benignly. Tory Central Office have informed us that she is more likely to open up if she doesn’t feel threatened. On no account make any mention of the alleged electoral fraud involving a couple of dozen Tory MPs at the last election. And if you really must make mention of the tiresome subject of food banks then it’s best simply to accept Theresa’s sage observation that the reasons why there are so many these days are ‘complicated’ … which, of course, they are.

2. When interviewing Corbyn it’s vital to bear in mind that he is the upstart pretender and thus deserving of more intense scrutiny. Mention his Irish Republican paramilitary past when he embarked on a one-year long hunger strike in sympathy with the H-Block prisoners throughout 1981. The authenticity of those pictures of assorted Tory MPs with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams has yet to be verified but they look suspiciously like they have been doctored by Corbyn’s media lieutenant Seamus Milne who, as everyone knows, fought for Pol Pot’s forces in Cambodia.

It is satire, of course.

But the best humour – like the best lies – contains an element of truth. Don’t you agree?

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Jeremy Corbyn put the spotlight on the National Health Service and schools – exposing facts that the Conservatives would rather hide behind a lot of Brexit-related posturing.

In a speech today, Mr Corbyn laid out exactly what the Conservatives have been doing:

'Over the last 7 years @Conservatives have starved public services – it has to change'

–@jeremycorbynhttps://t.co/G9UhY3Pa3M pic.twitter.com/3jA6Uvr3yb

— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) May 31, 2017

And he told us what five more years of Tories would bring:

.@jeremycorbyn claims voting Tories would lead to
5.5m on NHS waitlist
1.5m unmet care
650,000 in 30+ classroomshttps://t.co/G9UhY3Pa3M pic.twitter.com/2h1pWOjZK3

— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) May 31, 2017

According to Labour, the choice at the election is stark. The Tories have no plan to properly fund our public services, pushing them further into crisis. Labour will take a different approach, rebuilding public services for the many by modest tax rises for companies and the richest five per cent.

Labour will invest £37 billion in our NHS and take one million people off the waiting list by the end of the next Parliament.
Labour will invest £8 billion in social care over the course of the next Parliament and lay the foundations of a National Care Service to integrate health and social care.
Labour will cap class sizes at 30 for 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds.
Labour will provide free school meals to all primary school children by removing VAT exemption on private school fees.

And remember – all these policies have been fully-costed, unlike any of the Conservatives’ plans.

Mr Corbyn said: “Labour will invest in our people, schools and hospitals. We will cut class sizes, take a million people off the NHS waiting list and ensure people get the care they deserve.

“By contrast another five years of the Tories would be disastrous for our public services. At the rate we’re going we could see 5.5 million people on the English waiting list and 1.5 million older people with unmet care needs. And young people and their families face the prospect of more overcrowding in schools and having to pick up the bill for the Tories’ unfair plan to scrap free school meals for hundreds of thousands of children.

“On June 8, there’s only one party that will improve our public services for the many not the few, that’s the Labour Party.”

Labour has written a full analysis on the threat to our schools and hospitals posed by five more years of the Conservatives. You can find it at: http://www.labour.org.uk/atrisk

Apparently, Theresa May is discarding her “strong and stable” cliche to spend the next eight days pretending to be the only party leader who can influence Brexit negotiations.

Do you think that will work for her?

Theresa May said Corbyn would be 'naked & alone' at Brexit negotiations. She is projecting her own weakness pic.twitter.com/84vdjC08I6 #GE2017

— Grassroots Voices (@GrassrootsJC4PM) May 31, 2017

No. Nor do I.

In fact, this may be a good moment for a quick run-down (by which I mean, let’s run it into the ground) of Theresa May’s car-crash campaign so far:

Just watch this!!! Watch it!!! Nails the Tories election campaign pic.twitter.com/YC5VKbt8c1

— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) May 31, 2017

If you can still vote Conservative after that, then you must have money invested in their plans!

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Have you seen the front page of the Tory-loving Daily Mail? Here it is:

And this is the front of the Daily Torygraph I mean Telegraph:

And just for good measure, here’s a story from Mail Online:

All these stories have one thing in common (as you can see from the stamp on the Mail Online piece:

They are all false; not true. Fake news.

Do you want to know why they are suddenly popping up? Here’s the reason:

Tory papers all running with "secret plans" by Labour to do things they have not actually even thought of doing. Why? Look… pic.twitter.com/XxYYZ4KgN4

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) May 30, 2017

That’s right – the Tories’ rubbish election campaign has got them into trouble with the voters, so they are relying on their friends in the press to bail them out by poisoning public opinion against Labour.

The stories listed above are lies; shall we see some facts about what the Conservatives have already done to people in the UK?

Try this:

I challenge you all to watch this video, how can anyone vote a party that does this to its disabled citizens? despicable. pic.twitter.com/bssRW04vOO

— Aleesha Khaliq (@a_leesha1) May 30, 2017

Let’s tie that video into another comment about Labour – this one is factual:

“Systematic abuse of disabled people” – that’s a fair description of what you saw in the video, I would say.

And how about some more facts, about what Labour will do? Here they are:

You’d have to be really gullible to believe the Tory papers.

Vote Labour on June 8. Don’t believe the liars.

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So much for the ‘party of economic competence’.

In seven years, the Conservatives (admittedly, with their little yellow helpers the Liberal Democrats for the first five) have managed to more than double the National Debt, while cutting public services left, right and centre.

Look at the policies in Theresa May’s ‘manifesto of misery’ (above). Based on your experiences of the last seven years, do you see anything in that list that is likely to reduce public debt? Anything at all?

No.

All you see are plans to push the “have-nots” and the “just-about-managings” ever-deeper into poverty, while rewarding the already-rich.

Because Tories like to be cruel to the poor.

Here – this video will explain it for you:

In the time it takes to watch this video Tories have increased debt by more than £500,000. Utter economic failure. pic.twitter.com/LvmGF2mn9Q

— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) May 31, 2017

Next time some Tory comes to your door, asking you to swallow a big lie…

Spit the facts into their faces.

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Some very good points are made in the following post, taken from Facebook (and I’ve added a few more, above).

Please feel free to pass the message on to any Conservative voters you may know

Here’s a thought:

Say Jeremy Corbyn had been the Home Secretary for six years, during which time he slashed some 20,000 police jobs taking us back to 1970s levels of per capita policing.
Let’s say he also slashed the UK Border Agency budget so that over a million people per month were coming and going through UK airports without being properly checked….
Let’s say by virtue of an extremely self-serving EU referendum non-campaign he managed to get into 10 Downing Street, where he kept up his agenda of cutting the UK security services and border agency.
Then there’s a home-grown terrorist attack by a known Islamist fanatic in a city where Corbyn had cut the police budget by £157 million.
Let’s say Jeremy Corbyn “lost” files on an internal paedophile ring.
Let’s say he wanted to take the homes from the elderly.
Let’s say he cut 30% of your loved one’s disabled benefit.
Let’s say he signed an arms deal with the (ISIS-funding) Saudis worth millions.
Let’s say he wanted to take away your child’s free school meal.
Let’s say he forced NHS staff to use food banks.
Let’s say he made so many cuts to the NHS that people are suffering waiting for ambulances and A&E doctors.
Let’s say he went against doctors, nurses, teachers, fire fighters, the armed forces…
Let’s say he took away funding for University for upcoming doctors and nurses.
Let’s say after all these cuts there’s still a deficit and he’d missed every target he’d set himself for reducing it.
What would you have to say about Jeremy Corbyn under these circumstances?
– And why then are you not saying those things about Theresa May and the Tories right now?
Surely, there is only one choice when you have this evidence in front of you?

Yes, there’s only one choice:

Vote Labour on June 8 – and give the Cons what they deserve.

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This is satire, but it does contain a few uncomfortable accuracies.

For example: “Will you vote against your own best interests?”

Anybody not earning more than £80,000 a year who votes Conservative will be doing just that.

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Theresa May is still lying to the public about the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

Her latest speech, today (May 30), included the following line: “Last night showed that Jeremy Corbyn’s minders can put him in a smart blue suit for an interview with Jeremy Paxman but, with his position on Brexit, he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating chamber of the European Union.”

Skipping over the clear indication that she is hurting after Corbyn’s thundering victory over her in the Paxman interviews/debate yesterday, the comment shows that Mrs May is still trying to mislead us all about Brexit.

For a start, Jeremy Corbyn would not be negotiating for the UK if Labour wins the general election – just as Mrs May would not, if the Conservatives win.

Sir Keir Starmer would negotiate for Labour; David Davis would be the Conservatives’ choice. Faced with a decision between the two, This Writer would far rather have the respected former Director of Public Prosecutions fighting our corner, rather than the disgrace who allegedly tried to grope Diane Abbott in a corner of a House of Commons bar.

Mrs May’s speech also distracts from the facts of her own Brexit strategy. Fortunately, we have the following, from Ian Dunt of politics.co.uk, to help us out:

It says: “So what can we learn about May’s negotiating tactics over Brexit from the way she has handled this election? She makes spur-of-the-moment decisions for which she has not prepared. She is a control freak who receives too little advice from outside her immediate circle. She pays insufficient attention to limitations in her operational capacity. She does not stress-test ideas before implementing them. When the ideas then fall apart she quickly capitulates, but even then is unable to halt the bleeding. She U-turns in a way which maximises the humiliation but does not close down the issue. She makes promises which will do little to benefit her but which make her disproportionately vulnerable in other areas. She diminishes her reputation with the very people she most needs on side in order to placate those who she already has on side. She adopts a strategy upon which she is unable to deliver.”

She adopts a strategy upon which she is unable to deliver.

Do we really want this woman and her party negotiating the UK’s departure from the European Union?

Of course not!

Vote Labour on June 8 – for the sake of good international relations.

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That’s right. Jeremy Corbyn forgot the figures for Labour’s new childcare policy and the presenter of Woman’s Hour, Emma Barnett, barracked him mercilessly while he tried to look them up.

Here’s what they were talking about:

Our universal childcare plan will mean 30 hours free childcare a week for all two-four year-olds. RT ↓ #ForTheManypic.twitter.com/1ZvAKa1HgD

— Peter Dowd (@Peter_Dowd) May 30, 2017

Since then, the BBC has run an article on its website (as have others), and there was a long segment on its Daily Politics programme.

The public has picked up on this – as intended.

And responded in exactly the opposite way from what the Corporation’s Tory-supporting news execs no doubt expected.

I’ll let the tweets speak for themselves:

Really don't get why this interview with @jeremycorbyn being conducted in such an aggresive manner, really terrible interview #womanshour

— JBJagain (@jbjagain) May 30, 2017

Really Woman's Hour? This man and the Labour Party are what your listeners and their families need. Shame on you Woman's Hour #womanshour

— Panther (@Panther157) May 30, 2017

https://twitter.com/_jonnyjonny/status/869500339829055488

Reminder: interviewers can't even quiz May on the costings in her manifesto because she doesn't have any

— Maya Goodfellow (@MayaGoodfellow) May 30, 2017

Rookie mistake, but at least Corbyn tried to find it. May didn't offer costings for ANY policy last night https://t.co/mLzDdirDj5

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) May 30, 2017

Corbyn made a mistake. But Labour does have the figures. May repeatedly refuses to give any numbers at all.

— Maya Goodfellow (@MayaGoodfellow) May 30, 2017

Labour can be attacked over remembering the costings of their policies because, unlike the Tories, they actually have costings.

— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) May 30, 2017

#WomanHour Just listened to interview in which #Labour discussed child care commitment. It's in the manifesto & its been costed. #EndOf

— Dorset Eye (Independent Citizen Community Media) (@dorset_eye) May 30, 2017

The press is effectively rewarding the Tories for insulting the electorate by not having costings by reserving ire for the party that does.

— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) May 30, 2017

Seems Womens hour is only meant for Tory women who don.t have to work, rely on CARE and pay extortionate prices for it.. #BBCWomanshour sick

— Will Never Vote Labour Again **All Lives Matter** (@Isobel_waby) May 30, 2017

Typical #BBCwomenshour doing what Tories do best insult our children and their needs to get at #Corbyn your an insult to women.

— Will Never Vote Labour Again **All Lives Matter** (@Isobel_waby) May 30, 2017

This one’s by me:

Brilliant move by @jeremycorbyn , delaying saying how much Labour's childcare pledge will cost. WE ALL KNOW NOW, DON'T WE?

— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) May 30, 2017

(It’s £4.8 billion, if you had missed it.)

Do we honestly expect every politician of every party to know every number that's relevant to governing the UK? And if so, why?

— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) May 30, 2017

Conclusion: The writing is on the wall for “gotcha!” journalism.

We aren’t interested in constant attempts to catch Labour out. We want to know about all parties’ policies.

If the BBC can’t help us with that, why are we paying the licence fee?

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