Jeremy Corbyn admits Britain cannot put a ceiling on immigration while in the EU
Asked on BBC One’s Andrew Marr show if there was any kind of upper limit to the numbers coming into Britain, he said: “I don’t think you can have one while you have a free movement of labour – and I think the free movement of labour means that you have to balance the economy so you have to improve living standards and conditions.
“And so that means the EU’s appalling treatment of Greece… that is a problem. If you deliberately lower living standards and increase poverty in certain countries in south-east or eastern Europe then you’re bound to have a flow of people looking for somewhere else to go.”
I do not know what “balance the economy” means and I doubt Mr Corbyn does either. But at least he is not a weasel like Cameron. In a TV appearance allegedly aimed at persuading us to vote to stay in the European Union Corbyn resignedly says that the main claim of the other side regarding the most hotly contested issue, immigration, is correct. Then he says that the EU’s treatment of one of its member states is “appalling” and deliberately aimed at lowering living standards. Why he wants to stay in a union that wants to impoverish people is a mystery… or it would be, if he did.
My sunken hopes rise a little, given added lift by the fact that the dear old Guardian had this story on the front page for about a minute and a half before someone realised. It now can only be found if you already know it is there. For its part the BBC has clipped the key words off the beginning of the relevant clip from its own programme. Mr Corbyn answered a straightforward question in a straightforward fashion. That media organizations in favour of Remain seek to hide this rather than boast of it speaks volumes.
Corybn’s heart isn’t in anything, is my view. There is something bloodless, something, fake about such middle class, warmed-up Marxists.
For a while, we were told that Corbyn was a “breath of fresh air” (for some reason he comes across as someone who probably has bad breath) because he was “authentic”, as if being an authentic Middle Class hard leftist, sharer of platforms with anti-semites and IRA supporters was somehow meritable in itself.
BBC red-button news had this story for a while yesterday. It is no longer there, but if it disappeared quickly it was not quick enough to stop me seeing it. Doubtless it was summarised, but it was not clipped enough to stop me instantly thinking (that everyone else seeing it would also think that) he was effectively conceding the leave case.
I once met a man who thought Corbyn was honest. I do not think that; I think he’d lie for his cause like a leftie. I think he could be poster child for “Commitment means committed to something other than the truth”. But Remain is not his cause. Because he’s inside the bubble, he knows how much those who want Remain also think that he’s a joke as Labour leader – and is less conscious of how many Leavers agree with Remain on that point.
Today’s beeb red-button story headlines are (1) “Top bosses rush to back Remain”, (2) “Immigration Target ‘Impossible’ in EU”, (3) unconnected foreign item (4) ‘Refugees at highest- ever level – UN”, and (5) “MPs to pay tribute to killed MP Jo Cox”. I just turned on the beeb sound while checking this and heard a city analyst say “Since the death of Jo Cox, all the pound has done is go up. Now that sounds quite brutal, but …”
“For myself, I am an optimist. There does not seem much point in being anything else.” Churchill. It certainly makes for a good night’s sleep, and we have the example of Churchill to show that it does not mean being complacent and doing nothing.
“If you deliberately lower living standards and increase poverty in certain countries in south-east or eastern Europe”
This is just delightful, isn’t it? Everything that happened in Greece was entirely down to EU physically holding the Greek people down and forcing them, at gunpoint, to borrow money and spend it on nice cars.
I just got back from Greece where I had an interesting conversation with a businessman. He is desperate to expand his business but cannot as (mystery of mysteries) no one will lend him the money at a reasonable rate. For some bizarre – and completely unknown – reason, foreign banks are not prepared to offer him the extremely low interest rates that he was getting five years ago.
I wonder why?
I love the country to bits, and detest the EU, but I’ve watched Greece make itself look rich on borrowed money since the 90s.
Alicia Castro said regarding Corbyn: “In the end, he is one of ‘ours’. Even today, when he comes to our embassy, he arrives with the same bicycle and the same enthusiasm. He is a friendly person with a sense humour, who knows how to listen.” Alicia Castro, Argentinian ambassador quoted in Daily Telegraph 14 Sept 2015
And that mythical Malvinas claim:-
https://www.academia.edu/21721198/Falklands_1833_Usurpation_and_UN_Resolutions
Hm. Best not take what Argentinean politicians say as truth.
Mr Corbyn does not really have a dog in this fight.
Yes he favours ever bigger government – so he favours the extra layer of government that is the E.U. (anyone who says they favour smaller government and also favours the E.U. is either radically misinformed or a liar).
However, Mr Corbyn does not really like the form of statism the E.U. represents – the cosy deals for Big Business and so on.
Where are the Death Camps?
Where are the screams of the “Class Enemies” as they tortured to death?
No, it is all much too limited and civilised for Mr Corbyn.
And, no, I am not joking.
In my list above, item (4) has been moved up to item (3) and item (3) down to item (4). The UN commissioner makes it clear we all must and should take more refugees and lose our Xenophobia – but it’s not obviously a story to raise in status even slightly if the aim is to help remain. Of course, what seems obvious to me may seem anything but to Corbyn and the beeb both (and vice versa?).
Paul Marks says he is not joking when he writes, not explicitly but much stronger than an implication, that Jeremy Corbyn would like to torture and kill his opponents.
Paul Marks: what do you think of yourself?
Are you happy? Contented? Mentally healthy?
Do you think you should continue as you are, or try to change, with help if necessary?
Well James, as Corbyn openly supports the violent far left in Cuba and Venezuela, why is what Paul Marks therefore imputes so beyond the pale?
Perry ()June 21, 2016 at 8:36 am) has a point. One of the more effective push-backs against classroom leftism that I heard of (from Natalie IIRC) was an LSE teacher whose enthusiasm for East German-style socialism led to discussion of the Berlin wall: “They gun people down just for leaving and that’s the state you want? You like that kind of thing?” The lecturer never gunned down anyone for leaving her class, and I doubt she’d be able to hit a target if she’d tried. But the question was very fair to ask.
Corbyn has history with some leftie states and islamic organisations. There’s nothing absurd in asking whether he’d go beyond excusing them to imitating them. There are those who would praise in words and excuse in euphemisms what they would never do in deeds (for humiliating reasons as well as for better reasons); the history of fellow travellers is full of them. But do we even know that Corbyn is one of those? And even if he were, the example of the lecturer shows how fair it is to push such hypocrites up against their real meanings.