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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

Yesterday the Labour leader posted a video to his social media accounts. Dogged for days by accusations he was complicit in passing information in multiple meetings to the Cold War Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocy, and having dodged questions on the topic by the press, Corbyn (or Agent Cob as the Statni Bezoecnost called him) decided he would not answer the questions but attack the press that were asking them.

Matt Kilcoyne

19 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Lenin censored the press within days of taking power. Jeremy might find it a bit harder going. But then he will have a lot of helpers already there in the civil service and the establishment, ready to get cracking straight away.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Yes, it’s well-known that all the press is rabidly right-wing, and never gives socialists a fair go.

  • staghounds

    So, he did it then.

  • John Galt III

    He’s a traitor – hang him.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Another reason not to like capital punishment, other than the person may turn out to be innocent, is that hanging is too good for them! Spending years in jail with nothing to do- that might be better than it being over with quickly. Just a thought…
    Anyway, once we set up a libertopia, everything will be adjusted by insurance costs, won’t it? I’ve heard that put forward as an alternative to prison.

  • Mr Ed

    We know that Mr Corbyn and Ms Diane Abbott took a motorbiking holiday in East Germany , which must have required a visa and permission, and we are told that there is no Stasi file on Mr Corbyn, nor any StB Czechoslovak records.

    We cannot rule out that the Stasi and StB transferred their choicest files to the KGB as socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe. There was a lot more time for that in East Germany, where a young KGB officer called Putin had been stationed.

    That the Stasi has no record when Mr Corbyn visited as a tourist for such a visit is, imho, noteworthy.

    We also know that Mr Corbyn called for Leon Trotsky to be completed rehabilitated by the Soviets in a House of Commons motion of 1988, so he was not entirely uncritical of the Soviets, and this action is covered by the Bill of Rights and ought not to be impeached in any place outside of Parliament.

  • Runcie Balspune

    and we are told that there is no Stasi file on Mr Corbyn, nor any StB Czechoslovak records

    I understood the modern versions of the agencies in either country stated they would not release any information about people currently in political positions without the specific permission of the person in question (or if they had died), and I would assume that includes acknowledgement that files even exist, which is understandable, but then again, Mr Corbyn could simply resolve this issue in one way by giving permission …

  • Apparently the Germans are now saying that there is no file on Corbyn, which either means he was a complete and utter non-entity, or they’ve already destroyed it or transferred it to the Russians a while back.

  • Alisa

    Just imagine if he was said to have had Nazi connections instead.

  • Mr Ecks

    Corbin met a Czech not an East German.

  • I find Corbyn’s response sinister, less for the evident desire to censor than for the lack of interest in distinguishing between the overt “protect minorities” excuses the left gives for its war on free speech and the willingness to punish the press for undermining the glorious socialist leader. That distinction always disappears in practice in these cases – and in one sense I am glad Corbyn is poor at hiding it – but some of the hypocrisy that is vice’s homage to virtue would have been nice.

    In the parliamentary debate on the enabling act that ‘legally’ converted Weimar Germany into the Nazi dictatorship, it helped Hitler that Weimar already had hate speech laws. When the social democrat leader warned that the act’s powers would stifle political debate, Hitler replied, “Late you come but still you come” and asked why these concerns had been absent on the many occasions when his party members were charged, fined and imprisoned purely for what they said.

    I am of course well aware that Corbyn is not Hitler. For one thing, he’s stupider. For another, I sincerely hope he’s not as into killing people.

    I would feel happier if the UK had not already put in place both laws that hate free speech, and an attitude that welcomes, justifies and expects one-sided enforcement of them.

  • staghounds

    “Poor at hiding it”? He’s not hiding it, controlling information is a proud feature of his plans.

  • Paul Marks

    Well of course…

    Mr Corbyn is a totalitarian – he, therefore, believes in totalitarianism (this is not rocket science boys and girls).

    The point is that his totalitarianism (his support for tyranny) does not undermine his appeal – because his supporters are totalitarians to. And, no, concreting over what is left of the south east of England is not going to win them over – not unless it involves them getting to eat human flesh from still living bodies. Yes I am exaggerating – but not by much.

  • Sam Duncan

    “Apparently the Germans are now saying that there is no file on Corbyn, which either means he was a complete and utter non-entity, or they’ve already destroyed it or transferred it to the Russians a while back.”

    It can only be the latter. The Stasi was the largest intelligence organization, per capita, Europe has ever known. More than half the population worked for it, either directly or inderectly. Much like North Korea today, every visitor to East Germany had a “handler”. It kept a file on everyone who ever set foot in the country, yet Corbyn and his gaslighting supporters expect us to believe that he, uniquely among millions, was ignored. Even if his file only contained innocuous reports on visits to the Berlin Zoo with Abbott, it’s simply inconceivable that it never existed.

    And we know that the Stasi spent the dying days of the DDR furiously destroying as much evidence as they could. Many East Germans, who know for sure there were files on them, have been unable to find them. It’s extremely convenient for Corbyn that his file was one of those destroyed, but there can be no doubt at all that there was one.

    My great-grandfather had no birth certificate, because the IRA burned them all in 1914. That doesn’t mean he was never born.

  • Stonyground

    I find it interesting that communists like to pay visits to communist countries and for some reason fail to notice while they are there that everything is really really shit. Or is it that they do notice but think that it doesn’t matter as long as they don’t see any of that nasty inequality?

    As an aside I have long had a soft spot for East German motorcycles. I’ve owned a few MZs over the years and found them to be well designed, well made, reliable and as cheap as chips to buy and run. They also revolutionised motorcycle racing by creating two stroke racing bikes that were startlingly fast and that were subsequently widely copied by the Japanese. The MZ was an odd exception as most other products from the old communist bloc were pretty awful.

  • Alisa

    Stonyground, I think that in most cases they were not shown the shitty places, but instead taken to various “Potemkin villages”.

  • Stonyground

    This being in total contrast to Western countries which they can more or less explore at will and yet they don’t suspect that they are being duped.

  • Alisa

    They don’t suspect that they are being duped, because they want to believe. Still, that does not mean that they actually saw the shittiness.

  • Biffa Bacon

    COB definitely needs some uncomfortable official scrutiny. He’s never sided with the UK or the West in words, and now it seems he was similarly inclined in deed as well. A UK version of Robert Mueller would be a most healthy development in his case, but I won’t hold my breath.