Corbyn in row over train ‘lie’
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn turned angrily on a questioner yesterday as the row over his “ram-packed” train claim continued.
Mr Corbyn was filmed sitting on the floor of a Virgin train, complaining it was overcrowded.
But operator Virgin released images showing there were spare seats available and of Mr Corbyn sitting in one of them later.
Asked by a journalist if he was a “liar”, Mr Corbyn said: “I was hoping you were going to ask questions about the National Health Service, but sadly you’re not. I deplore the use of that language in any context; I don’t use it myself and I don’t use it today.”
THE pose as a man of principle is central to Jeremy Corbyn’s image. Cloaked in righteous, socialist piety he presents himself as a kind of bearded secular saint who hovers beatifically above the Westminster cesspit. Indeed the slogan of his victorious bid for the Labour leadership last year was: “Straight talking, honest politics.”
Yet his boasts of integrity have now been exposed as a sham due to a cynical stunt that has backfired disastrously. In a move designed to highlight overcrowding on the privatised rail network, Corbyn had his team film him on the floor of a mid-morning train service operated by Virgin from London to Newcastle.
With his usual tone of weary earnestness he claimed he was forced to adopt this uncomfortable position because the train was so “ram-packed” – to use his mangled phrase – that he was unable to find a seat. Having proclaimed solidarity with other hard-pressed passengers he then argued for renationalisation.
But political propaganda only works if it contains an essence of truth. Corbyn’s exercise was based on deceit, which soon became clear as his account unravelled.
Virgin, understandably aggrieved, launched a devastating rebuttal. The company not only put out a statement which made clear that plenty of accommodation was available but it even released CCTV footage of Corbyn walking past a host of empty seats and later, after his pathetic video had been shot, taking up residence in an uncrowded carriage.
CORBYN was revealed as just another dissembling politician, eager to distort the facts for political ends. In response to Virgin, his allies twisted and turned, desperate to come up with an explanation.
One initial excuse was that seats were freed up as passengers disembarked during the journey. But this was nonsense since the CCTV images showed that Corbyn was ensconced in his place long before the first stop of York was reached.
Another excuse was that the many seats may have looked empty but in fact they had bags and coats on them. So where were all the occupants – in the toilets? Then Corbyn’s team wailed about the unfair use of CCTV footage. But he and his aides were the ones who decided to film in public. Finally Corbyn admitted that there had been empty seats on the train but he wanted two together so he could be beside his wife. According to him, such a pair only became available when a family upgraded to first-class.
Instead of winning more public support for his radical socialist agenda this saga has turned Corbyn into a laughing stock. His extremism had already brought him to record lows of unpopularity. Now his antics have led to ridicule. “Virgin treated him as a VIP – Very Idiotic Person,” said one wag. “Do not stand here – this part of the floor is reserved for Jeremy Corbyn,” read one cartoon.
Corbyn emerges not just as a hypocrite but also a rank incompetent. He behaved not like an alternative prime minister but like a clueless, sulky backpacker, full of airy opinions but devoid of basic organisation. None of this farce would have happened if his office had actually bothered to make a set of reservations for the train like millions of Britons do all the time. It is not as if in the age of the internet that the booking process is difficult. But this clown, who laughably aspires to run our country, could not even be bothered to book his tickets in advance.
Such spectacular ineptitude, when allied to his quasirevolutionary zealotry, is precisely why his own Parliamentary Party has turned so ferociously against him.
Yet Corbyn refuses to face up to his colossal failings. He is a man of monstrous vanity, full of messianic self-importance and peevish anger if challenged. “Thank you for invading my private space,” he whined to journalists on Tuesday night outside his home. Well, if he does not like press attention why on earth does he still want to be Labour leader?
To Corbyn’s adoring, deluded followers the train fiasco is just another example of media bias against their hero. Unable to tolerate even a whisper of criticism against him they have turned Labour from a serious party into a deranged personality cult. Their brainwashed detachment from reality is illustrated all too clearly in this case as they indulge in wild conspiracies about doctored CCTV footage or a plot by Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin, to undermine the fight for rail renationalisation.
ABSURDLY the cultists even complain about the excessive focus on this train issue when it was Corbyn who deliberately manufactured a row in the first place with his childish floor-sitting protest.
They are not even right about a return of the railways to public ownership. Contrary to their moans, rail privatisation has been a huge success, bringing new investment, better rolling stock, an improved infrastructure and a phenomenal increase in passenger numbers after years of decline under British Rail.
Corbyn and his acolytes want the railways back under state control because they have an ideological hatred of private enterprise. But thankfully there is little chance that they will have the chance to implement their misguided policy.
As his present humiliation reveals, Corbyn is unfit for any kind of public office, never mind the premiership.
‘Corbyn is a man of monstrous vanity’