Jeremy corbyn

This weekend, Jeremy Corbyn was full of beans during an appearance on the Andrew Marr show. As well as frank comments on immigration and student debt, the Labour leader found time to turn his ire on the BBC over the gender pay gap. Discussing the disclosure that two thirds of the corporation's highest earners are men, Corbyn said the Beeb needs to 'look very hard at itself' – adding that a Labour government would insist on a pay audit of every organisation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1pvY_Tbmc Strong words indeed. But is Corbyn just repeating empty platitudes? This time last year, Corbyn made a similar pledge.

Jeremy Corbyn - I did not make a commitment to write off student debt This morning Jeremy Corbyn became the last interviewee on the Andrew Marr Show  before the party conference season begins in September. With a potential general election on the cards at any time, there was much to discuss. In particular, Marr chose to delve a little deeper into Corbyn's plans for alleviating student debt after the Labour leader declared he planned to 'deal with it' shortly before Britain went to the polls in June: Marr: A lot of people in this country are burdened by high levels of debt because of the student loans they've had to take out, and you said shortly before the election 'I will deal with it'. What did you mean by 'I will deal with it'?

The Labour party has a troubling recess ahead of it. Many of its members just won’t know what to do with themselves. This is because for the first time in two years, there is no leadership contest. Those who had eschewed beach holidays in favour of spending their summer recess in windowless rooms listening to contenders for the top job fight over who would really, really nationalise the railways now have nothing to do. Even before Labour lost the election unexpectedly well, few anticipated an immediate challenge to Jeremy Corbyn.

Given how miserable things are for Theresa May at the moment, with her Cabinet behaving like children, her backbenchers urging her to use the authority she doesn’t have to tell those ministers off, and a policy free-for-all caused by having no majority, today’s final PMQs before the summer should have been extremely painful for the Prime Minister. But while Jeremy Corbyn has arguably been a key factor in this whole miserable situation coming about for May, he is still quite handy when it comes to helping her survive what should be deeply miserable sessions in the Commons.

Does Labour want to leave the Single Market? Maybes aye, maybes naw, as we used to say in North Britain. Corbyn isn't saying. It might be one of the biggest questions of public policy of this decade, but the man who now has at least a non-trivial chance of being PM one day isn't saying where he stands on it. This matters. Of course, we think we know what he intends on the single market. We think he is hostile to it and regards it as a wicked capitalist plot. We think he also inclines towards leaving because he wants to keep inside the remaining chunk of the old Labour working-class vote that is persuaded by the Ukip argument that the single market means free movement which means immigrants.   But we don't know because Corbyn isn't saying.

If a line is repeated often enough it becomes true. Or true enough, anyway. This, at any rate, is one of the axiomatic rules of modern politics. He who controls the ballyhooed “narrative” owns the truth. Which is why the interpretation of any given event swiftly becomes almost as important as the actual event itself. So up-pops Matt Zarb-Cousin, formerly Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman and now one of his more charming outriders on social media, to claim that it was Jezzah what has saved the Labour party in Scotland. As he puts it, “Corbyn’s supporters have long argued that returning Labour to its socialist roots would be necessary if the party was to ever regain support in Scotland.” Well, up to a point Lord Spart.

Gay lefties have hated gay Tories ever since learning of their existence. The concept baffles them, like pro-life women or alcohol-free wine. Those with long memories are aware of the Conservative Party's ugly record on gay equality. This is the party of Section 28, of differential consent laws, of fretting about children 'being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay'. But gay Tories, having largely rehabilitated their party and with many of the major gay rights battles settled favourably, hoped the rainbow flag might finally have space for a stripe of blue.