Jeremy Corbyn addressed a packed rally in Newcastle upon Tyne on Saturday night that bore all the hallmarks of an election rally. Strange that, considering his party had just vetoed an election - twice. The irony appeared to be lost on his audience, but then this was Labour territory and these people had queued in the rain to watch him - around two thousand of them. There was no disputing the numbers on this occasion. Newcastle City Hall has a capacity of 2,135 and it was clearly ram-packed, as Corbyn might say.
Joining Corbyn were the following supporting acts;
Ian Lavery - MP for Wansbeck and Chairman of the Labour Party
Chi Onwurah - MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central who laid into 'white males' during her speech, surely to have gone down well with an audience that appeared to be almost exclusively white
Laura Pidcock - MP for North West Durham and one of the favourites to succeed the Great Leader
Nick Brown - MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and former New Labour minister who has somehow struck up a rapport with the Great Leader
Lauren Dingsdale - Labour candidate for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland
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L-r: Lauren Dingsdale, Laura Pidcock, Chi Onwurah, Jeremy Corbyn, Ian Lavery
and Nick Brown |
The headline grabber from Corbyn's speech was his announcement that a Labour government would interfere in the affairs of domestic football, or, as he called it - bringing "democracy to football". Preying on local discontent with the current owner of Newcastle United Football Club, Corbyn promised to take football away from "billionaires and hand it to the fans instead". It sounded great and the audience lapped it up, but surely once our football clubs have been purged of their millionaire/billionaire owners, there would be no money to buy the best players and the Premier League would go down the pan - much like our country would under Corbyn's communism.
Corbyn's speech was awkward, poorly delivered and at times painful to watch. He denounced those "trying to divide society" and yet he delivered a 'them and us' speech, easily done in the under-privileged north, far from cushty Islington. His speech was devoid of humour, he spoke over applause, shuffled awkwardly, fluffed his lines and constantly fiddled with his spectacles. Most embarrassingly of all he finished by applauding himself, while some in the audience were more interested in getting their coats on than clapping.
With the exception of hardcore Corbynistas, no-one watching this hapless display could have truly felt they had just witnessed a future Prime Minister in action. He was a long way from home and it showed. In fact, what it looked like was a hypocrite trying to portray himself as a man of the people while conscious of the fact he is a privately educated millionaire who belongs to a north London clique that would dominate high office if it came to power.
Corbyn isn't anti-establishment, he is the establishment.
