Dumb and dumber

If Carlsberg did tweets – actually they do, but they also make shit lager – then this would be a top Carlsberg tweet. Probably the best tweet ever, at least since the last best tweet ever and before the next best tweet ever:

I thought much the same thing as Jeremy Corbyn rambled through the launch of Labour’s campaign for the coming General Election. Indeed, who the hell does he think he is and what does he mean?

Clearly, the old boy doesn’t want any scrutiny of his policies or anything else. One must assume that he would prefer a Soviet style media to merely repeat everything he says as if it’s Pravda.

I appreciate that much of our media is deeply flawed. The BBC has completely lost its shit in recent years, desperately seeking ‘balance’ over stories such as the lying of Brexiter politicians and businessmen and the illegal funding of the referendum campaign when serious journalism was required, but sadly absent. In contrast, the red top tabloids have largely abandoned journalism and replaced it with far right propaganda. Yes, it’s all terribly flawed and I would certainly argue that our so-called ‘free press’ was anything but free, with the sole exception of the Guardian, the only national newspaper that is truly independently owned, in their case by a trust.

Corbyn is certainly going to get plenty of media attention rather he likes it or not and much of it will be hostile. Yet he cannot expect, as he plainly expects, that journalists will simply attend, make notes on what the old boy says and then – heaven forbid – not ask him awkward questions. It works well enough in China, where the state controls what goes in the media, but for all our democratic failings, it doesn’t quite happen here. Yet.

The analogy with Bernstein and Woodward is particularly relevant. Imagine if they had taken the word of Richard Nixon and all his crooked men when the Watergate investigation was going on? “Can I ask the media as good journalists to just report what we say?” Imagine the Washington Post editor nodding sagely in agreement. “You could buy a used car from this man,” concluded Ben Bradlee. Luckily he concluded no such thing.

I suspect Corbyn is simply too dim to comprehend the meaning of what he said and what it sounded it like to everyone else. As his cult following in Battersea were applauding his every word, the rest of us were scratching our heads. He really is hopeless. Sadly for the country, his opponent Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson cannot hide his own failings with his carefully honed buffoon Boris act. Dumb and dumber. It’s just hard to tell which is which.