Social media was dominated at the weekend with pro-Corbyn hashtags, as loyal supporters continue struggling to move on past the ‘denial’ stage of grieving. Tommy Corbyn got in on the action, quote tweeting a clip of the great leader’s infamous Glastonbury speech. According to Tommy, after the speech:
“one of the Glastonbury staff tapped me on the shoulder and said “you know he just got a bigger crowd than Rihanna””
Unfortunately for Tommy, Rihanna has never played Glastonbury. It seems young Tommy Corbyn might be wrongfacing his black female artists – perhaps with Beyoncé having performed at the stage in 2011 to a crowd of 175,000. Tommy, as the lady sang; “Ooh na na, what’s my name?” Beyoncé or Rihanna…
If there’s one thing in Labour’s recent history more mockable than Richard Burgon, it is Labour Live; the festival hardly any one turned up to and resulted in a massive financial loss to the party.
Despite the reported £1 million losses incurred by the last Labour Live, Burgon has now told Labour List it was a “good idea” and “the kind of thing we need to be doing”. Every day, Burgon makes Guido even more assured of his official endorsement…
“Causing a public nuisance I suppose so, why not” @AaronBastani on Our Future Our Choice asked to leave #LabourLive after unveiling Stop Backing Brexit banner in #bbcdp debate with @tessmillsy pic.twitter.com/OftIdWW8ZQ
— BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) 21 June 2018
Aaron Bastani accused the remain-backing Our Future Our Voice protest (who had the temerity to hold up a banner at the back of the crowd during Corbyn’s Labour Live speech) of “causing a public nuisance”. Vanilla protesting doesn’t impress the hardcore Dr Bastano…
Now for the real Labour Live – this time without Clean Bandit and all the Red Tory, PR-friendly nonsense. Here’s the hardcore Corbynite offering: Arise – A Festival of Labour Left Ideas. The festival, coming to London in July, is billed as:
“A weekend of people powered politics, internationalism and solidarity, discussing Labour’s left ideas to change society for the better.”
Speakers include frontbenchers Diane Abbott and Richard Burgon. Shami Chakrabarti, Chris Williamson and Emma Dent Coad will also be there. Corbyn is not listed – presumably he will be steering clear to allow for the, er, free expression of more flavoursome views. The festival is backed by a rash of hard left groups; it appears to be organised through the Labour Assembly Against Austerity. It is being advertised in the Morning Star. Stop The War’s Murad Qureshi will speak, as will Jenny Manson from the loonies at Jewish Voice for Labour. They are promising a #JC4PM rally / Q&As / seminars and workshops / a social media hub and training, films, book launches and ‘meet the author’ events. Not expecting there to be media accreditation…
Weekend tickets cost £30.00 – £5 less than the the original price of Labour Live. Will it remain at full price?
Sneak behind the scenes preview…
Labour Live organisers are handing out free tickets as fast as they can be printed. In the rush to get as many as possible to attend (Labour planned for 20,000, but just 3,000 tickets have been sold), few checks are being carried out on applicants. As such, hundreds of free tickets have been issues to Kim Il-Sung, Tony Blair and Leon Trotksy:
I’m sure I’ll find something to do with 23 free tickets for Labour Live in the name of Kim Il-Sung pic.twitter.com/JM0SkNoE1o
— Ido Vock (@idvck) 14 June 2018
Delighted to have got 60 tickets for Labour Live this weekend pic.twitter.com/6Pf6WOm95p
— Piers Mitchell (@1totalprat) 14 June 2018
Labour Live! is now giving away free tickets through Unite. Just been emailed 18 in the name of Tony Blair c/o HMP Belmarsh pic.twitter.com/HXFVsua5Bi
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) 14 June 2018
Looking forward to Saturday…
