Labour's New Spinmeister
The appointment of Seumas Milne as Jeremy Corbyn's new 'spin doctor in chief' has roused comment in many quarters including this Thunderer column from The Times written by Stephen Pollard.
I suppose you could reasonably describe Stephen's piece as a fine example of what Jezza described recently as 'straight talking, honest politics'.
A man who excuses terrorism is the ideal Labour spin doctor
There’s rarely a dictator that Seumas Milne cannot defend
By Stephen Pollard - The Times
My favourite moment in the appointment of any pope is when liberal commentators notice the new pontiff’s opposition to abortion, gay marriage and condoms and start fulminating. The pope, they discover, is a Catholic.
On Tuesday, Jeremy Corbyn appointed a new director of communications and strategy. In an earth-shattering shock, a Labour leader who makes excuses for terrorists, acts as a propagandist for Russia and Iran, despises the West and thinks Nato was to blame for the invasion of Crimea has given the job to a man who makes excuses for terrorists, acts as a propagandist for Russia and Iran, despises the West . . . etc.
You get the idea.
Many commentators have reacted with horror to Seumas Milne’s appointment, given his political moorings on the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe. His years as a Guardian columnist have certainly allowed us the benefit of his Stalinist take on world affairs. Such as choosing, two days after the murder of 3,000 people on 9/11, to sneer at the US for lacking “any glimmer of recognition” about why they were attacked, and arguing that “the Americans are once again reaping a dragons’ teeth harvest they themselves sowed”.
Sticking up for his hero, he has complained that: “It has become almost received wisdom to bracket Stalin and Hitler as twin monsters of the past century . . . and commonplace to equate communism and fascism as the two greatest evils of an unprecedentedly sanguinary era.”
The point is, you see, Uncle Joe was engaged in an honourable project, offering “socialist political alternatives”. So it was just a pity, one supposes, that millions had to die. Never mind; all in a good cause.
There is rarely a dictator Mr Milne cannot defend, whether it’s that splendid chap Putin, “demonised” by the nasty West; or the woefully misunderstood Assad, who had — don’t you know? — “no rational motivation” for chemical attacks. So they probably didn’t happen, then.
But far from making him unsuitable for the job, it’s precisely those views that make Seumas Milne the perfect man for it. He is ideally placed to join Mr Corbyn in turning Labour from a centre-left party of government to a Trotskyite sect.
He might even bring the Stalinists on board.
Stephen Pollard is editor of the Jewish Chronicle
