Monday 21 September 2015

Corbyn supporters need to learn from the Scots in how to get the message across


Until today the press has been throwing everything that it could at Jeremy Corbyn in the hope that something would stick. Today it seemed like Cameron's turn to face the press in full blood sport mood, but already the hacks are starting to pull holes in the story that he enjoys nothing more than sticking his cock into the mouth of a dead pig, or saying that it doesn't really matter. By tomorrow we can expect that the line will be that it was all stuff and nonsense and best forgotten about. Then the hacks will go back to attacking Corbyn again.

If you live in Scotland none of this is in any way new. During last year's referendum campaign the mainstream media hit the Yes voters with everything and anything that came to hand. The aim was to batter the Nationalists into submission, just as now they want to do the same to Corbyn and the people who elected him as Labour's leader. However, although the Nats narrowly lost the referendum, the lessons learned stood them in good stead for this year's general election when the SNP took 56 out of the 59 seats that Scotland has in the House of Commons.

To understand the new politics in Scotland you first of all have to take in that the reactionary side of politics dominates the old media whereas the progressives have a lock on all the new ones. A recent study by the University of Glasgow has concluded that had the referendum been fought under the old media rules, then reaction would have swept the board. The fact that it was so close shows only that the next generation has not yet taken full power, but that the torch really is passing into their hands.

The new politics' activists have little interest in attending tedious meetings in draughty halls or trying to persuade the press to listen to their arguments. They connect to each other via social media and when they realised that the press was not on their side they simply used their skills to set up new, competing media outlets and used them for their agitprop. Sites like Wings Over Scotland and Bella Caledonia suddenly blossomed into the go-to sites for that day's news, with the result that today fewer people than ever read the dead tree press.

The message to the Corbynites is very simple: get your sites up and running and don't argue with the traditional media, just leave them trailing in your wake.

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