Jeremy Corbyn, the new Labour Party leader, is pretty popular around here, but he is no British Bernie Sanders. Rather, he represents the old Stalinist wing of the party - the group that led Labour to historic defeats back in the 1980's.
Here are some of his more outrageous statements.
In 2012 Mr. Corbyn called the killing of Osama bin Laden "a tragedy".
At the height of the Iraq conflict he told a Flemish newspaper he 'saluted' the deaths of Western troops.
As an old line Stalinist, he simply can't quit the Kremlin - even though the Kremlin today is little more than a right-wing kleptocracy, backing neo-Fascist organizations across Europe (especially Marine LePen's Front National). Corbyn is now viewed as Putin's useful idiot in Britain:
Corbyn has appeared as a guest on RT (Russia Today), and in a tweet urged followers to watch the station, arguing it provides a more "objective" coverage of world affairs than Western media. [...]Critics argue that in the hands of Corbyn, the Labour party would be led by one of Russia's "useful idiots", a term ascribed to Lenin to describe idealistic Western supporters of the Soviet Union who were willing to turn a blind eye to its atrocities and failings.
In the Sunday Times, historian Anne Applebaum describes Corbyn as the latest "in a long line of useful idiots". "Corbyn is also one of many on the European far-left as well as the far-right who appears to have swallowed wholesale Russia's lie that war in Ukraine has been created by Nato, rather than by the 'separatists' who have invaded eastern Ukraine and are paid, trained and organised by Russia itself," she adds.
Mr. Corbyn has
ties with Islamic extremist groups that express virulently anti-Semitic views:
Mr Corbyn and MEMO co-sponsored the visit to Britain and to Parliament of an Israel-based anti-Semitic extremist, Sheikh Raed Saleh, found by a British court to have spread the classic “blood libel” against Jews, the claim that they use the blood of gentile children to make their bread. Mr Saleh, who also describes Jews as “monkeys” and “bacteria,” claims that 9/11 was a Jewish plot and that the Jews employed at the World Trade Center were warned not to come into work that day.
But he was strongly defended by Mr Corbyn, who congratulated him on defeating Government moves to exclude him from Britain, called him “a very honoured citizen who represents his people extremely well” and said he “looked forward to giving you tea on the [House of Commons]terrace.”
Jeremy Corbyn may be a socialist, but he is not a democratic socialist, and certainly not someone to emulate.