Who Knew? Well I Did, For A Start...

I’m getting heartily sick and tired of all these ridiculous political commentators and pundits sitting on my telly, shocked, saying,

“Who could possibly have predicted this?”

What made me laugh was the commentators and pundits all, at some point, took a swipe at social media users, saying that they exist in an echo chamber, not realising that the London/SE Media Bubble is the biggest and most echoey echo chamber of them all. No wonder they couldn't predict what was going on.

To them Corbyn was a scruffy joke, who bumbled about shouting Marxist nonsense, then other Trotskyists joined him and they took over the Labour Party, next thing you know Canterbury and Kensington were voting Labour, "Who knew?!"

I knew...

I watched the first 7 minutes of the first Leadership debate and I knew that Jeremy Corbyn was different.

(For West Wing fans, I had a ‘Josh Moment’).

Now, I’m no political commentator, I don’t have a million readers, I have less than 60 followers on twitter, but I am a curious sort.

Because I was a curious sort, Corbyn’s performance made me want to find out whether was resonating with people and if so, what sort of people was he resonating with?

Coincidentally, I found out that he was holding a rally not far away from where I lived, so I wandered on by. What I saw, the people I talked to, the feeling of excitement in the air made me convinced I was seeing the rumblings of change.

Now, in the London/SE media bubble, where everyone had decided on their winner for the leadership, Corbyn was a joke, an embarrassment.

But there I was, standing outside a venue on an industrial estate in Manchester on a Friday evening, queuing up, QUEUING UP! to get into a political rally, chatting to a 56-year-old woman and a 19-year-old, about how we couldn’t believe we were standing there waiting to see a politician. None of us had had much to do with politics before (I'd been out of Politics for 20 years). We were laughing at how funny it was and a few other people in the queue joined in, they too were entering into the political sphere for the first time. I remember feeling really hopeful, for the first time in years.

To us, Corbyn was an inspiration.

This was a few weeks into leadership race and the signs were all there. Corbyn was mobilising the previously apathetic! I was excited and enthused and I decided that I would be voting for Jeremy and I, like others who were at the event, went back to my Facebook page and started telling people about Corbyn and sharing everything I could find.

(Some of these people I met a various rallys are now facebook friends, some I have since met up with at Labour Party meetings.)

That’s how it starts, you see…

People connecting and communicating. Working for a common purpose.

I wrote about what I was seeing: The Way I See It, The Way I See It 2, It’s a Paradigm Shift

Even after he won, I was gobsmacked why the left-leaning press at the very least, couldn’t see it.

In 2015, just after Jeremy Corbyn’s first win. It was impossible to distinguish the left-wing papers from the right-wing ones. This was equal opportunity Corbyn bashing on an unprecedented scale.

The leader of the Labour party had just been voted in with a massive majority and The Guardian was hyper-critical and unfairly hostile!!!

THE GUARDIAN!

It was universally agreed, in the London/SE Media Bubble, despite the overwhelming nature of his win, that Jeremy Corbyn, who had just WON an ELECTION was a joke. An UNELECTABLE joke.

After the second election, I was certain that the journalists would start being curious sorts and asking themselves why so many people were voting for a person the media thought was a no-hoper, but instead, they sided with those, who were equally as deluded and allowed the angry, spurned, so-called ‘moderates’ in the Labour Party to frame the debate.

I knew that the Mirror and the Guardian would be the first to come round, mainly because they would be the first to feel the financial result of being on the wrong path. I knew I wouldn’t be the only one to, quite vocally, cancel a subscription, to stop buying the newspapers. I knew they would find their way back, not on ideological grounds, but financial. I also knew that when they did, it would be because enough people had turned their backs to force them into it and that would mean that the tipping point had been reached.

My experience with Paradigm shifts told me then that the Tories days were numbered.

What it comes down to is this: they couldn’t see the Corbyn thing coming for the same reason they couldn’t see the Brexit thing coming,

They couldn’t see it because it wasn’t happening where they lived, worked, socialised. It was in the parts of town that they didn’t go. The parts of the country where they have no connections, among people that they looked down upon and discounted as unimportant, the poor, the grafters, the ‘work two jobs and still can’t afford a takeaway’ people, the NHS workers, the young people, the disabled.

They forgot that if you take the masses for granted long enough, the masses will eventually notice and look around for someone who will speak to/for them.

When May called the election, I wandered around telling everyone that under normal circumstances Labour should win. Closer to the election I realised it was likely to be a hung parliament, because the campaign period was much shorter this time. People laughed at me!

The morning of the election, I cheered up the entire campaign team for my local MP, by explaining, in detail, how a hung parliament was a foregone conclusion.

In my model, I was looking for wins in the Tories heartland. I ignored Scotland, because I didn't know enough about Scottish politics to hazard a guess.

Scotland shocked me, until I remembered that Kezia Dugdale distanced herself completely from Corbyn and requested that he not campaign there. Idiotic!

People will attribute Corbyn's Labour turnaround to his 'improved media handling' or a change in his approach.

This is nonsense.

He grew in confidence, yes, but that is not why he was successful. He was successful because, for the first time, the press had to give him 'the floor'. Up until the start of the campaign, the public were only allowed to view Corbyn through a veil of the media's making, the media showed the public their version of Corbyn.

Election rules meant that the veil was lifted and the public experienced the man himself.

Once that happened, it was a foregone conclusion. He exudes authenticity and integrity. People naturally respond to that. Given a normal length election cycle, it would have been a labour landslide...

So, dear Media, when you are asking yourselves, who knew? Who could have predicted this?

I answer proudly,

I bloody well did!

What do I see coming now? Well, I know that the Conservatives time in power is over, bar the shouting.

Why?

Because you can't stop a paradigm shift once it has hit the tipping point, that's why.

I repeat,

you can't stop a paradigm shift once it has hit the tipping point

Once the establishment mainstream media start talking about political 'adjustments' or 'realignments' you can bet your bottom dollar that we're way over the tipping point.

In 11 days time, the General Public will see that the Conservatives have absolutely no clue how far down this hole, they have dug our country into, goes. The Tory 'hard negotiation' approach to the 'tough talks' that they're going to have with the European Union will be shown to be completely clueless, pointless and fruitless.

We, Britain, have asked for a divorce and we won't get to keep the house if we antagonise and demonise our negotiating partners BEFORE we start negotiating.

The Conservatives will return in turmoil, if, indeed, they even get that far...

The country will realise that if we want to succeed in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome to our exit of the EU, we must reach out to our friends in Europe and build bridges to make more friends. The country will realise this because while Theresa is blustering and ranting, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party will be reaching out to friends and governments on the continent, talking and more importantly, listening.

Corbyn will be extending the hand of respect and friendship.

So, dear Labour Party family,

Pause for a moment and think about what we have achieved thus far,

Labour Party gains in

Lincoln 😮

Canterbury 😮

And bloody KENSINGTON for gods sake!!!!!! 🙀

As long as we hold our nerve, stick together and stand united, all we have to do is get some popcorn, sit back and watch the Conservative Party implode.

Watch for a little while, then get up and get out there. Because the media will go on the attack, with greater enthusiasm and we must be prepared for it. Tweeting fingers at the ready to rebuff and counter.

If you know someone who didn't vote, show them some of the really tight numbers, seats won by the Tories in single digits and mere hundreds and tell them, EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

Do you know someone who didn't register to vote the last time, help them to register to vote now.

Talk to every person you know, every person you encounter. The campaigning continues.

Because the next election is round the corner, let's be up and running...

We cannot lose now

For we are many, they are few...

For more by this author visit Amanda Murphy's blog