Saturday, 24 October 2015

Jeremy Corbyn Twitter Hashtag #BlameCorbyn Erupts After Telegraph Sketch Article

Jeremy Corbyn had a lot to answer for on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn't particularly deserved but that wasn't going to stop the British public blaming him for everything from your hangover to failing to save the galaxy earlier.







It even led to a rather successful campaign to get people to change their Twitter names to the hashtag.



It all started on Saturday evening with an article by The Telegraph's sketch writer, Michael Deacon, titled 'Don’t want cuts to tax credits? Blame Jeremy Corbyn'.

The piece posited that Corbyn was in fact partly responsible for the government's current plans to cut tax credits and and that his supporters should be furious.

He wrote: "Imagine Labour had a more credible leader. A leader the wider public took seriously.

"A leader the Tories felt threatened by, or at least wary of. In those circumstances, the Chancellor might be feeling a little more anxious about tax credits.

"He might back down, for fear that Labour would capitalise on his policy’s unpopularity. Yet he doesn’t look anxious in the least. And it’s all thanks to the Corbynites."

The piece did not go down particularly well on Twitter where the hashtag #BlameCorbyn soon began to trend suggesting other things the Labour leader could be responsible for.










The government's plans to cut tax credits has caused a huge amount of controversy not only as a policy but for how the Tories have tried to pass the legislation.

Estimates suggest key workers such as teachers and social workers could be left up to £1,500 a year worse off under the moves.

The House of Lords threatened to block the legislation using a rarely-used ‘fatal motion’.

Cross-party campaigners told the Huffington Post UK a crossbench peer is being lined up to table the motion in a bid to prevent George Osborne from putting his controversial £4bn proposals into law.

In response the Tories threatened to suspend the House of Lords or flood it with Conservative peers.










On Saturday, Osborne was been accused of “unspeakable” bullying over tax credit cuts by a peer.

Crossbencher Baroness Meacher complained at the way she and others were treated over proposed "fatal" amendments that would kill off the policy to cut tax credits, the Press Association reported.

She told BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster: "There has been enormous pressure coming from the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, upon peers.

"The weight on me has been unspeakable really. I think it’s bullying tactics."













Earlier this week a collection of pre-election TV clippings showed the numerous times David Cameron had promised not to cut tax credits.



During a special episode of BBC's Question Time, aired in April, presenter David Dimbleby asks: "There are some people that are worried about you cutting child tax credits, are you saying absolutely as a guarantee that you'd never have it?"

To which the Prime Minister responds: "First of all child tax credit we increased by 450 pounds..." Dimbleby interjects: "And it's not going to fall?" to which the PM replies: "Its not going to fall."

Fast forward to October, the PM is shown in conversation with Andrew Marr stating: "No, of course we are making some changes to tax credits."















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