Johnson’s chaotic start continues, while Corbyn receives rousing welcome even in Tory-held seats

Corbyn reacts to Swindon’s huge welcome

Potentially the defining moment of Boris Johnson’s general election campaign has been the scene of him being booed out of a stage-managed ‘PR stunt’ – by angry staff and patients, not by campaigners, as the visit was not announced in advance. The reality was, of course, ignored by the ‘professional’ media.

But Johnson’s chaos has not been limited to a single event. Instead, it has been a thread through the first days of his campaign, from the resignation of thirty-four Tory MPs who do not want to stand for re-election, to the endorsement by the reviled Donald Trump.

That thread continued last night, with a car-crash interview in which Johnson twice refused to rule out more NHS privatisation – followed in short order by a campaign-stunt announcement of a ‘ban’ on fracking that turned out to be nothing more than a suspension for as little as forty days.

Labour blew that out of the water with a reminder of its policy to ban fracking completely.

But little encapsulates the contrasting campaigns – and the two party leaders – than the difference between Boris Johnson’s escape from Addenbrooke’s hospital and the reception Jeremy Corbyn is receiving everywhere he goes.

Even in Tory-held Swindon, the contrast could scarcely have been greater:

Corbyn has received a similar welcome right from the launch of Labour’s campaign:

And the Labour leader’s energetic campaigning is ensuring that such welcomes – and the footage that goes with them – will be abundant. Corbyn is visiting no fewer than three towns just today, on a day in which the weather is keeping many half his age tucked up indoors: Swindon, Filton and Bradley Stoke near Bristol and Gloucester.

Boris Johnson, like May before him, has been forced by the public’s reaction into closed, stage-managed stunts that he hopes will – with the help of complicit Establishment media – create an illusion of a dynamic campaign.

Meanwhile, Corbyn is getting on with the real thing – and has plenty to tell people about Labour’s game-changing policy offer.

But of course the media will ignore or diminish as much as they can, so it’s up to the grassroots Labour supporters and all who want change to amplify every appearance, to bypass the ‘mainstream’ silence and misrepresentation.

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