It’s becoming a regular occurrence to see Jeremy Corbyn’s face plastered across front pages over trivial issues. On Tuesday we were once again subjected to more sensationalist headlines, calling him out for not taking part in singing ‘God Save The Queen’ at a Battle of Britain 75th anniversary memorial.
Is this really worthy of front page outrage?
Whether you’re a fan of the monarchy or not, upon a closer inspection of yesterday’s events, it’s hard not to agree that what should’ve actually been reported on front pages is our MPs voting to cut tax credits for thousands of working people.
Yesterday the Tories cut tax credits for hundreds of thousands of working people making them and their families…
Posted by Neil Findlay on Tuesday, 15 September 2015
These working tax credits and child tax credits are designed to help low-paid workers and low-income families get by on a day-to-day basis. This tax credits win for the Tories means that eight million British families will lose out and become significantly worse off.
Rather than highlighting this draconian austerity measure, the majority of the media instead focused on the somewhat trivial matter of Corbyn not joining in with our national anthem.
It’s true that Corbyn doesn’t agree with the monarchy, but should he be attacked for holding this belief? Surely it’s his democratic right to decide whether he feels we should have a monarchy or not. Yet critics have been quick to call him unpatriotic and disrespectful; however it was interesting to see the thoughts of one World War Two veteran on the issue:
As this wise veteran pointed out, just like the cut in working tax credits, other important issues, such as Britain’s arms deals with repressive regimes across the world, are left to the inside pages of some papers, while Corbyn faces harsh criticism for staying true to his lifelong beliefs.
Just because somebody doesn’t agree with the idea of a royal family, surely it doesn’t make them a ‘bad person’. One of the main reasons why so many members of the Republican Campaign want to abolish the monarchy is in order to invest more money in public services and welfare.
Furthermore, Corbyn has even stated that although he is a republican, he will not be campaigning to abolish the monarchy. The lifelong activist is more concerned with pressing issues such as housing and putting a halt to the Tories’ austerity measures.
Finally, aren’t we all too aware of the large number of our nation’s footballers who are hardly seen to join in with God Save The Queen? Players are rarely ever chastised for failing to flex their vocal chords and it’s just seen as a personal choice – some people just don’t like singing do they?
Since Tuesday’s media storm, Jeremy Corbyn has agreed to ‘fully take part’ in all future memorial services. Whether this means we’re going to see him bellow out the national anthem at the top of his voice is anyone’s guess – but him giving in to the whims of the tabloids doesn’t seem like a win for the British people.
