My wife has just read your post over my shoulder and she is very upset as she thinks that you are inferring I am in some way anti-semitic. I've told her to relax, that I'm just a thick, puerile troll and there is nothing to worry about so hopefully I'll still get my 3 posts per day.
Anyway, here's Mr Bragg's response:
Originally posted by Billy Bragg on Facebook
"Been a really frustrating day today. Woke up to find that the Times was claiming that I had turned against Jeremy Corbyn, referring to me in a headline as "previously loyal supporter Billy Bragg". I can't link to the story as it is behind the Times paywall, but the gist of it was based on the following quote, taken from an answer I gave to a question put to me at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Sunday night:
"I worry that Jeremy is a kind of 20th century Labour man. We need to be reaching out to people. We need to be working with everybody we can because you see what happens when a political party becomes tribalist. We can't afford to go down that route if we are to retain the ability to represent ordinary working people".
I said that, but in the hands of the Times journalist it became the following headline: "Jeremy Corbyn is a 20th century man unable to reach the electorate". What is missing here is the context in which I was speaking. In Scotland, tribalism has lead to an extinction level event for the Labour Party. I believe that the way forward involves both the foundation of a federal UK with devolution for England and voting reform at Westminster. The latter will necessitate forming a progressive alliance with other party and I have yet to hear Corbyn or Smith express any support for this idea. Are the Labour willing to give away power via devolution and share power with progressive allies or will they cling to the centralising tendencies exemplified by New Labour in the 20th century?
Frustratingly, none of this context appeared in the Times piece so, as you can imagine, my Twitter feed was a firestorm of angry Corbynites and smug Smith supporters. I had to work very hard to refute their accusations. For the record , I never gave the Times an interview - they were reporting comments I made at a public event. More importantly, I remain a loyal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. I feel that the quote has been twisted out of context in order to sow discord among Corbyn supporters by a media that castigates us as being mindless followers of a leader cult, yet condemns as disloyalty any hint that we may want there to be a debate about the way forward."
