We were in the High Street, Beckenham in force today with a stall and activists walking the streets too. It was good to see old friends like Neil Cropper turn up and I have to thank Maggie Hopgood, Tony Power and Steve Wells for organising it all. I was very pleased when a group of very recent Hayes School Sixth formers passed by and said they were all supporters. We had a photograph together and they wore my election badge too.
Last night I was on Talk Sport (James Whale) and BBC Radio Five Live (Stephen Nolan) about Jeremy Corbyn's appearance earlier in the evening on BBC's Andrew Neil Interview. In his interview Mr Corbyn stated that he had never met the IRA which was something I found very difficult to stomach. I said as much on the radio.
Later I looked at the evidence of Mr Corbyn's dissembling. I didn't have far to look as the Guido Fawkes website gave it to me on a plate. I repeat what he said below.
- Two weeks after the Brighton Bombing Mr Corbyn invited Linda Quigley and Gerard McLoughlin to Westminster. Both were members of the Provisional IRA and McLoughlin had just ended a two and a half year prison sentence for conspiracy to cause explosions.
- Then in 2000 Mr Corbyn shared a platform with Brendan McKenna at an event commemorating Bloody Sunday in 1972. McKenna had previously been put in prison for his part in bombing the Portadown Royal British Legion Hall.
- During 2005 Mr Corbyn shared another platform with Raymond McCartney at another meeting about Bloody Sunday .
- In 2007 Mr Corbyn's Constituency Labour Party organised an event for Martina Anderson who had been put in prison for plotting a series of bomb attacks in London and elsewhere in England. Mr Corbyn was present there and also spoke.
- Two years later Mr Corbyn was present at a Sinn Fein dinner together with Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone. Jerry Adams and Provisional IRA volunteer Gerry Kelly, who was imprisoned for the Old Bailey Bombing which killed one person and wounded 200 others.
- Then in July 2011, Mr Corbyn chaired a Sinn Fein event commemorating the Hunger Strikes. He shared a platform there with Provisional IRA member Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane, who was a part of an IRA gang which killed four Protestant civilians and a UVF member in a pub bombing. Jennifer McCann, who had been sentenced to 20 years for the murder of a policeman was also there.
Both I and anyone else who have served and lost friends during the Troubles in Northern Ireland are more than a little disturbed by Mr Corbyn's whitewashing of the past. I hope the British people are not hoodwinked by such memory loss.
The fact is Jeremy Corbyn backed the IRA, doesn’t support NATO, wouldn’t renew Trident, wants to increase immigration and also wants to massively increase taxes on everyone.