According to YouGov the majority of people on both sides of the Atlantic back Jeremy Corbyn’s policies. However, what the mainstream corporate media has sought to do is lie and distort the image of Mr Corbyn himself to manipulate the country in to believing he is incapable of leadership. By repeating lies about Mr Corbyn and not focusing upon similar issues occurring in other parties they have created a false impression and futher enhanced the democratic deficit.
Instead of giving all politicians a fair chance they see Mr Corbyn as a threat to their hegemony and spend millions of pounds and words ensuring that he does not become PM. The Conservative government/party is of course in hoc with much of this media and the bots they have created on social media to keep many of the public out of touch with reality.
However imagine if there were no lies just evidence based reality. According to YouGov if the elections were based on just policy the country (and the continent and the US) would probably be much nicer places to live.
‘Even in the US most of nine Labour policies we put to people received majority backing
The British General Election of 2017, an academic account of last year’s vote, recalls how Jeremy Corbyn’s team questioned just how radical Labour’s manifesto was, given that many of the policies were already mainstream in several European countries.
But the question shouldn’t unduly worry Labour advisers; a new international YouGov survey shows that Corbynite policies are popular not only on the continent, but also in the UK.
How popular is Labour policy?
YouGov selected a sample of nine Labour policies* that were either in the 2017 manifesto or otherwise well-publicised proposals.
In none of the European countries surveyed are any of Corbyn’s policies opposed by more people than supported. In fact, most of the time they’re supported by the majority.
Labour’s pledge to make university tuition free for all students garners majority support in every country listed, as does their proposal to generate 60% of electricity and heat from low carbon or renewable sources by 2030.
In the UK this energy pledge is the most popular of all, being supported by 79% of people, followed by capping rents (74%) and raising taxes for the richest 5% of earners (68%).
The lowest levels of support in Europe for a Corbyn policy come in Britain and France, where people are equally split on whether they support or oppose banning nuclear weapons from their respective countries.
We also had the opportunity to ask the same questions in the United States: here too, there is strong support for most Corbyn policies, although Americans tend to oppose nuclear disarmament and nationalising industry.
* You will notice that no health policy is present on this list. This is because most major Labour health policies are specific to the UK’s primarily state-run healthcare system. Such proposals would not be relevant to people in France, Germany and the US, where the healthcare systems operate under different principles.
This only leaves Labour’s pledge to spend more money on healthcare, and you don’t need an opinion poll to tell you that proposing to spend more money on healthcare would be very popular in all countries.’
Douglas James
