Solcialism and affiars
Two of the biggest stories of the week in Britain have been the Labour leadership election and the leaking of personal data from the hacking of Ashley Madison, the dating website that encourages people to have affairs.
Depending on who you believe, and what stance your paper of choice takes politically, Jeremy Corbyn will either be good for Labour or bad. If you have been living under a rock for the past few months since the disastrous UK election (I am a Labour Party member so you would expect me to have this view), and I don't blame you if you have been living under a rock since then, you will be unaware that this election is taking place. There are four candidates in the running: Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham (who stood in 2010 when Ed Milliband won), Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn.
There has been 'Corbyn mania' in the press. The right wing press seem to think that Corbyn will make the party un-electable and the left wing press think he is the greatest thing ever. Corbyn certainly seems popular with the far left and at the same time he is picking up a lot of support from the young Labour supporters. Many people like his no nonsense attitude and how open and honest he appears. At the height of the MP expenses scandal he was the lowest claiming MP. Corbyn has promised to apologise for taking the country to war in Iraq ten years ago. These are all things that people find attractive. They like his left wing stance and how he has promised to tackle the Tories and their unfair policies.
Some other Labour supporters and MPs have attacked Corbyn and his supporters (Corbyn has spoken out against personal attacks in this campaign, even if some of his own supporters have not been on board with that message) and this is not going down well either. Rather than focus on the real issues it seems the Corbyn campaign and popularity has them scared.
The strangest thing to me is that a party that was formed a little over 100 years ago as a socialist movement has moved so far away from it's original message. Corbyn is trying to bring the Party back to its roots a little and this can't be a totally bad thing. People are fed up with modern politics and modern 'career politicians'. Corbyn is the only candidate not to study PPE at university. He is not a suit wearing Oxbridge graduate. This is a man who stood up in Parliament and shouted down Margaret Thatcher! He is the only one of the candidates to vote against the Tory benefit reforms rather than abstain. He is already making his voice heard in the early days of the first Tory led Government for 18 years! This is all going to make him more attractive to the supporters who want real change in politics and who want to work against the established order. There has been too much blurring of lines when it comes to politics and people just don't want to engage. Whatever your political view, and whatever you think of Corbyn, you have to admit that people are talking about politics again and that is a good thing.
The other big story this week has been the leaking of personal information from people who signed up to online dating website Ashley Madison. This site was just asking to be hacked from the moment it was announced. Human nature is to gravitate towards scandal and this website provided it in heaps.
The premise is that people who were looking to have extra-marital affairs would join up and find other people looking to have extra-marital affairs and then meet them to have those affairs. This website feeds in to the modern consciousness that states we must have instant and constant gratification and what we currently have is never enough. I was not sure how popular this whole idea of having affairs was until a friend told me about the break down of his marriage after finding out his wife of two years was having multiple affairs (none though this site as far as I am aware though).
These two events have made me think about why people cheat. I am so happy with my partner (we are going to begin wedding planning soon) that I just can't understand the motives. I guess some people feel like they lack something in their relationship, something like attention. I guess others just fancy the thrill of it all and wonder if they will get caught. Others just seem to think they are in a position to put their partner through it and have them forgive at the end of the day.
The press have been having a field day though and have been trawling through the personal information and looking at all sorts of things such as what 'kinks' the British public who have affairs might have. The biggest coup would be the details of a 'celebrity' of course. So far, the only 'celebrity' to have been caught out is a man called Josh Duggar (no...me neither and this is highlighted by the Mirror article 'Who is Josh Duggar?'. Apparently he is a devout Christian from the USA who appeared on a reality TV show because his parents kept having kids and he was one of something like 19. He is married and has four kids of his own and yet is only 27 years old. Apparently he liked some kinky stuff so read the above link if you care and find out what that is.
If this is all we have so far in terms of 'celebrity' then we are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel but also it shows that we are in silly season and will find 'news' any where.
There have been other stories this week, the Greek PM is standing down as I am typing this, there has been a bombing in Thailand from a terrorist who is still on the run and the 'migrant crisis' is still ongoing. I can't help feeling that the press are focusing on Ashley Madison because they don't want us to know about some of these other things. There are bound to be other stories we know nothing about too because this is getting all the air time and page space. I have a new mantra from this week, 'question everything you see, everything you hear and everything you read'.
Depending on who you believe, and what stance your paper of choice takes politically, Jeremy Corbyn will either be good for Labour or bad. If you have been living under a rock for the past few months since the disastrous UK election (I am a Labour Party member so you would expect me to have this view), and I don't blame you if you have been living under a rock since then, you will be unaware that this election is taking place. There are four candidates in the running: Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham (who stood in 2010 when Ed Milliband won), Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn.
There has been 'Corbyn mania' in the press. The right wing press seem to think that Corbyn will make the party un-electable and the left wing press think he is the greatest thing ever. Corbyn certainly seems popular with the far left and at the same time he is picking up a lot of support from the young Labour supporters. Many people like his no nonsense attitude and how open and honest he appears. At the height of the MP expenses scandal he was the lowest claiming MP. Corbyn has promised to apologise for taking the country to war in Iraq ten years ago. These are all things that people find attractive. They like his left wing stance and how he has promised to tackle the Tories and their unfair policies.
Some other Labour supporters and MPs have attacked Corbyn and his supporters (Corbyn has spoken out against personal attacks in this campaign, even if some of his own supporters have not been on board with that message) and this is not going down well either. Rather than focus on the real issues it seems the Corbyn campaign and popularity has them scared.
The strangest thing to me is that a party that was formed a little over 100 years ago as a socialist movement has moved so far away from it's original message. Corbyn is trying to bring the Party back to its roots a little and this can't be a totally bad thing. People are fed up with modern politics and modern 'career politicians'. Corbyn is the only candidate not to study PPE at university. He is not a suit wearing Oxbridge graduate. This is a man who stood up in Parliament and shouted down Margaret Thatcher! He is the only one of the candidates to vote against the Tory benefit reforms rather than abstain. He is already making his voice heard in the early days of the first Tory led Government for 18 years! This is all going to make him more attractive to the supporters who want real change in politics and who want to work against the established order. There has been too much blurring of lines when it comes to politics and people just don't want to engage. Whatever your political view, and whatever you think of Corbyn, you have to admit that people are talking about politics again and that is a good thing.
The other big story this week has been the leaking of personal information from people who signed up to online dating website Ashley Madison. This site was just asking to be hacked from the moment it was announced. Human nature is to gravitate towards scandal and this website provided it in heaps.
The premise is that people who were looking to have extra-marital affairs would join up and find other people looking to have extra-marital affairs and then meet them to have those affairs. This website feeds in to the modern consciousness that states we must have instant and constant gratification and what we currently have is never enough. I was not sure how popular this whole idea of having affairs was until a friend told me about the break down of his marriage after finding out his wife of two years was having multiple affairs (none though this site as far as I am aware though).
These two events have made me think about why people cheat. I am so happy with my partner (we are going to begin wedding planning soon) that I just can't understand the motives. I guess some people feel like they lack something in their relationship, something like attention. I guess others just fancy the thrill of it all and wonder if they will get caught. Others just seem to think they are in a position to put their partner through it and have them forgive at the end of the day.
The press have been having a field day though and have been trawling through the personal information and looking at all sorts of things such as what 'kinks' the British public who have affairs might have. The biggest coup would be the details of a 'celebrity' of course. So far, the only 'celebrity' to have been caught out is a man called Josh Duggar (no...me neither and this is highlighted by the Mirror article 'Who is Josh Duggar?'. Apparently he is a devout Christian from the USA who appeared on a reality TV show because his parents kept having kids and he was one of something like 19. He is married and has four kids of his own and yet is only 27 years old. Apparently he liked some kinky stuff so read the above link if you care and find out what that is.
If this is all we have so far in terms of 'celebrity' then we are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel but also it shows that we are in silly season and will find 'news' any where.
There have been other stories this week, the Greek PM is standing down as I am typing this, there has been a bombing in Thailand from a terrorist who is still on the run and the 'migrant crisis' is still ongoing. I can't help feeling that the press are focusing on Ashley Madison because they don't want us to know about some of these other things. There are bound to be other stories we know nothing about too because this is getting all the air time and page space. I have a new mantra from this week, 'question everything you see, everything you hear and everything you read'.
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