Clinging On, Any Memes Necessary

On the morning of the 4^th, I woke up to see that Labour had failed to take London councils such as Westminster and Wandsworth and had managed to lose Barnet along the way. By the time I got home from work only 12 hours later, I was shocked (but unsurprised) to see my Twitter feed telling me that last night was Labour’s best local elections performance since 1971.

Spoiler: it wasn’t.

The ‘original fact’, albeit not completely factual itself, was that it was Labour’s best performance in London in local elections since 1971. Then again, the rest of the country hardly seems to matter to the Labour party anymore. Of course, the BBC, ITV, Sky News, and all other reputable news corporations ran with the truth that, really, not much happened last night. ‘Neck and neck’ the BBC called it. That outraged the Corbyn clique.

Later that night I found myself seeing memes showing the final seat tallies; Labour with 2350 and Conservatives 1332, positioned next to the report from the BBC saying, ‘neck and neck’. It seems, unsurprisingly, not everyone knows how the locals work. The popular vote was actually neck and neck, 35% apiece for the main two parties with the Liberal Democrats surging up to 16 percent.

A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes. On Twitter, it travels quicker. Sure, we can point out to these people their mistakes. Maybe they’ll listen. Maybe they’ll simply call us ‘right wing’ or ‘Blairites’. But the damage is already done. Before you know it, Rachel Swindon has retweeted the lie and it has over 20,000 retweets and a million impressions.

This fake news culture runs far deeper and is now commonplace in Labour. And nothing sells lies better than a good meme. Back in 2015, it was used to inform us when moderates were abstaining on bills, even though it was for a completely different reading. It tells us how Tory MPs vote in commons in comparison to ‘the absolute boy’ who has of course apparently been on the right side of the history since the 1800s or whenever. It shows us ‘historic’ election swings, despite the fact we didn’t win the election, something Blair managed to do a whole 3 times.

It’s well documented that clearly, polls don’t mean anything unless of course, they show something you like. For Corbyn backers, it’s no different. No one knows that more than Britain Elects, a website and Twitter account that published the latest polls, results, and political headlines. Back in October last year, two polls were published in the space of two days. One showed the Tories with a 2% swing on Labour, and the other showed Labour moving 6% ahead. One received roughly 700 combined retweets and likes, the other a combined 4800. I’ll let you guess which poll received which. When the left see a poll they don’t like, this Peter Hitchens meme makes continuous appearances.

I’ll leave this meme from Nate Silver.

Nate Silver (Twitter)

This behaviour is not just found in the hard left, but also the far right. Whether it be Trump supporters sharing fake Hillary pictures, or Brexiteers distributing bogus claims about immigration or the EU, it’s a big problem. We all know that most of us tend to flock to those with our own views online, but the existence of echo chambers on social media is rife, and the problem is that those involved end up believing their lies, and the behaviour almost becomes cultish.

Demos investigated echo chambers on Twitter, and the results were stark. More than three-quarters of retweets from SNP supporters and 73% of those from UKIP supporters were of someone from their own party, and for Labour and Tory supporters, it was still well over half. An additional issue is that because of this, media outlets are using these polarised views to attract clicks, likes, and shares. As the report author Alex Krasodomski-Jones highlights “the news is now more than just news, it’s ideologically driven”.

Ironically, when Corbyn and Labour were at their strongest after last year’s election, this behaviour did seem to die down. After the recent local elections, it shot back up. Essentially, in times of weakness, the cult need to keep telling themselves that their leader is simply fantastic. If Corbyn receives any criticism, whether it be just or unjust, they pounce. So why do they feel the need to cling on?

The locals showed us that Labour is not where it needs to be. Opposition parties who are on their way to forming a government win mid-term elections. Corbyn didn’t. Sure, we saw last year just how quickly things can change, but a repeat would be unlikely. This Conservative government is a shambles, and a competent opposition should be miles in front.

Don’t point this out to a Corbynite, but Labour’s biggest victory came in 1995, and all the party’s biggest wins were in the 1992-97 parliament.