‘An internal Labour Party report on internal attitudes to Corbyn’s leadership and the “antisemitism” crisis on the left has just been “leaked”. It’s not that easy to come by, so we’re hosting a copy here.
When the press reports on a “leak”, the word is carefully chosen.
“This is secret”, they’re telling us. “You’re not supposed to know this”. They go out of their way to make it seem that Joe Public is getting a taboo peek behind the curtain.
Most of the time that’s not the case. In fact, most government “leaks” fall broadly into the category of “fallback narrative”. “Secrets” that really serve to reinforce the loudly broadcast mainstream story.
Look at the Afghanistan Papers, a perfect example. Widely touted as some kind of “big reveal”, and in reality nothing but a combination of flattering half-truths and outright lies that reinforce the idea the US went into Afghanistan for purely humanitarian reasons.
Similar examples are bubbling away beneath the Covid19 narrative, where anonymous NHS “leakers” reveal that doctors are mislabelling Covid deaths to keep the numbers artificially low. This is, again, the complete opposite of the truth. NHS guidance on death certifications means the official Covid19 death figures are likely to be “substantial overestimates”.
Internal reports – whether “leaked unofficially”, or formally published – tend to be similar. Hundreds of pages, confirming a simple truth everyone already knows, to promote the idea of accountability and transparency. Reams of bloat burying the lead.’
Read more: On Labour, and the nature of “reports” & “leaks”
