Tuesday 15 September 2015

Corbyn and Cauliflower Man

On the night that Jeremy Corbyn won,

over on the World TV News Channel,

following a harrowing look at the destruction in Syria

they showed a journalist asking Jeremy Corbyn

where he got his jumper from.

All over the world, within a few seconds,

we viewers could flip from

thinking of whole cities in Syria

lying devastated to:

Jeremy’s jumper,

and I wondered if any journalist has ever put a

microphone under David Cameron’s nose

and said

‘So, Mr Cameron, do you think you can

renegotiate the terms for Britain’s membership

of the EU and where did you get your shirt?’




Following the jumper revelations,

in a matter of seconds,

this world news package wanted to give us

an insight into how people have reacted to

Jeremy Corbyn’s victory

and once again they went to see the

all-in-one, standby, representative British voter:

the bloke in the market selling cauliflowers.




Why is it always him?




Spare him a moment’s sympathy:

Around every election time

thousands of journalists scour the country

trying to put their finger on the pulse

trying to gauge which way the wind is blowing

and they all end up at his market stall.

He’s just trying to sell cauliflowers.

That’s his job.

He goes to a wholesale depot at 4 in the

morning and buys

the cauliflowers that are just on the turn

and puts them on his stall.

He’s tired, he’s cold,

can’t you journalists leave him alone?

he’s just trying to get rid of 50 cauliflowers

and you’re asking him

what he thinks of Jeremy Corbyn?




Who knows -

possibly the only thing he remembers

about Jeremy Corbyn -

thanks to you guys -

is where Jeremy Corbyn

got his jumper.