Is UKIP's Paul Nuttall Britain's ultimate "post truth" politician?

[Denzil_DC]

18. Well, Labour currently has plenty of members, thanks to Corbyn.

More than it knows what to do with, apparently. But it seems they're the wrong sort of members as far as some are concerned!

I don't know about making membership free. The party apparatus needs funding, and if it doesn't get it from the grassroots, you can imagine where it'll have to be found. We have an ongoing barely spoken-about scandal at the moment of the likes of deputy leader Tom Watson's funding from shady sources - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/22/tom-watson-given-500k-in-donations-by-max-mosley-in-past-year - and he's not alone. We don't want to go even further down the American route. The Tory cabinet is rife with dirty money that could sink our NHS, among other things.

I usually only briefly read comments sections on articles like the ones linked above for the lulz, but I was quite taken with this one (it's a reader comment so I don't think the four-paragraph rule applies, but if I'm wrong, hosts/mods, I'll edit it down):

LeftOrRightSameShite {in reply to} georges1

...

People do like the policies of Corbyn/Labour but, only when they don't know they are attached to Corbyn/Labour.

"Nearly half (45%) of people surveyed by YouGov said they want the government to increase public spending and raise taxes for the wealthiest people - both of which are policies called for by Labour.

Only 13% supported the current levels of cuts taking place under the Conservative Government, and 22% thought the cuts should continue but be scaled back.

Yet, when asked directly which party they think has the best policies on spending and taxation, 30% said the Tories while 16% said Labour."

From earlier YouGov polling, they found strong support for renationalisation of the railways (around 60+%, even 42% of Tories support it). Strong support for 75% tax on income over 1m (56%). Strong support for a convention banning nuclear weapons (64%). Strong support for rent controls (56%). Mandatory living wage (59%). Scrap tuition fees (49% support, 31% oppose). The majority also support Corbyn's view on intervention in the ME (Iraq and Syria in particular).
Huff Po 2016

Indy 2015
Unfortunately, the media, particularly early on when he was first elected, went on a full on assault of Corbyn. Again, backed up by study/content analysis.

The LSE content analysis showed consistent bias against, misrepresentation of, undermining and character assassination of character of Jeremy Corbyn going far beyond what would be considered a "watch dog" role of the media. Not unprecedented but not seen since the 70's.

The Media Reform Coalitions study showed 75% of stories about Corbyn antagonistic, undermining etc, to a degree not seen for decades.

Fuelled by this media frenzy, members of the PLP itself sought to join the undermining - the Progress/Blair wing for the most part.

This has clearly severely damaged the party and public perception of it. Of course, it's the media that (mis) informs people. They aren't going to hold their hands up and go "sorry, went a bit far. We got it wrong". Their narrative is set now and, public opinion with it.

Corbyn isn't blameless but the fact is, he never had, and was never going to be given, a chance.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/24/stoke-copeland-labour-remain-richmond-copeland-ukip#comment-93773876