Nicknames and labelling: Corbyn as Stalin

Boris Johnston has compared Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin in The Daily Telegraph. Nicknames seek to exaggerate and label an individual’s character. They stick if they resonate with the intended audience. Stalin doesn’t.

Do you remember he nicknames you used to be called in the playground at primary school? I used to be called out for my weight and lack of sporting ability.

Nicknames have been used in the General Election campaign this week when the Prime Minster Boris Johnston compared Labour leader Jeremy to a Stalin. It’s an example of playground name calling.

Johnston was quoted on the front page of his former employer, The Daily Telegraph. The paper regularly promotes blatant propaganda on behalf of the Conservative party.

Nicknames seek to exaggerate and label an individual’s character. In political campaigns they are almost always used in a negative way. They stick if they resonate with the intended audience.

Margaret Thatcher‘s nickname was the Iron Lady because of her uncompromising style.

The Iron Lady label was intended as an insult by a Russian newspaper journalist. Instead Thatcher revelled in the image and it helped her become the UK’s first woman Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 because it clarified her image as tough and uncompromising.

John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, became known as Two Jags because of his personal and ministerial Jaguar cars seemingly at odds with his socialist background.

Johnston’s comparison of Corbyn with Stalin is a bid to overstate his socialist views, but it’s almost certainly fallen wide of the mark.

“Stalin deported two million Kulaks to Siberia. He had hundreds of thousands of them shot. He did nothing when five million peasants starved to death,” said Andrew Neil on The Andrew Neil Show.

“The comparison between that and Mr Corbyn wanting to raise taxes on the rich is absurd?"

Stalin is a nickname that’s unlikely to stick to Corbyn during the election campaign.

I’m going to try and keep a diary on my blog of how the different political campaigns engage with social and mainstream media during the 2019 election. If you spot a story that you think merits investigation please let me know.