.Corbyn himself said he found an empty single seat, but he wanted two adjacent.
.Virgin staff offered Corbyn first class seats – which he declined.
.The Virgin conductor later found Team Corbyn seats.
.During the time between other seats being found (by upgrading other passengers) they filmed the now infamous agit-prop video.
If Team Corbyn wasn’t so chaotic they would have organised booking seats in the first place. If they weren’t so prissy they would have taken the upgrade offered. Instead they made a less than honest campaign video out of the affair. They got a well deserved mauling and it still stings.
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24th Aug 2017 4:23 pm
DG Site Moderator
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But that is incidental ...the fact is Virgin widely publicised a still photo claiming they were passing empty seats when indeed the footage shows they were not.
24th Aug 2017 6:31 pm
LT
Member Since: 31 Dec 2005
Location: South West
Posts: 23367
Taken from the New Statesman link in my post above:
Here is the main "revelation": the widely used still image of Corbyn walking through an empty train carriage with free, unreserved seats, that was printed in various newspapers, was misleading. That still was used by some commentators to suggest that there were many available seats, and the Double Down video includes a segment from Nick Ferrari's LBC show in which he points to "10, maybe 12" empty seats without reservations. The Telegraph story at the time refers to "several" empty seats and the Sun described "dozens of rows of empty seats"
But there's a problem. This is not, in fact, all never-seen-before footage wrenched unwillingly from Virgin Trains. In fact, the key clip (along with other CCTV footage) was made available to news organisations at the time by Virgin. It was broadcast on TV and it was, and is, viewable on websites such as the BBC.
The Double Down footage does not mention this. It also refers to "other images leaked to the press" by Richard Branson. These were in fact put in a press release on Virgin's website – hardly leaking.
Some of the footage in the Double Down News video does appear to be new, and provides extra weight to Corbyn's claim the train was incredibly busy, something neither side has denied. For the most part the video tells a convincing and detailed account of the whole affair.
However, one thing the video doesn't reveal, and which isn't publicised on Double Down's YouTube channel or its Facebook page, is who is behind Double Down. Companies House documents reveal that one of Double Down's directors is Yannis Mendez, the video maker who was being paid by Corbyn's team to film footage on the train, and who pitched the Guardian the article. Mendez insisted that his friend, Anthony Casey, be given a joint byline under a pseudonym. (He was billed as "Charles B Anthony".) This is what the Guardian's readers' editor found most objectionable about the story: a paid partisan activist operating as a journalist, without his affiliation being made clear to readers.2006 D3 HSE (Original & still the best)-GONE
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24th Aug 2017 7:32 pm
DG Site Moderator
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Isn't it therefore amazing how the reporting failed to notice the people sat in the seats so many claimed to be empty.
24th Aug 2017 10:22 pm
highlands
Member Since: 11 Jan 2010
Location: NW Highlands
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There were empty seats though. The video only questions the extent of it.
Luckily 'ram-packed' is ambiguous...not being an actual word. Black 05 TDV6 HSE Auto
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24th Aug 2017 11:10 pm
DG Site Moderator
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Quote:
ambiguous...not being an actual word
Ah yes a bit like "Brexit"
24th Aug 2017 11:14 pm
armalites
Member Since: 17 Aug 2013
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 1918
TBH I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Surely we all know that some trains are rammed, just like some roads. I know we would all like to live in a world where there was no traffic, you would have spare seats on a plane,every single person who gets on a train had a seat even if that meant for the other 90% of the journey it was empty, no queues at the supermarket or fuel pumps etc. It's not realistic because we don't want to pay for those privileges.
I didn't really pay much attention to the story but if lies were told than that's clearly wrong but get over it Jeremy nobody likes a martyr.IID PRO
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25th Aug 2017 12:51 am
Pelyma
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
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Nothing like fighting for the rights of the people you want to tax to death, good old Jeremy DS3 TDV6 HSE - Silver with Alpaca (old one) Gone
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25th Aug 2017 6:40 am
Dave T
Member Since: 03 Jul 2009
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I suppose if there were no seats then perhaps they shouldn't have let him on?? I suppose it is a bit much to ask, a bit of planning and forethought and booking seats, and the idiot wants to be PM
Reserved seats surely are only on the segment you have a ticket for, last time I got on a train (admittedly a few years ago), it states on the reserved ticket where from and to, outside of that segment then they are fair game.Joined the BMWX5 45e group
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25th Aug 2017 6:49 am
DG Site Moderator
Member Since: 12 Dec 2005
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armalites wrote:
TBH I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Surely we all know that some trains are rammed, just like some roads. I know we would all like to live in a world where there was no traffic, you would have spare seats on a plane,every single person who gets on a train had a seat even if that meant for the other 90% of the journey it was empty, no queues at the supermarket or fuel pumps etc. It's not realistic because we don't want to pay for those privileges.
I didn't really pay much attention to the story but if lies were told than that's clearly wrong but get over it Jeremy nobody likes a martyr.
He's not the one complaining on this occasion.
Anyway how many people do you see sat on the floor on planes?
The issue here is that many virgin trains are not like a local line where they are stopping every 10 minutes people getting on and off...they run for extended periods between stops i.e. London> Liverpool is 1 hour 20 mins before the first stop and I can tell you hardly anyone gets on or off ...they still overbook so all the seats are gone an people have to stand or sit on the floor. If standing or sitting on the floor is acceptable to you or your elderly relative after paying over £150 then fine.
25th Aug 2017 8:52 am
LT
Member Since: 31 Dec 2005
Location: South West
Posts: 23367
For me and I suspect a few others, the issue is not about how useless Virgin Trains are or the fact that the press show political bias.
The issue is that the leader of the opposition chose not to take an empty seat as he wanted three adjacent seats. He also refused to take the seats offered to him and his aides in a first class carriage. Instead he chose to sit crumpled on the floor and be photographed to add weight to his policy to nationalise the railways.
The fact that his aides didn't have the foresight to book seats in advance, just makes this even more of a farce.2006 D3 HSE (Original & still the best)-GONE
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