Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has made the headlines again with his recent controversy as he questions why Britain commemorates the First World War, criticising the large sum of money which the Coalition were planning to spend to mark the 100th anniversary of the war.

“I'm not quite sure what there is to commemorate about the First World War, other than the mass slaughter of millions of young men and women – mainly men – on the Western Front and all the other places. It was a war of the declining empires.”

The story was reported by The Telegraph, a paper that has been traditionally right-leaning and a supporter of the Conservative political party, and used a lexis that contains a variety of negative connotations. For example, the word "criticise" is used repeatedly within the story. Since this is a negative action, it attaches negative connotations to Corbyn.

Strong, emotive language is also used later in the article: "The comments were criticised by Tories who said it would be a betrayal for the memories of the fallen not to commemorate the war". The use of the terminology "memories of the fallen" evokes emotions similar to patriotism, which is designed to connect with the reader. Because of this, the reader will relate to the situation and so any "betrayal" of their patriotism would reflect badly on Corbyn, and therefore positively on the Conservative Party who will be perceived as noble and patriotic.



The thumbnail used further plays on the theme of patriotism and Corbyn acting as a threat. The thumbnail contains an image of soldiers struggling in the trenches, playing on the emotions of the readers. Layered above this image is a picture of Corbyn. It is important to note the red background behind Corbyn which, although it's likely to represent the Labour party of which Corbyn represents, the colour also holds threatening connotations such as danger and hatred. Paired with the pyschology of the image of Corbyn being in front of the image of the soldiers and the unflattering pose of Corbyn supports the associations of evil to Corbyn.