Toby Young – Stick To Education

Over at the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs, the loathsome Toby Young has seen a tweet from his pal Tim Montgomerie, now pretending to be a real journalist at the Murdoch Times, who wishes to curtail the freedom of expression of the Anglican clergy: “Who advised the churchleaders [sic] to write to the Mirror? Only the Morning Star’s platform would have given their message a more political spin”.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

One might have expected freedom loving Tobes to find adversely upon Monty’s suggestion, but no: instead, he has temporarily forgotten the teachings of Christ and concluded “The Church of England has become an outpost of the Labour Party”. Ah, but if only there was anything to connect the two organisations, especially as Mil The Younger leads what appears to be a firmly secular party.

That does not deter Tobes: “Let's begin with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Just because Justin Welby is an Old Etonian friend of the Prime Minister's, do not assume he supports his policies. On the contrary, he's repeatedly made his sympathies for Ed Miliband clear. Last October, he joined the Labour leader in attacking the Big Six energy companies”. He did?

Er, no he didn’t: Justin Welby was writing in the Mail On Sunday, hardly a Labour house journal. Try again: “let's not forget that in his first significant political intervention since taking office Welby attacked Iain Duncan Smith for capping increases in welfare payments at 1 per cent a year”. Terrible, eh? So Welby should have his freedom to be quoted in the deeply subversive Guardian curtailed, too.

In any case, passing severely adverse comment on Iain Duncan Cough’s cack-handed reforms – rumoured once again to be in deep doo-doo, with Duncan Cough not impressing anyone in the vicinity with his intellectual superiority, or lack of it – is hardly limited to those who have signed up to The Red Team. Correctly identifying a crock of crap is not a sign of political partiality.

Any better evidence, Tobes? Well, there’s the old smear by association: “It won't surprise anyone to learn that Tim Livesey, Rowan Williams's Head of Current Affairs, is now Ed Miliband's Chief of Staff or that the Rev Arun Arora, the Church of England's Director of Communications, is a Labour Party supporter”. Rowan Williams is no longer at Canterbury. And Rev Arora can join whatever party he likes.

Besides, how does this line sit with the accusations that the BBC is a nest of rotten lefties, only for the Tories – that’s Tobes’ own party – getting so many of its staff from them? Guto Harri, Craig Oliver – remember them? One has to wonder if Tobes ever bothers to engage brain before penning such dross: he ought to stick to education, where he still talks crap, but does at least know something about his subject.

But it generates clicks in the post-Delingpole Tel blogs world, so that’s all right, then.