Miliband Smears Set To Get Worse

As I pointed out on Friday, the Murdoch Times had already decided on its “Knives out for Miliband” story before a single result from the local elections had been declared. Whatever the outcome, it had already been decided to play the man and not the ball – as usual with Mil The Younger – and liberally spray around anonymous accusations of “he looks weird”.

Remember, obedient voters, this is "weird" ...

Moving swiftly along from the thought that much of this attack has come from those who do not, for whatever reason, think that Michael “Oiky” Gove, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, and The Rt Hon Gideon George Oliver Osborne, heir to the Seventeenth Baronet, are “weird” (and I’ve encountered Osborne, an experience not to be wished on anyone), one has to ask what is going on here.

And the answer is twofold: one, the Tories – and this is the party that much of the Fourth Estate would like to see in power next year, if it’s all the same to us plebs – are frightened shitless that they haven’t got a credible route to majority Government in the foreseeable future, and two, it turned out that Labour didn’t do at all badly last Thursday – especially in London.

... but this isn't "weird" at all ...

London does not just matter because it is the capital, and because of its size: it is where media organisations – despite the BBC moving some production to Salford Quays – congregate. This influences their product. That, in turn, influences voters. Labour turned over Tory administrations in Hammersmith and Fulham, Merton, and Croydon. This has scared the right-wing media class.

So they want us to “look over there” at Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his fellow Kippers, who are not weird, honestly. They whine that Miliband is “weird” and that he does not consume his food in accordance with their wishes, so worried are they at their preferred party not being able to gain majority power. And they therefore miss the real story of party mutiny – which is happening within the Lib Dems.

... because the bully who edits this paper says so

After all, Corporal Clegg’s motley platoon was where the real damage took place last week. So some in his party are getting very jittery. Several of their MEPs may also find later today that they have taken the hit for the drop in support following the Lib Dems being in Government. The Independent has now picked up on this, because, unlike the Labour “shadow cabinet revolt” that isn’t, it is real.

Even the Mail has now covered the Lib Dem ruckus, which could get worse after tonight’s results. But the smears directed at Miliband will continue: anything to distract the voters from being able to look at Labour’s policies and judge the party on that basis. Michael Ashcroft’s latest poll, showing Labour ahead in many marginal seats, will just entrench the panic and intensify the abuse.

The right is desperate. And so are its measures. No surprise there, then.