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Sunday 22 February 2015

Miliband Attack Out Of Ideas

The attacks from the Tories, and their press allies, on Mil The Younger continue - but the originality is waning as the desperation increases. Nowhere can this be seen to better effect than in both the official Tory campaigning, and the efforts of those in the Northcliffe House bunker, both of whom are casting around for ideas. It’s looking as if it’s not only going to get dirty, but that it’s going to get boring as well.
Why is this man frightening so many press bosses?

Young Dave has enlisted the services of Lynton Crosby, on the strength of his being able to get his fellow Buller Man Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson into City Hall, and his work with the centre-right in Australian politics. After all, if he could get John Howard, who gives the impression of being a refugee from a Dilbert cartoon, elected, well, returning Cameron to 10 Downing Street should be a cake walk.

However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the Crosby modus operandi has been rudely rumbled as it seems there has been some recycling of attack content from Down Under to produce the Tories’ latest Miliband bashing efforts. After adding two and two and correctly deducing that the answer to this is four, Labour’s Lucy Powell and her team are studying Lynt’s older Aussie stuff to see what may come next.

Things are little better over at the Mail, where Glen Owen has penned “Deafening silence of the Labour luvvies: Stars who came out for Brown at the last Election have yet to back Red Ed”, which tells “Ed Miliband appears to be struggling to win the endorsement of celebrities … J.K. Rowling and singer Lily Allen silent on whether they will be backing Ed ... The former Doctor Who actor David Tennant has not yet offered his opinion”.

The approach here was to contact a number of former Labour supporters, then when the Mail was refused a comment, infer that this meant Miliband was in trouble. This fails to take into account the distinct possibility that spokespersons for Jo Rowling and Lily Allen (for instance) would refuse comment not because of any lack of commitment, but because they saw the Mail coming and won’t play its game.

Just how desperate this idea really is was exposed when the article revealed that no comment had been received from Alex Ferguson, with the suggestion that this showed he was not supporting Miliband. As any fule kno, the former Manchester United manager is an unswerving Labour supporter. Saying “Despite persistent approaches from this newspaper, previously pro-Labour stars were conspicuously silent” hides the real reason for silence.

All those contacted will by now be familiar with the treatment given to Labour donor John Mills three weeks ago, where his comments to a reporter were selectively twisted to support the false story alleging that there were “Knives Out” for Miliband. Mills did not think that putting the phone down, even on the Mail, was the right thing to do, despite the shabby treatment he received. But today’s piece suggests supporters are getting close.

The result is desperate knocking copy. If Miliband is so bad, why so scared of him?

1 comment:

Shawlrat said...

The right wing media are clutching at straws now and it is increasingly tedious.
However, I did like the comment from the Twitter wag who suggested that Ed had killed Lucy in Eastenders. I think there's mileage in that one.