Newton Dunn Joins The Man-Babies

[Update at end of post]

The result of the “Battle For Number 10” was not conclusive enough for some out there on the right, and nor was the fact that Mil The Younger gave as good as he got when passing before The Inquisition Of Pax Jeremiah. Nowhere was this more keenly felt than at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, especially when Labour did not include Rupe’s downmarket troops in their campaign launch yesterday.

Double Farley's for Mr Newton Dunn!

One might have expected the assembled hacks to be relived not to have to trudge over to The Red Team’s launch, especially given they would not take a collective blind bit of notice, as what they were going to write had already been decided, and the welter of abuse that would be handed out to Miliband and his team would not have any more than a passing mention to the substance of Labour’s campaign.

But that thought was shown to be badly misplaced, as the paper’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn threw an Olympian-Style mardy strop and ejected all his toys from his generously remunerated pram in one go. “The Sun Says today: Miliband’s blunt message to the Sun and our readers - he doesn’t like us, or you”. Wahh! Not fair!! Rotten leftie didn’t give me and my playmates invites!!!

Newton Dunn includes the day’s editorial in his Tweet, from which it has to be concluded that he had a hand in its writing. And it’s certainly down to the usual standard. “Ed Miliband reckons he’s a tough guy … ‘Newspapers can write what they like’ he tells Jeremy Paxman on TV” [note that obedient Sun readers have to take that on trust, as the paper instructed them to switch channels during his interview].

But then the strop is thrown: “What cobblers … Just 12 hours later, here’s how he reacted to The Sun’s criticism of him as a wannabe Prime Minister … By petulantly excluding Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper from the launch of Labour’s General Election campaign … How we laughed”. No, you didn’t laugh. You bawled your eyes out, stamped the floor, ranted powerlessly and then loaded up the abuse dispenser for another tirade.

The real reason for this gratuitous drivel was captured by author and playwright Peter Jukes (whose book on the hacking trial, Beyond Contempt, is on sale at all good retailers), who Tweeted “Newton Dunn, Sun political editor, told Miliband circle ‘you can have Andy but not Rebekah’ days before Milly Dowler story broke … When Miliband called for Brooks' resignation, TND said ‘you've made it personal about Rebekah, now we'll make it personal about you’”. Politics and principled journalism do not enter.

This is yet another example of the vindictive Mafia mentality and sense of entitlement that pervades the Murdoch press: you dissed their pal, and whether or not you were right doesn’t matter - they’re going to come after you for it. And for Newton Dunn to call anyone else “petulant” is, as the late John Smith might have observed, a bit rich.

Newton Dunn has spat out his dummy. Volunteers for nappy changing are proving hard to find right now. No surprise there, then.

[UPDATE 29 March 1715 hours: Tom Newton Dunn has dismissed Peter Jukes' two Tweets, shown above, as "bollocks". I am more than happy to point this out.

The stance of his paper, though, is most definitely to "make it personal" about Ed Miliband]