Sun Milifandom Dishonesty

While (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch ponders whether to carry out her threat and publish her blog post kicking 17 year old Abby, who has popularised the #milifandom hashtag, the rest of Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun have been either keeping their heads down about Abby’s singularly sinister doorstepping, or manufacturing excuses for what happened.

That's what I think of youse bladdy family privacy, ya bladdy Labour supporting Pommie drongoes!

And it’s clear that the latter campaign has developed not necessarily to the Sun’s advantage, as the Murdoch press has been caught being rather economical with the actualité. Zelo Street regulars will recall that the hacks turned up uninvited not just on Abby’s parents’ doorstep, but also on that of her Grandma. She was, not surprisingly, scared at how they managed to find the address.

So up to the plate stepped one of Murdoch’s useful idiots, a Sun news reporter based in Manchester called Jake Ryan, to redefine reality to conform with management wishes: “she had a chat with your parents and it was very friendly. You said nothing. Nothing in paper. Suggest you take this down”, to which Abby replied “never said she wasn't friendly. Just scared at how you got my address. Never told anyone”.

Friendly? The family would have been terrified, which was probably the intention. Ryan then explained how the Sun had found them: “electoral roll - it's a public record which can be found by your name. No great mystery”. Abby was not convinced: “I'm not on an electoral roll. I can't vote”. And there was still no explanation of why her Grandma had also been doorstepped. Perhaps it wasn’t down to the electoral roll?

It wasn’t, as Abby has discovered today: “We have just checked for definite - and I am NOT on the electoral register as claimed by Sun reporters … I'm not - my dad rang up local authorities. I'm just not on it”. So, Murdoch doggies, just how did you get her address? And how exactly are you going to spin this one so that sham “press regulator” IPSO will obediently wipe your collective backsides?

Because there will, with the inevitability of night following day, be a complaint, especially as Abby now has legal representation: “For the avoidance of doubt and Tory speculation I am working for @twcuddleston Pro Bono #milifandom” Tweeted John Cooper QC. Peter Jukes also pointed out “The Abby #millifandom outing matters because of the notorious @thetimes outing of Nightjack, which silenced a great blog”.

That was another Murdoch title which may have resorted to The Dark Arts in order to pursue its targets. Fortunately, Abby has someone in her corner: “Ed took several minutes out of his day to make my whole week/year/life , what a legend!” she Tweeted. The gulf in the treatment meted out by the Murdoch bullies, and that from the Labour leader, could not be shown more plainly. This is the kind of thing that Murdoch’s hacks just don’t get.

And they can’t even tell their fibs reliably. What a complete and absolute shower.