Telegraph Incites Reader Fraud

That the Telegraph long ago ceased to be a paper of record - like the Murdoch Times, its news coverage has lost all credibility as political partisanship takes hold - is not nowadays contested, even by those who are prepared to pay good money to read it. But there was always a difference between being partisan, and peddling party propaganda. Not any more: the Tel has now well and truly sold the pass.

Yesterday, in a piece which has been categorised as “Politics News” - so not “Comment” - readers were told “How you can help Jeremy Corbyn win - and destroy the Labour Party … Sign up today to make sure the bearded socialist voter-repellent becomes the next Labour leader - and dooms the party forever”. Er, hello? Is this some kind of looking-glass version of Pravda or Isvestia, or what?

Interestingly, and confirming that this was done to order but that nobody was prepared to put their name on the by-line, the article, which gives readers details of how they can sign up as Labour supporters and thereby vote for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election, is credited only to “Telegraph Comment Desk”. Not only that, the idea of Tory supporters signing up to vote for Jezza is not an original one.

Indeed, that was the wizard wheeze of the loathsome Toby Young, who tried to join up as a Labour supporter last month, which, as I pointed out at the time, was a fraudulent act on two counts. One, he did not support the aims of the Labour Party, and two, he supported an organisation opposed to Labour. The declaration he made in applying to be a supporter was therefore invalid, and his application failed.

So why is the Tel running this ultimately lame slice of political cheerleading? Ah well. The Staggers suggested yesterday that Corbyn could win the first ballot of Labour members and supporters, although what the article did not tell was that, after all the second preferences have been distributed, that would not necessarily be the result of the leadership contest. Andy Burnham is still the favourite.

But that has not stopped someone at the UK’s last surviving national weekday broadsheet newspaper - yes, a supposedly “quality” title - from telling readers “A lot of people, both in the Labour Party and outside it, think that would be dreadful for Labour, the sort of political disaster the party last suffered in 1983 when Michael Foot's Left-wing views saw the party lose by a landslide to Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives”. And there’s more.

“Not everyone thinks it would be a bad thing if that was to be repeated at the next general election in 2020. Indeed, some people joke about voting for Mr Corbyn, hoping to saddle Labour with a bearded voter-repellent as a leader … Thanks to Labour's new leadership rules, it doesn't have to be a joke. Anyone can vote in the Labour leadership election”. Then the article tells readers how they, like Toby Young, can commit fraud.

Think about that. A reputable newspaper is prepared to indulge in this infantile political game, and pass it off as news. Our free and fearless press has gone beyond parody, and the desperation of the Telegraph - which is pissing away readership, subscriptions, advertising revenue, and, yes, credibility, is laid bare for all to see. Sad. Just sad.