Don’t Menshn Paul Mason

The stock market falls, which started out in China, have affected most other parts of the global economy to a greater or lesser extent. The associated prospect - that if the Chinese economy slows down significantly, others will follow - has been much discussed by pundits across print and broadcast media, including Channel 4 News economics editor Paul Mason, who was not impressed with the régime in Beijing.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

“Markets slump as world realises main growth engine in hands of incompetent, secretive police state that thinks it can dictate equity prices” he Tweeted, giving the kind of assessment of the Chinese Government that most mainstream pundits and politicians would readily agree with. But somewhere out there, one (thankfully) former Tory MP was ready to get the wrong end of the stick on this one - twice over.

Yes, faithful Murdoch “columnist” Louise Mensch was ready to use Mason’s Tweet to assault, er, the BBC. “Congratulations bbc officially jumps the shark” she observed, seemingly unaware that Mason (a) no longer works at the Corporation, and (b) he was talking about China, not the UK or the USA. And there was more.

“My God it really hurt the BBC when Labour lost the election. Need an intervention” she trilled, which would be moderately interesting if it made any sense. Mason was still not at the BBC, and indeed has not worked there for two years now. Were we seeing another bout of “guilt by association”, perhaps even by past association?

It seems we were. Ms Mensch justified her BBC bashing by explaining “He was the economics editor at Newsnight saw him there often”. Had she done so, she might have discovered that Mason was in fact Newsnight’s Business Editor, not Economics Editor. And she still appeared unaware that he was talking about China.

Instead, she shifted her attack from the Corporation to a personal kick at Mason: “Why the hell has he been given prime slots at two successive public sector broadcasters”. Newsnight is a “prime slot”? Had Mason been on BBC1, that comment might have been justified. He wasn’t, so it isn’t. But she wasn’t finished.

Indeed, it was now time to engage wibble overdrive: “He was news night's editor for years. It's dire. off the leash with Snow C4 can say stuff like this w/out penalty”. No, he wasn’t Newsnight’s editor, and Jon Snow equally does not have editorial control over Channel 4’s output. And she still hasn’t got it into her head that he was talking about China.

Or perhaps she knows full well that Mason is talking about China, but Creepy Uncle Rupe would rather not upset the authorities in Beijing because of his business interests there. So anyone calling out the Chinese for their management ineptitude gets kicked as a result.

Either way, it’s a display of monumental stupidity. And they allowed her to become an MP.