Sun Seumas Milne Hypocrisy

Rupe's downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun showed today why they will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to persuade any readers still reading that anything to do with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is A Very Bad Thing Indeed. The latest attack has come after Jezza appointed journalist Seumas Milne as his chief spinner, and it has to be said that whoever wrote today's editorial cast reality to the wind in the haste to put the boot in.

"Jeremy Corbyn's recent appearances could almost convince casual observers that he is a sensible old bloke gradually learning the responsibilities of his office" starts the attack, before the tone darkens, and readers are told "Then you remember the rabid views he holds away from the cameras". And how are they different? Ah, but we are not let into the secret. Instead, we get "And you see him appoint as head of strategy a man whose opinions are deranged".

So the bar is set low enough to admit a mental health smear as an opening gambit, showing that the Sun remains as classy as ever. How about identifying the target? "Seumas Milne has forged a writing career making excuses for murderous hard-left regimes or terrorists at war with the west". As opposed to the Sun, which has not only made excuses for murderous regimes - like anyone backed by political leaders they support - but backed them to the hilt.

That includes anyone backed by the USA, which on occasion has included some deeply unpleasant regimes, and any military action proposed by the UK Government, no matter how deadly. One is reminded of Nikita Khrushchev's observation that in the event of a nuclear war, the capitalist ashes would be indistinguishable from the communist ones. The Sun appears to forget that supporting mass murder, which they have done so often, leaves them in a very draughty glasshouse.

But on they plough. "He is an Oxford-educated toff". And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, the Sun has no room to call toff on anyone: their non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn went to Marlborough School, and not just to do the drains. Moreover, their "Westminster Correspondent", the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole went to Tonbridge School, where the fees for boarders are higher than they are at Eton.

And two, the only reason the Sun snivels about Milne having got into Oxford is that Newton Dunn and Cole failed to get in - or, indeed, into Cambridge. Compared to Milne, they are both failures - another reason why the Sun is so sore about the likes of Andy Burnham, who got into Oxbridge from a mere state comprehensive. That is no fault of their targets, but of their own shortcomings. Not that their readers are going to be told about that.

Instead, it's on to another Mental Health smear as the editorial finishes off with "Enter Milne ... taking 'leave' from the Guardian.to help Labour take leave of its senses". Gosh, how grown-up is that not? And while they're answering that one, remember that Andy Coulson, former Murdoch editor and convicted criminal, became spinner to Young Dave, but that was just OK. Fine. Not a problem. Anyone might think the Sun was staffed by stinking hypocrites.

That would be because the Sun IS staffed by stinking hypocrites. No change there, then.