Sun Fat Cat Hypocrisy

Still unable to go full Europhobia on its readers, the Super Soaraway Currant Bun has today used the upcoming EU referendum as a way of advancing the pretence that it is on the side of the little people, all those small business folk, like the white van men in championed briefly last year when it chimed with bashing the Labour Party. The only problem is that the hypocrisy is all too clearly on view.

In a typically crude editorial, readers are told “WE couldn’t care less that a few corporate fat cats insist Britain must stay in the EU”. Corporate fat cats. But not like the corporate fat cats that occupy the Baby Shard. But do go on. “Some are Tory donors or cronies of David Cameron and George Osborne. Some turn out to be French or Belgian”. Cronies. But not like the kind of cronies that invite Dave and George to their parties.

Foreign. But not like the kind of foreigners who were born in Australia and hold United States citizenship. The double standards just keep on coming: “is Mr Cameron blind to the public rage against big corporations and bankers since the recession?” Big corporations. But not the kind of big corporations that ran the now-defunct Screws, which was as close as the press got to a criminal enterprise masquerading as a newspaper.

Big corporations. But not the kind that strong-arm Governments into green-lighting the takeover of that 61% of Sky that they do not already own. And it gets worse - a lot worse: “Buddying up with a few dozen selfinterested [sic] millionaires to browbeat the little people is not a good look”. Self-interested millionaires. But not the kind who run most of the press, and shit on the little people at will, just to flog a few more papers.

Self-interested millionaires. But not the kind that browbeat their readers into believing the world is full of Scary Muslims (tm) coming to get them. Not the kind who wilfully frighten their readers against anyone who talks foreign. Not the kind that deliberately tries at every turn to undermine the NHS, the BBC, and anyone who opposes them. Not the kind that wants to keep on marking their own homework.

So what would the Sun like us to do, then? “Let’s hear what ordinary folk say about Europe”. Ordinary folk. But not the ones who make up the majority in the latest opinion polls (even the Mail has found that its sample of prospective voters has an 11 point lead for remaining in the EU). Ordinary folk. But not the ones who find themselves with hacks and snappers camped outside their houses. Not them.

A parting shot, perchance? “On the economy, let’s hear what our SMALL firms think of a future free of the stranglehold of Brussels regulation”. How the heck would the Murdoch doggies have the first idea of what small firms experience? That would be the kind of small firms that the Sun talks about. And talks about. And talks about. But never actually bothers to talk to. This less than totally screaming anti-EU line is not an easy one to do, is it?

The Sun is in a difficult place right now. The hacks can’t tell which way the wind is blowing, but they want to pick the winner. And they dearly want Cameron on side for their next Sky bid. All of that with a fast declining readership. Couldn’t happen to more deserving shower.