Panama? Let’s Blame Corybn!

Those believing that the press has taken to relentlessly beating up on Young Dave for the realisation that, whatever the Prime Minister’s protestations, he is bound to benefit, if only by inheritance, from the highly creative tax planning of his late father, have not been watching the way that part of the Fourth Estate is trying to offload blame for the Panama Papers … on to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn!

I say, you press cheppies, there's a good crowd, go and put the boot into that Labour fellow over thyah! Jolly good sheow!!

I kid you not: Jezza, who only travels to and from Parliament by car because he’s now Leader of the Opposition and has to in order to avoid, well, that same press, who famously took the bus when he wasn’t cycling around London, and who has paid his taxes along with all the little people all his adult life, is now being kicked for having the audacity to tell anyone who wants to know that Cameron has questions to answer.

The blaming of Corbyn, and more generally Labour, has taken many forms. The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog have run a post suggesting that three Trades Unions which donate to Labour dodged tax, but as so often, they fail to pony up a shred of evidence. Staines’ former tame gofer, the Sun’s alleged “Westminster correspondent” Harry Cole fares little better at the Sun.

Master Cole claims an “exclusive” for his claim that Jezza has the Morning Star delivered to his Commons office, but the story falls flat as he concedes that Corbyn has all the other papers delivered too - like the one in which his drivel has appeared. But these are a mere warm-up for the main event, kicking Corbyn for Dave’s Panama embarrassment, and it’s Cole’s paper that puts the boot in with today’s editorial.

“JEREMY Corbyn’s call for an investigation into the Camerons’ tax arrangements is the sort of cynical political opportunism he claims to hate … He’s done his best to hide it by insisting he’s not just picking on the PM’s late father - because he wants every Briton mentioned in the leaked Panama Papers investigated … That’s nonsense. Nearly 11 million documents were leaked. It would take months - if not years - to comb through them, cost a fortune and tell us little we don’t already know” rant the Murdoch doggies.

The assembled idiocy at broadcaster LBC went further, Tweeting simply “Jeremy Corbyn says PM should come clean over family finances after Panama leak. Should Corbyn resign over this call?” Yes, the Leader of the Opposition should resign for doing the kinds of things that the Leader of the Opposition is expected to do.

And the Murdoch mafia wanting people to “look over there” where tax avoidance is concerned is only going to increase suspicion that they, too, have something to hide, as well as reinforcing the impression that by taking the focus off Cameron, it makes it all the easier for the PM to do his usual trick of shrugging off the problem, while coming out of it smelling of roses. For which the press will want yet more favours.

Corbyn is only doing the job he was elected to do. That part of the media is suggesting that he’s done something wrong tells you all you need to know about how hard a time they are really giving David Cameron - or not.