Nadine Dorries Bereft On Boris

First the disappointment of London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, then the disappointment of his supporters, some of whom have had to indulge in a significant amount of logic gymnastics in order to maintain their credibility, not least Mid Bedfordshire’s MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries, who called Young Dave a “posh boy”, only to back his fellow Old Etonian Bozza.

The fragrant Nadine was in the Johnson camp from Day One, simpering after The Blond while laying into any sign of opposition in her own inimitable style - in other words, being extremely unpleasant, and intolerant with it. This made today’s denouement that much more pleasurable, something to savour. We may now savour it properly.

Right from the start, she was in Bozza’s corner, and when Alastair Campbell had the audacity to suggest (rightly) that Johnson was not leadership material, reminded him “Boris led from the front throughout the campaign. He doesn't spin - David Cameron is the Prime Minister”. And look at who’s backing him: “Ex SAS/Europe Minster @DavidDavisMP backing Boris. Would be ideal at renegotiating #Brexit No unelected EU official would get one over him”. He’d have nothing to do with negotiating anything, thanks.

And when she found out Theresa May was standing for the leadership, the claws really came out: “Is this a good time to remind party members that May thinks they are the 'nasty' party?” Yes, that’s Nadine Dorries saying that. And there was more: “While Boris led from the front during the referendum campaign, travelled the country working 14 hrs a day, week after week, where was May?” Also campaigning, in case nobody noticed.

But this morning all was changed, as Michael “Oiky” Gove elbowed Bozza out of the way and declared his candidacy. The Fragrant Nadine knew who was really behind the move: “Wow! Looks like Mrs Gove is standing #Vinewearsthetrousers”. And she knew Gove would not win: “Conservative party members will be very very angry if Boris not on final 2. Treachery of Gove won't be forgiven easily”. Not by her, anyway.

In any case, she knew why her brave Bozza had split from “Oiky” - it was his unimpeachable high principles (no, don’t laugh): “Gove didn't get the big job Mrs Vine wanted for him - Boris doesn't do bribes”. Depends who’s doing the bribing. And she wanted Gove to know she had his number: “Conservative party members have no forgiveness for opportunism and treachery - those days are gone”.

Yeah, “Oiky” had dumped on his pal and that would never be forgiven. Nor would his past assurances: “'I don't want to be PM' who can ever believe a word Gove says again” she bleated, forgetting Bozza has said much the same thing many times in the past. So off she toddled, to see Bozza declare his candidature, Tweeting “Waiting for Boris …” from the event venue, only to be left in tears as The Great Man chickened out at the last minute.

Nadine Dorries followed a false prophet. She can have no complaints that Boris Johnson turned out to have less spine than a piece of battered fish. Cruel, but hilarious.

Boris Johnson, You’re A Coward

This morning, after some of his supporters had passed severely adverse comment on the decision of Michael “Oiky” Gove not to support his candidacy for Tory leader, London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson summoned those supporters and the Westminster media to let them know that the next leader of his party was not going to be him. His leadership bid was over.

A complete Muppet. And Elmo from Sesame Street

It had not been an auspicious start to the morning: as Bozza left his London home earlier, a passing cyclist told the assembled hacks that The Blond couldn’t be trusted to run a bath. Gove had pulled the rug from under him, and with it the much-needed endorsement of the Murdoch and Rothermere press. He had been out-manoeuvred and unceremoniously thrown under one of his own vanity buses. The game was up.

So the Tories would, for the time being, have no need of the dirt the party was rumoured to have on Bozza. Nor, more importantly, would Bozza have to face up to the consequences of his “victory” in last week’s referendum on Britain’s EU membership. Like his days as a member of the Bullingdon Club, he had trashed the place, but left someone else to pick up the tab. He is not just an unprincipled liar, but is totally spineless with it.

Why he chickened out is already the subject of much speculation: it is rumoured that Rupert Murdoch had such grave misgivings about letting Bozza go for the top job that his attack dogs would cause The Blond’s private life to be laid bare, probably splashed across the pages of the Sun. With a cupboard full of skeletons and a growing family, such leverage could prove conclusive, even with a loose cannon like Johnson.

It’s also possible that Bozza’s tenure as Mayor of London would finally come back to bite him: the right-leaning press had turned a blind eye to the vanity projects, the broken promises, the caving-in to interest groups, the appalling housing record, the lousy industrial relations, the lack of vision, and above all the lack of attention to actually doing the job he had been elected to do. It was all there, ready to be turned against him.

Worst of all is the suspicion that being Prime Minister right now would be too difficult for Bozza. There would be none of the “just turning up to cut the ribbon” of the London Mayoralty, while leaving it to one of his many deputies to do the real work. Being PM during the next few months would mean hard work, long hours, and taking tough decisions. Bozza would rather leave that to the grown-ups, thanks very much.

All of which adds up to one inescapable conclusion: Boris Johnson is, deep down, a coward, utterly incapable of taking responsibility for the mess in which the country finds itself as a direct result of his grandstanding. When the real challenge came along, he turned tail and ran away, more interested in sounding off in the Telegraph than getting off his backside and putting in the kind of hard work he claims to admire in others.

Boris Johnson is Frit. Yellow. Chicken. He’s a coward. And now he’s been rumbled.

Mr And Mrs Freeloading Gove

After Young Dave decided to retire to his study with the pearl-handled revolver and bottle of reassuringly expensive Scotch, the runners and riders assembled for the inevitable Tory leadership contest. One participant, whether candidate or kingmaker, would be Michael “Oiky” Gove. Another would be London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Might the two Men Who Would Be King even run a joint ticket?

A real man of the people

That was clearly the thought weighing heavily on the mind of Sarah Vine, aka Mrs Gove, on Wednesday morning when she emailed someone - perhaps “Oiky” himself - and somehow managed to send her thoughts to someone who was not the intended recipient. The contents lay bare the selfish, delusional and grasping nature of this appallingly unappealing couple - and that their loyalty is not to their country, or fellow citizens.

Here’s what Ms Vine said: “Very important that we focus now on the individual obstacles and thoroughly overcome them before moving to the next … I really think Michael needs to have a Henry or a Beth with him for this morning’s crucial meetings … One simple message : you MUST have SPECIFIC assurances from Boris OTHERWISE you cannot guarantee your support”. And there was more.

The real power behind the throne

“The details can be worked out later on, but without that you have no leverage … Crucially, the membership will not have the necessary reassurance to back Boris, neither will Dacre/Murdoch, who instinctively dislike Boris but trust your ability enough to support a Boris/Gove ticket … Do not concede any ground. Be your stubborn best … GOOD LUCK.”

The “Henry” and “Beth” are Gove’s advisors Henry Cook and Beth Armstrong.

What to make of this missive? One glaring omission in Ms Vine’s train of thought is that there is no mention of the public, or indeed the EU referendum, the result of which led the Goves to this point. It’s all about Themselves Personally Now.

Sarah Vine's "accidentally leaked" email

It is also abundantly clear that on Bozza, the Goves are not particularly close friends of him - his inner circle, and indeed his family, call him Alex - and that they do not consider the former Mayor to be trustworthy.

Ms Vine touches, moreover, on the trust issue being a wider problem with Johnson.

But worst, she admits that the people who she and her husband want to impress are not the voters, not the Square Mile, not manufacturing industry, not the burgeoning technology sector, but Rupert Murdoch, an interfering foreigner who holds a US passport and does not have the vote in this country, and the Daily Mail’s legendarily foul mouthed editor Paul Dacre, who represents the Rothermere press, owned by an offshore company.

That is the level to which our democracy has sunk.

The "Oiky" declaration

But there is even worse to come: those discussions evidently did not produce a conclusion satisfactory enough for the Goves to go along with a Bozza candidacy. Ridiculous as it may seem to us mere mortals, Michael Gove has decided to disown his fellow Vote Leave leader and run for the Tory leadership himself.

That makes it more than possible that Sarah Vine’s accidental leak of that email was anything but.

It also confirms the suspicion that Bozza has accumulated too much hostility over the years through his dishonesty and lack of principle, and perhaps too many skeletons in the cupboard through his considerable philandering, to get himself into Downing Street without his campaign being derailed by scandal of some sort.

So Gove has told the world “I wanted to help build a team behind Boris Johnson … But I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead … I have, therefore, decided to put my name forward for the leadership”.

To many voters, Michael Gove is not credible as a potential Prime Minister. But in the looking glass world of him and his selfish, grasping wife, the little people out there can go hang. They are irrelevant. The important people are an interfering foreigner and a ranting, swearing, intolerant bully. They are the ones to whom the Goves owe loyalty. Securing their endorsement, they clearly believe, will put them in Downing Street.

Sarah Vine’s email, and her husband’s equally selfish actions, show you all that is wrong, all that is corrupt, all that is unreal about Westminster politics. She never ran for elective office, yet is calling the shots. Murdoch isn’t British, yet he is courted for the power he holds. Dacre is a vile and hypocritical bigot, but those who seek power are obliged to pay homage to him. And this is, for too many people, called normal.

I give you the Goves: two people whose contribution to the British economy has been not unadjacent to Sweet Jack Shit, freeloading their way to the top, their eyes on the main chance and without the first idea what to do when they get it. No change there, then.

Simon Danczuk’s Consultant REVEALED

The Murdoch doggies at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun were beside themselves with rage yesterday, as they regaled the world with more news about Rochdale’s not even nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk: “MP'S £500 SEXPENSES Shamed Simon Danczuk claimed money for ‘crisis management’ after The Sun exposed his sordid texts to teenage girl” read the headline. And, as the man said, there was more.

“Rochdale MP was suspended by the Labour Party after the texts were revealed and is also being investigated over an alleged rape”. Yes, yes, we know that. But what’s with the £500? What indeed: “DISGRACED Labour MP Simon Danczuk claimed £500 expenses to pay for ‘crisis management’ after The Sun exposed his sordid texts to a teenage girl … Fury has erupted over a fee from a blanked-out consultant he sent to the Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority for ‘media relations work over Christmas period’”.

Sadly, the only clue the Sun had to go on was that “The receipt adds: ‘Two days’ work. Crisis management and handling a high volume of media inquiries’”. If only the Murdoch mafiosi had dug a little more, they might have discovered who the payment was for, and the nature of the crisis that was being managed.

Here on Zelo Street, information has been received suggesting that this latest slice of Danczuk expense hokum is not only nothing to do with crisis management, but also connected to someone we have encountered before. Also, my information is that this invoice is not a one-off, and that there are others. Moreover, I am reliably informed that the work the invoice covers took place at the very beginning of December.

Contrarian Prize bash: Danczuk bunked off the Syria debate for this

But what you are all wanting to know is the name of the consultant, which was “blanked-out” so that the Sun could not see who it was. My information is that the name blanked out is none other than that of Matt Baker, who wrote most of the now infamous Cyril Smith book Smile For The Camera, part of which (the alleged M1 “porn stop” of Smith’s car by Northants Police) has been proven to be fabricated.

Not only that, it has also been put to me that the invoice is linked to the speech Danczuk gave at the Wednesday December 2 award of the Contrarian Prize: it appears that part of it was payment for Baker to write that speech. That would make it nothing to do with MP’s expenses, and highly improper. I can reveal that as a result, a complaint has been lodged with Parliamentary watchdog IPSA regarding this payment.

It gets worse: there are more of these invoices on the way. Why? Because, so I’m told, Baker is working for Danczuk, and the MP is not getting the press interest he used to do - which enabled him to bill them enough to get a wedge for both of them. So expect the Sun, and all the other tabloids that Danczuk took for mugs, to turn on him with a vengeance when they find out what has been going on.

And what the Labour Party will make of it all is anyone’s business. More later.

Nadine Dorries’ Drink Problem

After Tory MP Anna Soubry left Parliament to address a pro-EU rally yesterday, she made an emotional speech to the gathering, telling them “My mother is 84 and she wept on Friday, just like my 24 and 25-year-old daughters shed tears because we made a terrible mistake on Friday by voting to leave the European Union”. One of her colleagues, perhaps as they were one of those who voted to leave, took grave exception to this.

To no surprise at all, that person was (yes, it’s her again) Mid-Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries, whose desire to put the boot in on Ms Soubry was such that she Tweeted “I saw Anna Soubry leave the bar before she went outside. She was inebriated, not emotional”. Sadly, Ms Soubry had not been in the bar, and was not inebriated, but she was a lawyer. So it was also no surprise that the Dorries Tweet was soon withdrawn.

There is, however, a deeper problem for Nadine Dorries, in that she has significant previous when it comes to accusing others of being drunk, or having some kind of drink related problem. Worse, she has no room to call out anyone for enjoying a glass of wine or three, as this is something, by her own admission, she does herself.

The fragrant Nadine memorably accused (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch of being at “the pop bottle”, and suggested she was “into the hard stuff”. Ms Mensch has many faults, but drink is not one of them. It was not an isolated occurrence: when Tim Gatt of ITV wound her up, her first reaction was to snipe “Drinking already Tim?”

There was more. At last year’s Bafta awards, Stephen Fry got the Dorries treatment, as she Tweeted “Stephen Fry totally ruined the #BAFTAs for me with his 'Willykins' remark following Prince William's VT Was he drunk?” First reaction - make accusation of drunkenness. Then there were her attacks on Peter Oborne, then at the Telegraph - he was the prime target of “I think the drunk reporters (one more famous than others) at the Daily Telegraph does that best”. That was not an isolated incident, either.

So what evidence is there that the fragrant Nadine might enjoy a tipple herself? Here we need look no further than … her own Twitter feed, where she let the world know, firstly, that she buys plenty of the falling over water: “Know every supermarket with £10 French wine reduced to fiver [because] lots is drunk and I don't mind, they leave thinking the food was good”, before admitting one of those drinking the stuff was her.

Yes, there she was, openly Tweeting “Just agreed to do @MurnaghanSky on Sunday morning with Ken Livingstone . Really must stop drinking wine with dinner”. By Nadine Dorries’ own admission, her thought process was impaired by alcohol. That, in a nutshell, is why she is the last one who should be calling out others for their drinking problems, quite apart from defaming her colleagues into the bargain.

Nadine Dorries is an ocean-going hypocrite. No change there, then.

Sun Boris Exclusive Isn’t

As I told yesterday, Rupert Murdoch has decreed that his chosen replacement for Young Dave is London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson: only in the Westminster bubble is it considered fine and dandy for an interfering foreigner to tell us who should occupy 10 Downing Street. The confirmation of Don Rupioni’s backing has been confirmed by laudatory coverage in the Super Sparaway Currant Bun.

And today has brought forth the claim of an “exclusive” telling readers “100 MPs Backing Him For PM … BoJo storms ahead in race for leadership … IT’S BORIS DAY”, under the by-line of Bozza’s very own Mini-Me, the Sun’s alleged “Westminster Correspondent”, Master Harry Cole. It was enthusiastic. It was gushing. It was just what the boss ordered. But there was little about it that was exclusive.

Some of the article looks all too familiar, from the very first line, “SENIOR Tory Ministers last night threw their weight behind Boris Johnson  in a bid to crush an ‘Anyone But BoJo’ stitch-up led by bitter Remain MPs”. Yes, anyone not backing Bozza is “bitter”, rather than not wanting the country to be led by an unprincipled, incompetent, philandering liar. But the idea of heading off a challenge had already been broached at the weekend.

You think I jest? Have a look at this wording: “Boris’s team have not only been very active, they are trying to sign up as many MPs to their cause as possible in order to put off rivals from even bothering to stand”. That says more or less the same thing, albeit without over-egging the pudding by making claims about ministers and kicking anyone who didn’t vote the way the Sun wanted in the EU referendum.

That was posted just before noon on Sunday by pundit and broadcaster Iain Dale, who on this occasion rightly claimed an exclusive for it. Master Cole has effectively ripped off Dale’s central point, and he hasn’t even managed to copy and paste the names of Bozza’s backers properly (for some reason, Cole’s list misses Jesse Norman, who chairs the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee).

It gets worse: “Remain-backing party grandee Sir Nicholas Soames shocked Westminster as he sensationally also sided with Boris”. There’s nothing “exclusive” about that, Soames let it be known over an open Twitter feed. And worse: “Last night it was even suggested pro-EU Energy Minister Amber Rudd was poised to endorse BoJo despite recently savaging him in a referendum TV showdown”. That’s just speculation.

But we do get an admission that the Sun is about to indulge in an act of routine hypocrisy: “Boris was said to have ruled out  a snap general election in the autumn in a bid to win over wavering MPs”. After Pa Broon entered Number 10 in 2007, he was berated by every right-leaning paper in the country for being an “Unelected Prime Minister”. So it’s good of Master Cole to let us know about the upcoming exercise in double standards.

Pity about the “exclusive” being nothing of the sort, though. No change there, then.

Toby Young Channels Pontius Pilate

There has been a spate of hate crime following last week’s referendum on Britain’s EU membership. As a result, some have suggested that those in the Vote Leave campaign make some effort to calm their supporters and pass adverse comment on any such behaviour. Sadly, the best they can do is an apologia in the Telegraph from the loathsome Toby Young, in which he lets it be known that it is nothing to do with him.

More less than totally grown-up politics from Tobes

Under the title “A vote to leave the European Union wasn’t a vote to repatriate immigrants”, Tobes tells of his reaction to actual hate crimes: “At first, I treated these stories with a degree of scepticism. They seemed to be part of a narrative that characterised those who’d voted for Brexit as knuckle-dragging troglodytes … These reports of racist incidents struck me as just one more example of the Remainers gleefully holding up ‘proof’ that all their apocalyptic doom-mongering had come true”. Most revealing.

Thus his detachment from reality. But then comes a moment of rare candour: “One reason I didn’t want to believe this was happening is that for the past three months, when I’ve been energetically campaigning for Leave, I’ve dismissed accusations of racism and xenophobia as ‘smears’”. Then there was an attack on the Polish Centre in West London, which happens to be opposite the West London Free School.

But this was all too brief a brush with reality, because then he was away with the fairies: “I hesitate to say ‘shame’, because I still don’t think the Vote Leave campaign was guilty of racism or xenophobia. The emphasis wasn’t on leaving Europe, so much as joining the rest of the world. The leaders of the campaign were always anxious to stress that they embraced Britain’s diverse, multi-ethnic character”.

Empty and meaningless phrases: “Joining the rest of the world”. It gets worse. “For many of us on the Leave side, it was always a more progressive cause than it was a conservative one, wanting to restore the British people’s hard-won democratic rights”. Not heard of the Human Rights Act, then, Tobes? We already have those, thanks.

But let me put Tobes straight. It was Vote Leave that put out the infamous leaflet saying Turkey was going to join the EU. It was Vote Leave that put out that map with Turkey in red and its population alongside, with the clear inference that this would be the cause of more immigration. It was Vote Leave that chose to also put Syria and Iraq on that map. It was Vote Leave that told (wrongly) that we had paid £1 billion for Turkey to join the EU.

It was Vote Leave that persistently and deliberately scratched the racist itch. Turkey was joining the EU. Turkey was next to Syria and Iraq. Nudge nudge, wink wink, scary brown Muslims, know what I mean? It was Vote Leave that chose to make the campaign all about migration. There was sweet Jack Shit that was “progressive” about that. It was full-throated promotion of xenophobia. And the people doing it knew what would happen.

So when Tobes concludes with his Pilate-like washing of the hands, telling “If the genie is out of the bottle, then it’s up to us to put it back in again”, he is - not for the first time - full of crap. The whole point about the genie being out of the bottle is that you can’t put it back in again. Vote Leave have caused this mess. And now they’re just walking away.

Toby Young is a total and utter disgrace. No change there, then.

Murdoch Backs Boris

The manoeuvring for pole position in the race to be the next Tory leader is well and truly under way, despite the country having been needlessly piloted into Shit Creek by someone who has then dispensed with the paddles. So who, among those prepared to put themselves forward to become the Prime Minister charged with triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (or maybe not), is likely to emerge victorious?

That's what I bladdy think of youse bladdy Tory Party bladdy democracy, ya bastard Pommie drongoes!

One thing the Tory Party has always been good at is surviving more or less in one piece. It is, after all, the party of the establishment, and the establishment needs no advice or assistance when it comes to looking after itself. That survival instinct has taken hold in the last 48 hours with the realisation that London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson wants the job, and has a good chance of getting it.

An utter Muppet. And Elmo from Sesame Street

Bozza, as I’ve told previously, is an ocean going liar of no discernible principle. He was a complete disaster as Mayor of London, something that will become all the more obvious with the passage of time. His serial dishonesty has seen him sacked from two jobs, one of them within the Tory Party. He cannot be trusted with either women or money. He is appallingly thin skinned. In a negotiation with EU leaders he would be eaten alive.

So the Tories who - rightly - do not consider Bozza leadership material have rallied automatically to the standard of Home Secretary Theresa May. Ms May has said some distinctly off-colour things about human rights, but unlike Bozza is able to treat the business of politics seriously. She is a good listener, does not shirk from taking the tough decisions, and has shown herself to be sensitive and pragmatic.

Who is this "we" of whom he speaks?

So that’s it, is it? Just down to Tory MPs and the party membership? Ah, but if only it were that simple. As with so many aspects of our political life, there has to be someone else ready to stick his bugle in. Yes, the new Tory leader has also to pass muster with one Rupert Murdoch. Don Rupioni is not a British citizen, and never has been. He does not have a vote in our elections. But he wants to tell us how to run our country.

And far too many politicians, from Margaret Thatcher on, have been more than willing to indulge him. They wouldn’t entertain that kind of behaviour in Brussels - that’s why Rupe is so opposed to the EU. So who would he favour as Tory leader? Not Ms May. He would rather like Michael “Oiky” Gove to stand, not least because Gove is a Murdoch man through and through. But Gove does not want to stand.

So, as Newsnight’s Ian Katz has discovered, Murdoch’s next preferred candidate is Bozza, and thus the ultimate corruption of our political system. An Australian-born United States citizen, without the vote in this country, is able to lean on a major political party to appoint as leader - and, as it is currently the party of Government, Prime Minister - his preferred candidate, someone who is dangerously unsuited to be let near the seals of office.

That encapsulates the sickness of British politics. An interfering foreigner is looking to install his own puppet Prime Minister. And the Tory Party might just let him do it.

Sun Blames Remain Voters

Having spent Monday piling on the jingoism, the Murdoch mafiosi at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, seeing that there was a growing amount of hate crime being directed at anyone who was not speaking English, and many who were not white, then realising that they might get blamed for incitement, has decided to call off its readership attack dogs and direct their anger elsewhere, while all the time claiming the moral high ground.

The poisonous influence of the Murdoch press has undoubtedly been a contributory factor in the wave of unpleasantness directed against eastern Europeans, and indeed anyone else who is not deemed to look and sound “White English”. Some with Stateside accents have been asked when they are packing their bags. Mosques have seen hostile demonstrations. Restaurants have had windows smashed.

But the Murdoch shilling-takers want us all to know that it is all someone else’s fault. None of the nasty brown sticky stuff is going to stick to the Baby Shard bunker, not if they can help it. Hence today’s Sun editorial telling readers “The Sun today calls on Brits of all creeds, colours and race - Leavers and Remainers - to come together for the good of the country … We are appalled at reports of racist abuse in the wake of last week’s EU vote, and utterly condemn attempts to provoke division in our society”.

Not that this will have much effect, when the Sun has already defined those on the receiving end of the abuse as not being part of “our society”, of course. Nor can the paper escape its share of responsibility by shamelessly dumping on those it championed: “it’s the duty of the leaders of the Leave movement - namely Boris Johnson and Michael Gove - to reaffirm that EU migrants currently in work, and foreign students studying in Britain, are welcome in this country”. But they’ve both gone to ground.

Then comes the really nasty part. “The social media echo chamber which convinced Remainers they were on course for victory, now goads them to pour bile on the dispossessed working class they once claimed to care about … The vast majority of Leave voters are not racist, stupid or easily-led. The fact they are accused of it exposes the bigotry and snobbery of too many Remainers”.

Who is “pouring bile on the dispossessed working class”? Who is saying they are all racist or stupid? Those who voted Remain are not making any such accusation. But the Murdoch press is making damn sure that thought is planted in the minds of their readership. Bad things have resulted from last week’s vote? We’ll tell you who’s to blame, readers!

And guess what, readers? It’s not us! It’s not the weeks, months, and years of front page stories ranting about Migrants, Muslims, Brussels, people talking foreign, foreigners telling us what to do, foreigners behind all your problems, people who aren’t like you coming here and taking things from you, sponging off you, making you second-class citizens in your own country. Oh no, Sun readers, the people who fill you up with that bile aren’t to blame.

No, Sun readers, it’s those who voted Remain. So leave off the foreign-speaking people, and all those brown and black people, and take your anger out of them. Because they say you’re all stupid racists. They’re the real bigots. They’re the real snobs.

The Sun - inciting division and hatred since 1969. Stay classy, Murdoch doggies.

Corbyn - Hodges In Trouble

As the moves to cause Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to do what is sometimes called considering his position ramped up over the weekend, it was clear that some pundits had a measure of advance warning that a shadow cabinet revolt was imminent. One of those was the not at all celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges, who has recently joined the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker to write for the Mail On Sunday.

Subtlety that the subs should have stopped

So far, so beneficial for the MoS, but, as has happened across the Fourth Estate recently, he got rather carried away and the dwindling ranks of sub-editors failed to exercise control and impose a little more, shall we say, discretion on Hodges’ resulting article, which told readers “Labour MUST kill vampire Jezza: If MPs don't vote for 'Jexit' now their party is doomed”. This was accompanied by a photoshop of Corbyn in a coffin.

Have a think about that: less than two weeks after Jo Cox, a serving Labour MP, was murdered outside her constituency surgery, a supposedly mainstream pundit is telling that same party that they MUST “kill” their own leader. Yes, the content of the article was right on the money, down to the series of staged resignations that have been going on since Corbyn sacked Hilary Benn on Saturday night. But that doesn’t excuse the “MUST kill”.

The Twitter condemnation was swift and extensive, not that Hodges or his paper gave a rat’s arse about such trivialities. “A truly disgusting article by @DPJHodges, especially after the murder of Jo Cox. But there we go, the vile mentality of the @DailyMailUK” commented one Tweeter. Another responded to Hodges prediction of the ferocious defence Corbyn’s supporters might mount with “what, worse than Jo Cox getting shot? Is that why you called for Corbyn to be murdered?”

One Tweeter among many not to get a response from The Great Man asked simply “Given what happened to Jo Cox barely a week ago, do you consider the picture to be acceptable?” Another disappointed observer simply responded “Dear oh dear @DPJHodges I'm no Corbyn fan but this is inconsiderate in light of what happened to Jo Cox”. And, as the man said, there was more.

After Hodges talked of “honourable men”, he was asked “talking about honourable men, how's this headline appropriate barely a week after #joCox was killed?” The response to the graphic image of “Vampire Jezza” was uniformly hostile, as were the reminders of Jo Cox’s murder. No response from Hodges. No response from his paper.

And, d’you know what? There is unlikely to be a response, or any kind of apology, or even regret. No admission that the bounds of good taste and decency have been broken. Not unless Corbyn himself makes a complaint to IPSO. Why is that? Because, as the good people at Hacked Off have been telling us for some time, third party complaints can just be dismissed. IPSO will do nothing to stop this kind of behaviour from over-zealous pundits.

Dan Hodges is going to get away with an act of incitement. And that’s not good enough.

Sun Brexit Incitement Busted

Although former editor Kelvin McFilth has today declared that he has “buyer’s remorse” over voting for Britain to Leave the EU in last week’s referendum, the remainder of the Murdoch doggies at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun are clearly over the moon at not just the result of that referendum, but the increasingly vicious fallout, which has included a significant amount of hate crime directed at EU migrants.

As the principals of the Vote Leave campaign - Bozza, “Oiky” Gove, and the behind the scenes polecats Dominic Cummings and Matthew Elliott - have declined to take any responsibility for the verbal and even physical assaults, which have extended beyond eastern Europeans to anyone who is not white, one might have hoped that the Leave-backing press might urge a measure of restraint on its readers.

But that hope has been dashed as the Sun has instead chosen to cheer on the bigots, telling readers “WHERE THE BREX WAS WON …  Streets full of Polish shops, kids not speaking English … but Union Jacks now flying high again … People from Portsmouth, Plymouth and Boston revel in their relief at EU exit”. “Kids not speaking English”. Shops with people talking foreign. Not flying the right flag.

The Boston story was typical: “One in six of the Lincolnshire town’s 65,000 population are Eastern Europeans - the highest percentage in the UK … Translators are employed at Park Academy primary school where half the children speak Eastern European languages … Locals yesterday talked of celebratory parties, extra busy pubs and cheering in the streets”. And then the Murdoch doggies sell the pass.

“There are around 1,200 people, mostly Brits, out of work in the town and many hope the result might see a change in fortunes”. Given the eastern European migrants are generating so much of Boston’s economic activity, and their labour is propping up so much of the area’s agricultural sector, it’s more likely that if they all piled off back tomorrow, the only change of fortune would be a big increase in that unemployment number.

As for the headlines, these mix the incitement with the fraudulent, such as “We couldn’t see GP”. The reality? No-one said they couldn’t get to see their GP. Readers are told “Wages pushed down”, yet there is not one example of this. The report from Cannock claims “They have grown angry with EU meddling on UK issues such as the HS2 rail line, planned to run through countryside near the town”, yet HS2 has nothing to do with the EU.

Also, there is something else missing from this slice of triumphalist hokum: not one of those eastern European migrants gets interviewed. Nor is there any comment from anyone who is not white. That’s very telling. It confirms that the Sun is retreating to being a paper for only a part of the population. Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks aren’t interested in anyone who isn’t white. What a way to run a business in the 21st Century.

The Sun isn’t interested in stopping the hatred. That’s what sells papers. Sad, really.

Boris Admits Vote Leave Lied

Yesterday, as the turmoil following the referendum on Britain’s EU membership intensified, there was no sign of London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, widely expected to throw his IOU in the ring when the Tory leadership contest begins in earnest. That, we now know, was because he was devoting his energies to his latest Telegraph column and its attendant generation of £5,000 in “chicken feed”.

A total Muppet. And Elmo from Sesame Street

Thus the priorities of the ocean-going liar and con artist, one half of the fraudulent double act with Micheal “Oiky” Gove, these being the modern-day Men Who Would Be King. And that column is most revealing, effectively forming Bozza’s pitch for the future relationship between Britain and the EU. The summary of his vision can be put directly: it is one that delivers precisely none of the promises made by the Leave campaign.

It is also peppered with more blatant lies, such as “It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so”. Perhaps Sir would care to explain the Vote Leave leaflet that suggested the EU meant Syria and Iraq, as well as claiming Turkey was “joining the EU”? Perhaps he could also explain “the pound remains higher than it was in 2013 and 2014”? It’s been marked down again overnight.

Bozza is away with the fairies when he muses “We had one Scotland referendum in 2014, and I do not detect any real appetite to have another one soon”. Did he miss the presence of Nicola Sturgeon all over the airwaves yesterday, suggesting exactly that? And then, my friends, to borrow the Bozza vernacular, comes the main pitch.

“I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be. There will still be intense and intensifying European cooperation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment. EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU”. And there’s more.

“British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down … there will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market”. Right. That means accepting free movement of people. There will therefore be no constraint on migration from the EU. He lied about that.

It gets worse: what Bozza has described is membership of the European Economic Area (EEA). That means an arrangement not dissimilar to Norway, which pays into the EU budget at a rate per head of population higher than that of the UK. That means we would not get any money back to spend on the NHS, or indeed anything else. And it gets worse still: as this would be a new arrangement, the rebate first secured by Margaret Thatcher would not apply. We would end up paying more to the EU than we do now.

So his pitch is built on lies. And so is his rationale: “The only change - and it will not come in any great rush - is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation”. Not if we want access to the single market, we won’t.

And the lies just keep on coming: “the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry”. Not for citizens of EU member states it won’t - because the rules of the Single Market do not permit it.

Can he keep on lying? He certainly can: “Yes, there will be a substantial sum of money which we will no longer send to Brussels, but which could be used on priorities such as the NHS”. Single Market access means paying into the EU budget, and we won’t get a rebate, so there will be no sum of money to be used on anything else.

Plus there is a little routine misinformation: “we will be able to do free trade deals with the growth economies of the world in a way that is currently forbidden”. That will mean hiring experienced trade negotiators and lawyers - the EU currently does this sort of thing for us, that’s what we pay our contributions for - so we will end up shelling out even more money.

On top of that, the package of measures David Cameron agreed with other EU leaders in the run-up to the referendum has already fallen, and will not be enacted. Now the chief architect of his downfall has effectively admitted that there will be no change to EU immigration, we will end up paying more to the EU, and on top of that, we won’t have a say in how the EU works, or indeed, the direction in which it develops.

That means Turkey could join some time in the distant future and we would not be able to stop it. I said last week that Bozza was an ocean going liar: in his Telegraph column today, he has confirmed it in spades. Hello British people! You’ve been had.

Migration - Hannan In Trouble

After the BBC Newsnight appearance of Dan, Dan The Oratory Man, and Evan Davis’ clear exasperation that the Vote Leave crowd were now saying there might not be any reduction in immigration following Britain’s departure from the EU, the disquiet started. Many had voted Leave precisely because they were given the impression that immigration would be reduced, especially that from eastern Europe.

One only slightly used fire extinguisher, what am I bid? Yes, it's with you Sir, you in the front row

Hannan was now calmly saying this might not only not happen, but that he didn’t have a problem with it continuing. All those who did have a problem with it continuing, and who thought that in him they had found a champion for their cause, began to realise they had been taken for fools, something which Zelo Street has been telling anyone prepared to listen for some time - that Hannan talks well, but lies badly.

How would he broach the issue? Simples. By lying again: “A lot of Remainers are now raging at me because I *don't* want to cut immigration sharply. There really is no pleasing some people”. No Dan, it isn’t “Remainers”. IT’S YOUR OWN SIDE. Daniel Knowles - one of his fellow journalists - put him straight. “They're raging because your campaign - your allies if not you - promised that to win”. Bit obvious, really.

And Martin Gentles had to point out something else that was rather obvious, if not to Hannan: “he may find many on his side are not as relaxed with that proposition as he is”. Quite, especially, as Rupert Evans also had to point out, “It's the reason for a third of the Leave vote. Depressing, really”. A third of that 17 million were motivated to put their cross in the Leave box because they believed that would cut immigration.

So the backlash was all too predictable: “They are raging at you because you lied and lied and lied and lied about it”. That seems to cover all the bases. Would someone care to second that emotion? “Yeah it was the lies, mate”. It’s a wonder that Hannan doesn’t have permanent access to a fire extinguisher, what with all the burning trousers.

We even had someone giving the impression they were a Star Trek fan: “I am, and have been, highlighting your deliberate lies”. They may not have been his friend, though, not now. One Tweeter told The Great Man “As a rule it's not good form to lie before a crucial irreversible vote. PS about that £350 million a week …”.

Another put it equally directly: “'We can't cut immigration if we're in the EU' was taken as a promise to cut immigration. You tore the country apart with lies”. What the electorate was given to understand was that there would be a cut in migrant numbers. So one Tweeter’s suggestion was all too predictable: “I know, Twitter needs a special ‘Dan Hannan Liar Notice’ extension. 12 million characters should be enough”.

Daniel Hannan was OK when he was a fringe character. Nobody got affected by all his lies then. Now he’s been pitched into the mainstream, he’s discovering that not only does power bring responsibilities, but also that actions have consequences.