Sun Officially A Political Campaign

The Murdoch goons at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun are well known for their wilful hatred of the EU. It is also not news that the paper consistently, and stridently, took a not just Eurosceptic, but Europhobic, stance in the run-up to last June’s referendum on Britain’s EU membership. What might not be widely known is that the paper’s campaigning went so far that it had to register as an official Leave campaign group.

We know this only through the reporting of the Guardian and Independent - not even Press Gazette has thus far touched the story - which has revealed that “The Sun spent more than £96,000 publishing a pullout poster backing Brexit, forcing its parent company, News Group Newspapers, to register as an official leave campaign group with the Electoral Commission”. So blatant, they couldn’t get it past the Electoral Commission.

There’s more: “The poster featuring a union flag and the words “BeLEAVE in Britain”, which had appeared on an earlier front page, was published just a week before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU … Editorially the paper was one of the most vocal backers of leaving the EU, but the double-page spread fell under the Electoral Commission’s rules regulating campaign spending because it was designed to be displayed, even though the money was reported as a payment from NGN to itself”.

And yet more: “The cost of the poster made NGN one of the largest spenders among 48 groups who had their campaign finances revealed by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday, all but two of which spent under £250,000 … The only organisations on the list spending more than NGN were the pro-remain Global Britain Limited, and leave backers Grassroots Out, Veterans for Britain and fashion student Darren Grimes, who ran the youth-focused group BeLeave” (that excludes Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe).

As the Independent told, the kinds of stuff the Sun published which didn’t have to be declared included a less than totally impartial editorial in which the EU was described as “greedy, wasteful, bullying and breathtakingly incompetent in a crisis … Outside the EU we can become richer, safer and free at long last to forge our own destiny - as America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other great democracies already do. And as we were the first to do centuries ago. If we stay, Britain will be engulfed in a few short years by this relentlessly expanding, German-dominated federal state”.

Nor was the infamous “QUEEN BACKS BREXIT” considered as political campaigning, although that is rather obviously what it was - apart from the headline being totally untrue, of course. And why did the Sun do this? The Independent again. “Mr Murdoch has long been vocal in his opposition to the EU. When questioned as to why, he reportedly  once said: ‘That’s easy. When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice’”. And now they’ve admitted the political campaigning.

If only the Sun, and the rest of the Murdoch empire, would have the backbone to stick around and own up when everything goes belly up, which it is already showing every sign of doing. Sadly, the words of Stanley Baldwin, “What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages”, are still true. Murdoch wants to meddle. But not carry the can.

Julia Hartley Brewer - Brexit Clueless

[Update at end of post]

Now relocated from LBC to Talk Radio, occasionally in print in those reassuringly right-leaning papers that want to hear what she has to say, and still inexplicably allowed a platform by the BBC and other broadcasters, wilfully misinformed pundit Julia Hartley Brewer has made no secret of her fervour for Britain departing the EU. Her problem, as shown once more today, is that she has little idea what this might entail.

Stick to facts? How very DARE you!

Ms Hartley Dooda has taken the news that British citizens living in other EU member states will not have their right to remain there confirmed, before the start of those negotiations which follow the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, particularly badly. In doing so, she has taken it upon herself to find a suitable ghastly foreigner to blame for her confused state of mind, and concluded that it’s The Krauts Who Done It.

Armed with this unique finding, she took to Twitter to tell anyone prepared to listen that “Merkel is happy to welcome 1mill Syrians to Germany but not to guarantee Britons a life there. I think that tells us all we need to know”. Bzzzt! False equivalence. Worse, she manages not to realise that those negotiations have yet to start.

But that was no obstacle to her remaining as badly informed as possible, and to double down, she swiftly declared “I have a funny feeling that many Germans may feel rather differently though. So much for European ‘friendship’”. Ah yes, all those silent voters who don’t approve of all those refugees. Sadly, as was pointed out to her, Angela Merkel’s popularity is, despite her eleven years in office, at around 71%. That means Ms Hartley Dooda is plain flat wrong. And she still hasn’t addressed the real issue.

Not only that, she was going to make damned sure she kept Looking Over There. After the suggestion was made that not everything in the Brexit garden was quite as rosy as advertised, she snapped back “No, I'm very happy with how Brexit is going. But Merkel's position shows just how fake this European ‘Union’ is”. It shows nothing of the sort - the real reason for the uncertainty is not the EU, but the UK’s imminent departure from it.

That point was then made plain to her by Jon Worth, who is a British Passport holder who lives in, and works out of, Berlin. He put the point directly: “For me as a Brit in Germany there’s one thing that made my position insecure: #Brexit. That’s the problem, not Merkel!” Merkel cannot say what the UK’s final status will be, and so cannot make any offer.

This met with the stern disapproval of Ms Hartley Dooda, who was once again determined to ignore the fact of the matter and deflect elsewhere: “Those bloody voters making democratic decisions in a free and fair referendum, eh?” So let’s take this nice and slowly, shall we? The status of EU nationals in the UK, and UK nationals elsewhere in the EU, is unchanged, but what it will be after the Article 50 negotiations is not known. So no-one, not even Angela Merkel, can give guarantees to anyone - yet.

If Julia Hartley Brewer is unable to grasp that straightforward point, one has to assume she is just being wilful. After all, she isn’t stupid - if she was, they would’t have her on the telly so often. Or something like that. I’ll just leave that one there.

[UPDATE 1605 hours: David Allen Green at Law And Policy has tried his best to point out the obvious to Ms Hartley Dooda, but sadly she was not listening.

After he asserted "UK citizens losing their EU-based rights is the essence of Brexit ... Any person supporting Brexit should have realised this", she maintained her previous level of wilfulness.

She countered "we'd lose our right to live/work in the EU.But that's not the same as those already living in EU nations losing their rights", but sadly for her, that is exactly what it is.

Allen Green had to point out "If those rights are based on EU law then, of course, that is what Brexit would mean ... Brexit could not mean otherwise", thus demonstrating that Ms Hartley Dooda has been shooting from the hip without first doing her homework.

Julia Hartley Brewer appears surprised that rights based on EU law might be lost if a country ceases to be an EU member state. One can only wonder what else that should be on the Bleeding Obvious List is going to prove challenging for her. And her fellow Brexiteers]

Has Simon Danczuk Snared Another?

While most of the outpourings from Rochdale’s still nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk are routine right now, it appears he has been unable to shake off his continuing pursuit of female company, despite the litany of failure in his wake - as well as all those regrettable incidents in pubs, at and outside the Lowry Hotel, over social media, and very publicly around his holiday home in the Anglophone town of Algorfa.

Most Danczuk observers will see the usual bandwagon jumping, such as this morning’s attempt to suggest he is taking an interest in the recent revelations about sexual abuse of young men and boys at football clubs, taking to Twitter to tell “Impressed with what @DamianCollins had to say about child abuse in football, on @VictoriaLIVE just now. FA need to be more accountable”. Joining a cause when the bandwagon has already passed by the front door - yes, that’s Simon Danczuk for you.

Also on the Danczuk support list is the supremely irrelevant attempt by his pal Richard Farnell, still leader of Rochdale Council, to whip up indignation about the service provided to Rochdale by the Metrolink tram network. “Oldham & Rochdale Fight For Tram Link To Piccadilly … Council bosses say it's unfair that the two Boroughs are the only ones in Manchester who don't have direct access by tram” reads the report.

Anyone would think that Metrolink doesn’t go to Oldham or Rochdale - but of course it does. So what’s the beef? “Oldham and Rochdale Councils have secured talks about a direct tram link to Manchester Piccadilly station”. Er, what? “The Oldham-Rochdale line is now the only branch of the regional Metrolink network without an uninterrupted link to Manchester’s key station”. Oh, come off it. That is desperate.

The train service that Metrolink replaced didn’t go to Piccadilly, and if punters want to get there from Rochdale or Oldham, they just have to make a same-platform change at Victoria, Shudehill or Market Street. It’s just attention seeking rubbish. In any case, what Danczuk isn’t Retweeting is his latest female encounter.

WELL WELL WELL

To see this, we have to mosey over to the Twitter feed of one Edel McCaffrey, who is Head of Communications for Healthcare At Home. Ms McCaffrey attended the Political Cartoon Awards last night, which were held at St John’s Smith Square, conveniently close to Parliament. From there she Tweeted “With @SimonDanczuk at the political cartoon awards @EllwoodAtfield”. And there they are together, happy and smiling.

Who knows, this may be nothing more than a chance meeting. But it looks rather more serious than that. It looks very much as if despite two less than successful marriages, the failed liaisons with Claire Hamilton, Louise Dickens, a Twentysomething who was snapped with him outside the Lowry Hotel, the other young woman snapped outside the Lowry Hotel after the MEN party, the “sexting” shame, and claims of at least two relationships with women he had worked with, Spanker Si is still on the pull.

And if he was, then I’m sure any or all of those mentioned will be more than happy to provide a suitable character reference for him. Or maybe not.

Eric Bristow - Say Sorry

Whatever one’s opinion of the sport, darts has always had more than its fair share of characters, and none has been more significant and enduring than the “Crafty Cockney” Eric Bristow, part of whose persona is that he doesn’t much care what people think - and has been dismissive of many journalists over the years. In any case, the arrows can do the talking for him, and a whole slew of titles stands testament to that.

Eric Bristow

Sadly for Bristow, his tendency to shoot from the hip has not served him well when combined with an ill-advised excursion on Twitter in the wake of the revelations over the sexual abuse of young men and boys at a number of football clubs in the past. Much of the abusive behaviour is alleged to have been down to coaches like Barry Bennell, who was suddenly sacked by Crewe Alex in 1992 for reasons that have never been made clear.

The Tweet that began Bristow’s downhill slide read “Might be a looney but if some football coach was touching me when i was a kid as i got older i would have went back and sorted that poof out”. Homosexuality and paedophilia confused yet again. And his later claim “bet the rugby boys are ok” didn’t endear him to anyone in that sport who had suffered abuse.

Then came the backlash: first, as the Guardian has reported, “The former darts world champion Eric Bristow has been sacked by Sky Sports after he tweeted comments about the football sexual abuse story on Monday … Bristow, 59, had been a regular contributor to the channel’s darts coverage since the early 90s but Sky announced on Tuesday morning that he would no longer be used by it. ‘He was a contributor to our darts coverage in the past but we will not be using him in the future,’ a spokesperson commented”.

Soon afterwards, the Manchester Evening News told its readers “Charity reports Eric Bristow to police over tweets on football sex abuse scandal … The five-time world darts champion stunned fans last night with a stream of messages in which he labelled footballers who have recently revealed they were abused as ‘wimps’ … Survivors Manchester, a group which supports boys and men affected by sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation said they had forwarded them to his local police force”.

Then Sky News reported that “Newcastle United have said they will never work with darts player Eric Bristow again after he posted inappropriate tweets about the football abuse scandal … The former darts world champion has been heavily criticised after calling footballers ‘wimps’ on social media, adding: ‘Glad I am a dart player proper men’ … Newcastle United are one of the clubs involved in investigations after the Guardian newspaper reported that a former player had contacted police to make allegations against George Ormond … Ormond was a coach in the North East who was jailed for six years in 2002 for carrying out numerous assaults across a 24-year period”.

Nothing like engaging brain before firing up the Twitter feed, it seems. But thus far, Bristow has not done the one thing that could provide him with some respite from the gathering storm of bad publicity and the serial shunning of those who had previously been happy to provide him with work opportunities - hold his hands up and say sorry.

I’m sure Bristow is a proud man. But now he needs to swallow that pride and admit he got this one very wrong indeed. It would be better to remember him for all the right reasons.

Ofcom - The Regulator For Murdoch

[Update at end of post]

The Murdoch press has been lobbying for some months now for BT to be broken up, and specifically for the parent company to be split off from its Openreach division, that part of BT that deals with Britain’s broadband and telephony network. It was not just the Sun that ranted about alleged Openreach shortcomings - the supposedly upmarket and independent Times was also corralled into carrying knocking copy.

The true beneficiary of any BT break-up is revealed

This tide of unfavourable publicity has had a gradually corrosive effect on public perception in the same way that press attacks on social workers, foreign aid, the EU, the judiciary, climate change, and anyone not born in the UK has done. It has reinforced the idea that Openreach is being held back by being part of BT, and that it must therefore be split from it. The reality, that Murdoch is trying to hobble a competitor, is not allowed to enter.

BT has parked its tanks on Murdoch’s lawn by buying up the rights for some Premiership matches, as well as those for the UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League. Rupe doesn’t like that, and prefers a playing field tilted a little more in his favour. So he and his fellow Mafiosi will have been celebrating today at the news that Ofcom has chosen to do his bidding and order the legal separation of Openreach from its BT parent.

Ofcom’s excuse was its “concerns about BT's ability to favour its retail business when making investment decisions in Openreach … It wants Openreach to become a distinct company with its own board, with non-executives and a chairperson not affiliated with BT. It also wants Openreach to have control over its branding and budget allocation … Openreach would also have a duty to treat all of its customers equally, the regulator said”.

More specifically, Ofcom claimed “We are disappointed that BT has not yet come forward with proposals that meet our competition concerns. Some progress has been made, but this has not been enough, and action is required now to deliver better outcomes for phone and broadband users … Some progress has been made, but this has not been enough, and action is required now to deliver better outcomes for phone and broadband users”.

Exactly how much action Ofcom expected BT to have taken since they decided only as recently as July not to force the company to initiate any kind of split, is unclear. The kinds of timescales that large corporates work to are years, rather than months. But the Murdoch mafiosi were back with their demands in September, and it seems their lobbying, including having a former Sun hack as a SpAd to the Culture Secretary, has paid off.

As I said in February, the Murdoch strategy was straightforward: “Sky’s flat revenues have to be transformed. And that happens not merely by offering mobile services and set-top boxes, but also by hobbling the competition. The circle is squared by having the BBC diminished and the assault on BT ramped up. For this, the Murdoch’s press and PR machine will, as ever, be deployed in support”. And so it has come to pass.

Theresa May is so weak and insecure she went to pay court to Rupert Murdoch on her first trip to the USA. Her Culture Secretary is being worked by a Murdoch SpAd. And now we have Ofcom becoming The Regulator For Murdoch. All of this should trouble those who believe in level playing fields and free competition. But most media outlets won’t bother.

Rupert Murdoch is once again bending Governments to his will. No change there, then.

[UPDATE 30 November 1145 hours: anyone believing the Ofcom move was to the benefit of anyone other than the Murdoch empire should consult today's Times editorial, which tells "BT and Openreach are to be forced further apart. About time too" and goes on to underscore this by claiming "Openreach's corporate parent is BT. Together they are holding back broadband Britain".

Later in the article comes the dead giveaway: "[BT] has spent more on sports broadcast rights ... than on broadband upgrades". In other words, parking its tanks on the Murdoch lawn, to the clear disapproval of the assembled mafiosi.

The Murdoch goons aren't interested in fairness, pricing or other competition issues. They want to see a competitor hobbled. End of story]

Paul Nuttall - Bad Bootle Meff

[Update at end of post]

The Liverpool Echo is one of those evening papers that defines the area it covers, gives outsiders the authentic voice of Merseyside. The Echo was supportive of the Hillsborough families from the very start, right through to the new inquest verdicts. It has also accurately reflected the revulsion of many in Liverpool at the antics over the years of the Murdoch Sun. And it has caused considerable discomfort to new UKIP leader Paul Nuttall.

Ullo Nige, got a new motor?

Nuttall sets great store by his Merseyside origins, specifically that he hails from Bootle, immediately to the north of central Liverpool, and that this makes him an authentic Scouser. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the enthusiasm for Nuttall as a representative of Liverpool is not shared by many of his fellow Scousers.

Indeed, when BBC Question Time featured both Nuttall and the equally appalling then Tory MP Esther McVey, and the Echo live-blogged the event, one particular Tweet set in train a Meme that has endured. After the Echo Tweeted “Question Time Scouse takeover with Esther McVey and Paul Nuttall - readers respond”, Tweeter @lipglossjill snapped back “they're not proper Scouse one’s a horrible Tory wool the other’s a bad Bootle UKIP meff”.

For those not familiar with the Merseyside vernacular, “wool”, short for “woolyback”, means someone from out of town who merely pretends to be Scouse. And as for “meff”, well, here’s the Urban Dictionary definition: “n. Derogative. Meff is to describe an alcoholic homeless person, or a 'tramp' who lives in a house … The word first originated in Liverpool, England, where it is still used as an insult”.

Nuttall went ballistic at being characterised as a jumped-up tramp, perhaps because that reinforced the comparison between him and Eddie Hitler, the Adrian Edmondson character in the nihilistic sitcom Bottom. The Echo reported “UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall brands BBC Question Time reaction ‘appalling’ … Bootle politician hits out after ECHO readers after being referred to as a 'bad Bootle UKIP meff’”.

In any case, it was too late - the Meme has stuck with him, and after he was declared the new leader of UKIP yesterday it was out in force, including “Nuttall. You've been disowned by the Scousers. You're just a #BadBootleMeff”, “UKIP picked a leader that isn't ever going to be voted in his home city, town or council. #BadBootleMeff”, and “UKIP leader #BadBootleMeff wants to privatise the NHS” (with Eddie Hitler photo).

There was more: “Wish news channels would stop saying ‘Liverpool born’ about the #badbootlemeff - it's not something we're proud about”, “I know this is of little consequence but that is a fucking shit tie that could only be worn by a #BadBootleMeff”, and “.@paulnuttallukip If you had 17 Euros for everyone who voted for you... your party would still be up to its knackers in debt. #BadBootleMeff”.

Paul Nuttall is now, in the minds of many voters, the northern embodiment of Eddie Hitler. And he’s a jumped-up tramp. Never was the Bad Bootle Meff moniker more deserved.

[UPDATE 30 November 1335 hours: Nuttall's first Little Local Difficulty appears to be a photo that has been circulated by the EDL News Twitter account (an account that is not pro-EDL, by the way).

This has told "Picture of the EDL's Stockport area leader, Andy Edge, cuddling up to new UKIP leader, Paul Nuttall. Please retweet".

I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. So let's hear it, eh Are Paul?]

Paul Nuttall, You’re A Bigot

The motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers otherwise known as UKIP has today elected a new leader, and to show the world just how serious they are about their politics, the man elected was Paul Nuttall, the party’s resident comedy Scouser, whose schtick is an amalgam of Pub Landlord and early Alexei Sayle.

What a day Missus! What a day!! How tickled I ham!!! What a day for shoving a grilled kipper through the vicar's letterbox!!!!

Nuttall is loud, he’s in your face, he’s insistent, and he’s a 24 carat, gold plated, copper bottomed, ocean going bigot. He told the BBC’s Daily Politics that “We will be focusing on the issues that really matter to working-class people on doorsteps - immigration, crime, defence, foreign aid, ensuring that British people are put to the top of the queue in the job market”. So plenty of discrimination against all those ghastly foreigners, then.

Losing candidate Suzanne Evans claimed that the result gave Nuttall “a ‘huge mandate’ to unite the party”. And the size of that “huge mandate”? “Mr Nuttall, who was born in Bootle, Merseyside and was UKIP deputy leader from 2010 until September this year, attracted 9,622 votes … Ms Evans came second with 2,973 votes (19.3%) and Mr Rees-Evans third with 2,775 votes (18.1%). There were 32,757 ballot papers sent out, with 15,405 votes cast”. He received fewer than 10,000 votes. Remember that number.

Why so? Because Nuttall also claimed “I want to replace the Labour Party and make UKIP the patriotic voice of working people”. A word in your shell-like, Are Paul. In Labour’s leadership contest earlier this year, Jeremy Corbyn polled more than 313,000 votes. Hell, even losing candidate Owen Smith polled over 193,000. And Paul Nuttall, positively endorsed by less than 10,000 people, wants to replace them. Yeah, right.

It gets worse: the turnout in the Labour leadership election was 77.6%. In UKIP’s contest, fewer than 50% of the ballots sent out were returned. This is a joke party sustained by a credulous media. And Nuttall has serious past form for rank bigotry.

Take, for instance, his attitude to the LGBT community, as Pink News has told: Nuttall “has called for people with HIV to be banned from the UK … is an opponent of LGBT rights … [LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education] ‘is just politically correct nonsense’ … Mr Nuttall has specifically courted the anti-LGBT vote [he has said] ‘On moral issues, we, more than any other political party, are more in line with Catholic thought. Whether it’s on gender-choice abortion or same-sex marriage, we are absolutely 100 percent behind the Catholic Church’”. And he’s been elected leader of an allegedly serious political party.

As Alex Andreou noted, Nuttall claimed “Brits fear all immigrants, regardless of where they would come from”. He has, as Adam Bienkov observed, “called for the the National Health service to be privatised … He is also against adverts which inform women about family planning and abortion … while Nuttall is in favour of removing the right of Muslims to wear what they please, he does not believe there should have been any restrictions on the right of Christians to express religious discrimination”.

He’s defended the use of blatantly sexist language. He’s a climate change denier. And he wants to bring all of that to bear in … replacing Labour. The reality is that he’s another fundamentalist right-winger, only with a Merseyside accent and a big gob.

Paul Nuttall may not be a serious politician. But he is potentially dangerous.

Kavanagh Brexit Fantasy BUSTED

The reality of what life outside the EU might mean became a little clearer last week, after the Autumn Statement revealed an impending increase in Government indebtedness and the prospect of a decade-long pay squeeze, meaning all those hard working readers of the Murdoch Sun facing a drop in their living standards, fewer nights out, forgetting all those long haul holidays, and no more lording it over mainland Europeans.

Why did Kavanagh cross the road? To score more and bigger paycheques for Himself Personally Now

But the Murdoch goons are still telling readers that this is all “Project Fear”, and what we really face is wall-to-wall good news. So to keep everyone’s spirits up, faithful retainer Trevor Kavanagh has been sent out to do what he does best - talk well, and lie badly. “Brexit Britain is going to need a hero … time to unleash Boris Johnson” is his refrain.

The idea of “unleashing” someone who has proved that he is terminally inept is the first sign that Kavanagh has been on something not only strong, but perhaps even illegal, something that is confirmed by his continuing “Right now, Britain needs a cheerleader … It need not be Mrs May herself who takes on this role. She has a Foreign Secretary who is designed and built to keep up public spirits”. Do go on.

“He should be unleashed without constraint on his jokes or his ripe language. They are what give him star quality”. Which won’t succeed in the hard-nosed negotiations to come. Try again. “EU negotiators pretend to be grumpy, but they love him, too. He speaks their languages, after all”. Why, do they all speak Pidgin Latin? But there’s more.

“In any case, we don’t need to keep our cards close to our chest. We hold nearly all the trumps. We can tell Brussels what we want and let them decide how to respond”. We can indeed tell Brussels what we want. And they can go into Smash advert mode.

“The UK has plenty of ammunition. Pessimists search for dark clouds behind the silver lining but nobody can ignore our boom in jobs, growth, exports and retail sales since the referendum”. Like what? “Jaguar plans 10,000 new jobs and a million new cars a year”. Bullshit. Jaguar has guaranteed precisely zero new jobs and will only consider some if the Government bungs it £450 million in bribes (remember the Nissan non-deal?).

“America, Canada, India and Australia are queuing to sign trade deals”. Bullshit. NONE of these countries is queuing to sign a trade deal. Any more whoppers? “China wants to splurge £4billion on a new Canary Wharf”. It just hasn’t committed as much as 5p yet, though. Still, minor point, eh Trev? Oh look, here comes another porkie.

“German firms want to expand here too and are begging Chancellor Angela Merkel to cut a deal with us”. Are they stuff. Name one (he can’t). Have another go. “In addition, the PM has more subtle cards to play … The EU is perhaps already in a death spiral”. Like the collected goons at the Murdoch press have been pretending for decades. It isn’t

“Squabbling EU states need us more than we need them”. No EU member states are squabbling. “Chancellor Merkel is terrified of being left alone with France and the others without our £14billion a year to keep them afloat”. Yeah, she looks dead scared. Not.

All that Bozza would do is screw it up a bit more - if the PM and her pals had the first idea what they were doing, which they haven’t. So stuff off Kav, and get real for once.

The President-Elect Is Paranoid

After Combover Crybaby Donald Trump apparently won the US Presidential Election earlier this month - results are still merely “projected”, and have not been finalised - it became apparent that, while he had won just over 300 of the 538 Electoral College votes, easily enough to get him into the White House, he had lost the popular vote, and by more than two million votes. And then came demands for recounts.

This move has been spearheaded by Jill Stein, who stood as the Green Party candidate. Ms Stein certainly isn’t going to win any of the states in which she is advocating a recount, but if sufficient extra votes accrue for Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump could be in big trouble. And that has sparked a petulant, paranoid, and most certainly non-Presidential outburst from The Donald, now back in control of his Twitter feed.

“The Green Party scam to fill up their coffers by asking for impossible recounts is now being joined by the badly defeated & demoralized Dems” he declared at the weekend, which is odd as Ms Stein is having to pony up somewhere north of $6 million to get the recounts. But then, Trump rarely makes sense in his Twitter rants.

It got worse: “The Democrats, when they incorrectly thought they were going to win, asked that the election night tabulation be accepted. Not so anymore!” Did they? Hell, he doesn’t care. But he would be right to worry - if the vote had been tampered with. That is because the three states concerned - Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - carry 10, 16 and 20 Electoral College votes respectively - enough to lose Trump the election.

Were all of those states to switch from red to blue, Trump would have only 260 Electoral College votes, and Ms Clinton 278. It is the longest of long shots, but Trump has been unsettled, reduced to asserting “Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in. Nothing will change”. How would he know that? Does he have access to the election machinery?

He even returned to Twitter yesterday evening to double down on his claims, ranting “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. It wasn’t a landslide, and he’s so far been unable to bring forward any evidence of illegality. And the vote margin in Wisconsin, at just over 10,700, is larger than has ever been overturned after a recount.

What is Trump’s problem? He’s still at it, claiming overnight of “Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!” Something of a “look over there” tactic, as Trump lost all three states. If he won the three states now being discussed, he should just be able to sit back, agree to let due process take its course, and carry on assembling his team for Government.

This is the man who, if he is inaugurated President in January, will have his finger on the nuclear button. After the weekend’s ranting, we should all be very afraid.

Toby Young Still Wrong On Brexit

After last week’s news that there would be a pay squeeze the likes of which very few still alive can remember coming down the line in the wake of Britain’s departure from the EU, some of those who campaigned for a Leave vote are now beginning to realise that not all might be rosy in the garden of their particular choosing.

More less than grown up analysis from Tobes

This includes the likes of Michael “Oiky” Gove, who this morning fetched up on The Andy Marr Show (tm) to claim that economists have got it all wrong in the past, and we should not worry. Gove’s support cast includes his faithful disciple the loathsome Toby Young, who has taken to Twitter to give ten “Arguments against a second EU referendum”.

Sadly, Tobes goes wrong at the first hurdle. “The electorate was told the #EURef was a binary, in-or-out choice and the result would be binding”. The result is not binding. It says so in the legislation setting it up. Try again. “If a second #EURef, why not a third? Why should we only regard the matter as settled if Remain wins?” Very good Tobes, that was the stated Modus Operandi of many of your fellow Leave campaigners (like Farage).

It doesn’t get any better: “If EU27 know ‘the deal’ will be subject to second #EURef, they're incentivised to offer us a bad deal”. They’ll play hardball Full Stop. The possibility of another vote will be immaterial. “If ‘the deal’ is rejected in a second #EURef, what would happen then? Apply to rejoin the EU? Unclear” Soil the bed, Tobes, WE’D STILL BE IN THE EU. Can it get worse? Let’s have a look at Excuse Number 5.

“Holding a second #EURef could fatally undermine faith in democracy of some of the 52% who voted Leave”. Threat of extra-Parliamentary action noted, thanks Tobes. And you’re talking crap. Ooh look, here’s a corker: “If Leave had lost, and they were calling for a second #EURef, Remain would dismiss them as poor losers”. Don’t tar the Remain campaign with the same brush already used by the Outers (who have spent the past five months calling anyone who voted Remain a sore loser who should shut up about it).

And another corker: “All the polling evidence suggests Leave would win a second #EURef. Why spend £142.4m on a re-run?” How the hell do you know? THERE’S NO DEAL ON THE TABLE YET. What’s Number 8 in the Tobes charts? “Holding a second #EURef because public were misinformed would be grounds for re-running all elections”. It’s not a General Election, Tobes. It’s for keeps, for ever, not for talking about in 5 years’ time.

Here’s a real belter: “The Conservatives made a manifesto promise to implement the #EURef result …  the Govt should do so”. Party should always honour manifesto commitments? Seriously? Get out of here. And so we come to the end of Tobes’ stone tablets, with “The UK will be better off outside the EU. Why delay our exit with a second #EURef?”. Conjecture on the basis of the square root of stuff all. Tobes, you are channelling Daniel Hannan and I claim my five pounds.

Sorry Tobes, but this is total crap. You really haven’t got the first idea about this subject, have you? To be fair, though, nor has our not at all unelected Prime Minister.

Don’t Menshn Far Right Watch

Paranoia must be a terrible thing. And paranoia exhibited publicly, on view for all to see, must be infinitely worse, if only the person exhibiting it were not just aware of it, but was prepared to own up to the problem. Sadly, in the case of (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch, owning up to having any problem is out of the question. But she does give the distinct and uneasy impression of rank paranoia.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

All of which brings us to a group - it’s a team effort - called Far Right Watch, which does exactly what it says on the tin, calling out the far right all the way from Combover Crybaby Donald Trump to Nigel “Thirsty” Farage to Geert Wilders to Marine le Pen and all the others who might have preferred to have lived under the past régimes of the Greek Colonels, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira Salazar.

So Far Right Watch may, on occasion, cover the same kinds of ground that Zelo Street does, but that is the extent of what we share. As far as I know, I’ve never met any of the Far Right Watch team, and nor have I been in touch with any of them via phone, email, Twitter DM, or by any other means. There is no connection between Zelo Street and Far Right Watch. But this thought has not been allowed to enter Ms Mensch’s head.

After Far Right Watch had made a disputed assertion about someone Ms Mensch had Retweeted, she made her first gaffe - well, first gaffe concerning this subject. Goodness knows how far advanced the Mensch gaffe totaliser has advanced by how - telling Richard Colledge “Rich, liars lie, it's what they do. Troll account sounds exactly like Obsessed Fenton to me”. Wrong. Again. On several counts. And there was more.

Under no pressure at all, Ms Mensch decided of her own volition to double down and not only make a spectacle of herself, but maximise the audience, and the subsequent ridicule, by going even more wrong: “must pretty much suck being Tim Fenton (to put it mildly) so I pay him no mind, block & ignore”. Well, as Far Right Watch isn’t me, then she isn’t paying anyone “no mind”. And, sadly, she wasn’t for listening to advice.

The Tweeter otherwise known as 872 Bastards (I’m not even thinking of asking), who clearly knows the reality of this situation, asked Ms Mensch “Do you think @Far_Right_Watch is Tim Fenton? Riiight”. But his words will fall on deaf ears: Ms Mensch is already off and running on her latest obsession, that of laying into Rosie O’Donnell, as witness the Tweet “FUCK YOU YOU DISGUST ALL MOTHERS”.

That’s in addition to all the other abuse she’s been hurling at Ms O’Donnell. But she thinks it’s others who have a problem with obsessiveness. And she can’t tell the difference between two very different Twitter presences. Louise Mensch appears to be suffering badly from the effects of being cooped up in that reassuringly expensive Manhattan apartment. Her refusal to listen to anyone or get help will not help her situation.

Now someone is out to get her. And remember, they allowed her to become an MP.