It’s The Sun Wot Lost It

In 2015, we were told that it would be the election when social media finally eclipsed the dinosaurs of the press establishment. It didn’t happen: the Tories unexpectedly gained a majority, mainly by spending obscene amounts of money and shafting their former coalition partners, the hapless Lib Dems. Once again, the Murdoch goons could claim that It Was The Sun Wot Won It. But after yesterday’s poll, it all looked so different.

Of course I'm not f***ing resigning, c***

The Sun, with the Daily Mail close behind, ran wave after wave of hatred, spite, dishonesty, bigotry, a tsunami of intolerance and negativity with which they fully expected to deliver Theresa May a thumping majority. The hatchet jobs on Jeremy Corbyn were relentless, the scare stories unremitting. It didn’t work. The Tories have lost their majority and must depend on the DUP to take them over the win line.

It was her fault. We had no part in it

For the two editors concerned, there must now be a question mark over their future. We know that the Sun’s Tony Gallagher will be sacked as soon as the post-election dust has settled; this is an open secret among those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet. The legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail is well past retirement age, and is rapidly becoming a parody of himself.

You're getting sacked in the morning

Both papers slavishly backed Ms May - a truly dreadful campaigner - as she stumbled from one pre-prepared soundbite combination to another. She was hollow, she was empty, she was unable to answer directly the most basic of questions. She never faced a genuinely open public gathering. Corbyn, by contrast, revelled in rallies, the confidence growing and smile broadening as the campaign progressed.

Yeah, her fault. Nothing to do with us, honestly

Social media may not have landed a decisive blow. But it is now well and truly in the ascendant. The press dinosaurs, by contrast, weighed down by their entourage of clueless and obscenely overpaid hacks and pundits, with their advertising revenue in freefall, got the mood of the country totally wrong, unable to do so much as peer out beyond their hermetically sealed bubble. This was their last hurrah.

Bye bye Fawkes credibility ...

And what of the supposedly feared right-wing blogosphere? Forget it. Their main player, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, has sold out to the press establishment, his credibility well and truly shot through. Staines and his pals were forecasting that the Tories would win almost 400 seats. They are no less out of touch than the press to which they have hitched their wagon.

... here were the Fawkes predictions. Bunch of tossers

The media establishment might not like The Canary, Evolve Politics and Skwawkbox, but they are clearly here to stay. Also, whisper it quietly, Zelo Street is still around, ready to subject the terminally clueless part of the Pundit Establishment - for which, read most of it - to a regular dose of reality. And most of the younger voters that turned out this time don’t care about the press. It is a situation they will find hard to accept, let alone understand.

This time, It Was The Sun Wot Lost It. The right-wing press has finally shot its bolt.