Yesterday, after Theresa May flew to Brussels in the middle of the night, so that Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker could provide her with a photo-op before they went off to their real triumph, a trade deal with Japan, I observed her abject capitulation and talked of “our free and fearless press, who have been spared the humiliation and given a whole day to dream up their stories of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat”.
Thank you for stopping by, Theresa, but I have to dash to see Mr Abe now
And anyone who thinks I was joking, or exaggerating, does not know the mindset of those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet: today has brought the snatching of victory, and with it the confirmation that many in the Press Establishment live in a world of utter and complete delusion. For ordinary Britons, yesterday was a worse humiliation than Suez. Soon, all we will have left is memories. But this is not allowed to enter.
Pride of place in the pantheon of reality reinvention has to go to the Daily Mail, where the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre has ordered his obedient hackery to levels of propagandist futility last seen in Japan just before the Yanks dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. “REJOICE! WE’RE ON OUR WAY … Historic handshake that sealed a vital step in our exit from EU” declares the headline. And there was more.
The Express, alongside another effort to frighten its ageing readership with exaggerated weather scares, declares “HUGE BREXIT BOOST AT LAST … May clinches deal … now let’s get on with ditching EU”. I think you’ll find that it’s the EU that’s ditching us, thanks.
And the Murdoch Sun, admittedly with lesser billing than the obligatory scantily-clad young woman and a main headline that is only of interest because of a soap opera on the hated BBC, has continued the delusion with “Brexit Deal … CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST”. There was neither champagne, nor the overall victory that the Murdoch goons have suggested.
It was left to, of all papers, the Telegraph to sound a note of caution, as it told readers of “The price of freedom”, going on to hold its nose while noting “3m EU citizens to be allowed to stay in Britain and bring their families”, and letting slip “UK to remain in Single Market and Customs Union until at least 2021” [my emphases].
The Mirror also veers towards some semblance of reality and honesty, chiding Ms May as “MRS SOFTEE”, reminding readers “Theresa May’s deal with EU will mean soft Brexit … Britain will pay divorce bill of at least £39 billion … PM abandons her ‘red lines’ to break deadlock”. But it was left to The Herald to spell out the humiliation to UK households.
“The Brexit bill for each home in the UK is set to hit £1,400” declares its headline today, following that with the ominous “Brussels threatening to play hard ball over trade talks after ‘breakthrough’”. Saying “this will cost £X per household” is a favourite tactic of papers like the Mail, Express and Sun. Not today. Today is for “looking over there”.
One of the new Guilty Men ((c) Martin Rowson 2016)
There is, whisper it quietly, nothing to rejoice about. Our country has been sold down the river on a pack of lies. We’re still a laughing stock, and not just across Europe. And all the press can do is to stick their collective heads in the nearest sandpit, pretend it’s not happening, and order us all to smile and be happy about being screwed over.
Power without responsibility once again. There go the harlots of Fleet Street.
3 comments:
You missed out John Rent-a-tool in the Saudi-dependent, who has now had two articles in successive days claiming that it was a magnificent triumph for Violet Elizabeth Maybot...because the EU had agreed to delay her humiliation from the Monday to the Friday.
When the history of the last decade or so comes to be definitively written, an entire volume will need to be dedicated to the rôle played in the serial fiascos of our time by 'journalists' who were either irredeemably corrupt, irremediably dim or simply unable to see what was actually there if it didn't suit their purposes.
Or, if your the Massive Staines, all three at once...
Britain's long, slow slither into a far right nightmare continues.
If you think it's bad now, wait a few years for the first effects of Brexit to get traction.
The Murdoch/Rothermere Volkischer Beobachter will get up a full head of steam promoting spivs like Richard Branson as "creators of wealth" "entrepreneurs" and "risk takers" as they loot what's left of the economy. The economy Blair/Brown New Labour "saved" from boom and bust - until The Great Bust of 2008. The economy the tories now loot typically at yet more expense of the most vulnerable.
What odds a new war to again distract attention? What was it Hearst said - "I'll provide the war. You provide the reports"?
Odd how they can find a billion to bribe the Northern Ireland Old Testament Party and three billion for a war mongering aircraft carrier, but little or nothing where it really matters.
Which is why we deserve what we get from a political class of parvenues and liars, and from their corrupt propaganda information clerks.
Except for a few honourable men and women this country has lost all sense of human decency and individual and collective pride. The result: Public life is almost full to the brim with low lives such as Shapps, Gove, May, Soubry, Hunt, IDS, Farage, Johnson, Hammond, Benn, Mann,
Umunna, Harriman, Field and all the other cheap spivs and corner shop mindsets.
The present is bad enough. But wait until you see a future that doesn't work except for a few power mad homicidal maniacs. You've seen nothing yet. And it isn't as though there have been no warnings.
Right wing press are like the Captain who is expecting to a winners medal for winning the toss.
The deal has not yet been sorted and when the detail is known, Mrs May will be toast.
Iain Dale was just as bad last night. Saying £40bn (a figure which has not been confirmed and never will be) was a really good deal, despite his side saying we’d pay nothing. It was a good deal because it wasn’t £100 bn.
In 12 months it may dawn on them we have to pay the £40bn+ to exit a club, but will then have to pay to be part of the same club, but with no voting rights or money paid back in the form of grants.
Not only that but we will also have to find the money to pay all those Brexit voting farmers and fishermen who no longer receive EU subsidies.
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