After yesterday morning’s optimism from the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press came the harsh reality for Theresa May, as her new and improved Brexit deal - which wasn’t - was once more voted down, this time by a majority of 149. So this morning, that same press has to blame someone. And the someone cannot be Ms May.
There is, though, a problem: the Prime Minister leads a party for which Brexit has become its own obsession. The 2016 referendum, rather like that called by Harold Wilson in 1975, was a means of holding the party of Government together. The whole Brexit project has since become little more than an internal Tory feud, with the interests of the wider electorate having to take a back seat. The press response? Ignore and project.
So it was that the Daily Mail’s mobile Gloom machine Stephen “miserable git” Glover told anyone still awake “Let’s consider those discreditable politicians who put party before country. Head of the queue is Jeremy Corbyn”. Ri-i-i-ight. The Tories put party before country, but Jezza did it and ran away. And he had more in the same vein.
“The dishonesty is breathtaking. Instead of offering constructive criticism of Mrs May’s hard-won proposals, Labour has pretended that it has a viable alternative … Corbyn’s latest sleight of hand has been to accept a second referendum under pressure from Labour Remainers while continuing to scheme for the general election he craves”. Baloney. He’s been consistent since Conference last year.
But Glover is away with the fairies as he froths “Why wouldn’t he, in the national interest, make common cause with Mrs May? Because his overriding preoccupation has been to secure an election so that he can unleash his barmy Marxist experiment on unsuspecting Britons”. It’s a Tory problem, not Labour’s. But the line is clear, and not just at the Mail.
The Murdoch Sun presented its readers with a particularly sour editorial this morning, telling “Some Remainers colluded with the EU. All have backed Brussels over Britain and now have the gall to lament the chaos they themselves have caused … Their stinking duplicity is only matched by Labour’s. Corbyn’s mob take the public for fools, posing as Leavers one minute, Remainers the next. Their sole concern is their party.”
Once again, projecting Tory problems on to Labour. One wonders if there are any circumstances in which the Tory-supporting press is prepared to concede that Theresa May is just a lousy Prime Minister who has come to the end of her road, rather than blaming Jezza, who has had no part in her failed project. But then, her press cheerleaders have good reason to go after Labour right now, as voters realise who really is to blame.
That realisation may have spooked the right-wing press into yet more Corbyn bashing. It may also be a sign that the bashing isn’t working. I’ll just leave that one there.
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Independent poll from 2018
ReplyDeleteThe far-right press of course won't blame their equally odious allies from the Extreme Right Group in the Tory Party that have brought us to this precipice, will they?
ReplyDeleteMarvellous, just MARVELLOUS, watching corporate print media disappearing up its own arse in a whirlpool of rabid froth.
ReplyDeleteTV broadcast media is only slightly behind it because the front rent boys and girls are visible while delivering their bullshit propaganda. Hence their use of weasel words to go with their weasel faces. Not that it will ever make a difference to, for instance, Kuenssberg's appropriately twisted mouth.
TIP: It's possible to keep up to date with far right print propaganda without paying for it. Take it off supermarket shelves, speed read it (it takes but a few minutes), then put it back on the shelves. Hey presto! You speed print media toward bankrupt redundancy! Then laugh in the face of Murdoch/Rothermere rent boys and girls.
Sorry, but Corbyn is to blame. He could've whipped his MPs into ending this farce, but has ending up making it worse. The press can't be held responsible for Corbyn's flip-floping on EU policy.
ReplyDelete@4
ReplyDeleteHow is Corbyn to blame?
Did he conduct the negotiations? Did he have a Commons majority? Did he make a whole series of pointless trips to Brussels and Strasbourg?
When could be have "ended this farce"? Please let everyone know.
Tim, don't hold your breath......
ReplyDeleteOf course May is primarily to blame - for her arrogance in believing she could do it all herself, with support from the right wing press and the BBC (Robbie Gibb being the intermediary) with total disregard for the 48% Remainers of a fraudulently conducted referendum (which neither she nor Corbyn have officially recognised).
ReplyDeleteHowever, Corbyn has been content to sit on the side lines for so long and try and have his "cake and eat it" with the differences within the Party (until they get around to deselect the ones that don't agree with Jezza)and even yesterday, at the very last minute, failed to even mention the possibility of a People's Vote which many of his supporters want.
So yes, I would blame both so called "leaders" for failing to lead where the livelihoods of many in question. Both have been guilty of putting Party, at least, before the health of the country.
Cue Anon and a history lesson with a "hard evidence" request which I see is now "beyond reasonable doubt" in respect of Russiagate.
In his own time - to quote someone I forget who. Hah! But then I wouldn't believe his sources either.
It will be interesting to see whether the polls show much difference after this week's events. Labour have been lagging behind for weeks after previously having been neck and neck with Corbyn lagging even further behind tghe desperate May.
Perhaps someone can produce "hard evidence" that those polls were wrong and that Labour internal polls show different?
Just seen on Twitter
ReplyDelete"#resistbrexit #revokeA50
@allanfisher01
3h3 hours ago
Replying to @UKLabour
Last night you proved you were a bunch of lying bastards after Corbyn reneged on the pledge to put Brexit back to the public. Rot in hell"
In a situation where "facts" can be bandied around to disinform from the echo chambers on all sides perception will be key to winning an election.
Interesting to see the "new" tactic to deflect blame from the Maybot and TIGgies.
ReplyDeleteA bit like the guy you meet after his team lost a derby match and says, "Couldn't make a good team out of both of them."
Laughable right wing garbage all of it. And great fun watching them squirm.
Odd, though, how Bomber Benn, Mad Mann and Hysterical Hodge have faded into the background......
@ Anon
ReplyDeleteWho said anything about deflecting the blame? They are all to blame!
To leave everything to the last minute on the hopes of an election which we were told was imminent two years ago is just as hapless as the Maybot's bunhker mentality. As was the call to invoke Art 50 from day 1.
As for the "TIGgies". At least they have concentrated minds on the problems that others have tried to overlook. And the Soubry, whether you like the rest of her politics or not, speech in the Commons attacking the ERG was something to behold.
Your correspondent from the derby match was right though wasn't he? You couldn't make a good team out of either front bench. But then derby matches nearly always attract over the top reactions by supportes when their favourites get beaten by the local opposition!
Hence the left wing deflections from such observation is equally amusing as are the ad hominems. Possibly are attempts to cover up the declining polling percentages? But then you have the "hard evidence" that is not so?
rob @ 11:14.
ReplyDeleteMore than a bit right wing daft that, since it's right wing politics that got us into this shit in the first place - and now makes it even worse.
The harridan Soubry "attacking the ERG"?......Don't make me larf. She was happy to share the same extremist policies for years until this one came along.
The TIGgies? The same narcissistic gang that won't stand for a democratic by-election?......Yeah, right. We'll see how they do if and when they have the guts to face the electorate.
You need to get out of the bunker more. There's still some fresh air left despite the right wing poison.