Nothing demonstrates the double standards of our free and fearless press more clearly than their attitude to those who may be, or may become, Prime Minister. For the alleged incumbent of !0 Downing Street, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, no behaviour is too shocking, no wrong can be done. But when the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn taking over the Top Job is considered, however it happens, this is bad. And it is wrong.
An absolute Muppet. And Elmo from sesame Street
So it is with the thought that the Queen may be dragged into politics, something from which she wisely maintains her distance. Earlier this week it was decreed that Bozo The Clown losing a vote of no confidence in the Commons would have no effect. This was concluded by the not at all well known constitutional expert, the loathsome Toby Young.
“No one on this [BBC Newsnight] panel has grasped that if Boris loses a VoNC he won’t resign; he’ll run down the clock until he loses a VoC and then call an election, with polling day after Oct 31st. For chapter and verse, see my blog in the [Spectator]”, he announced. Tobes decreed that Johnson and Polecat Dom had “made it crystal clear that Boris would use the powers vested in the PM by the FTPA to postpone the date of the election until *after* October 31st”. And that would be OK, then, would it?
So that was all right, then. Bozo and his chief polecat could please themselves. But not Jezza, as this morning’s front pages made all too clear. The idea that there could be any path to Corbyn becoming PM has clearly frightened the crap out of those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet, and the righteous excuses are being prepared.
“Queen facing crisis over Corbyn’s demand to be PM” warns the joke paper still pretending to be the Express, while the Murdoch Times claims “Jeremy Corbyn will go to Buckingham Palace in a taxi to tell the Queen ‘we’re taking over’ if Boris Johnson lies a vote of no confidence, John McDonnell has said”. Thus it would all be Labour’s fault, not that of scheming Polecat Dom, who would have caused the crisis in the first place.
The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has gone yet further, telling “John McDonnell last night threatened to drag the Queen into a constitutional crisis by claiming Labour would ‘take over’ if Boris Johnson refused to quit were he to lose a confidence vote”, despite McDonnell saying what he said not last night, but the night before last.
And just in case that were not enough, the Tel also frothed “Mr McDonnell was also accused of forming an ‘unholy alliance’ with nationalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland”, thus reinforcing the rank hypocrisy. It’s fine for Johnson and his pals to form an alliance, unholy or otherwise, with the DUP. But not for Labour to ally with the SNP.
The Tel then sold the pass by summoning David Starkey to pontificate on the constitutional implications, and having the alleged historian claim that McDonnell was a “revolutionary Communist”. This means Starkey had no sensible contribution to make to the debate.
None of the right-wing papers let slip that McDonnell’s objective was to prevent the country from being screwed over by letting Johnson and his chief polecat impose a No Deal Brexit upon it. After all, the press and its hangers-on won’t be the ones who get screwed over.
So their man gets to do what he likes, and stuff the rest of us. No change there, then.
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Once Starkey* appears you know the subject has slipped over into far right forehead knuckling pantomime. Even Lizzy Von Windsor might baulk at listening to that loopy poltroon.
ReplyDelete* A sort of pearly king Minford.
Love that dementia headline next to a photo of Brenda!
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember "Queen supports Brexit", that Sun headline widely believed to have come from Gove? That might have shifted a few opinions back in 2016, but of course, its OK to change your mind as long as it's the right way.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBut how could McDonnell not notice that his way of expressing a simple constitutional fact was a gift to a slavering Tory press. Almost on a par with his gift to Osborne when he gave him the Little Red Book.
It's no good complaining about Tory press hypocrisy, that's a given that needs to be planned around as far as that is possible.
There's going to be a lot of opportunities for the rags to try to destroy Labour's chances between now and the election. Don't make it any easier for them.
You might have thought John McDonnell's statement that Scottish independence "...is up to the Scottish people" was a straightforward democratic statement. That if the Scots want it strongly enough there is no power on Earth capable of stopping them, as all the European empires discovered elsewhere on the planet and as the US Empire will discover soon enough.
ReplyDeleteIn that historical context tory media are as irrelevant as they were during the inevitable demise of the criminal British Empire and its assorted mass murders and thievery.
In fact this is merely the latest example of far right corrupt media propaganda. Next week it will be something else and so on ad nauseam. If people are stupid enough to fall for it they will deserve the kind of (even more) disgusting society they will inevitably get.
There was nothing wrong with McDonnell's words. But speaking truth is not on the corporate media agenda, and hasn't been for many decades. No wonder the Scots, Welsh and Irish want out of the Union.