The drift of the Mail on Sunday, since Geordie Greig went to edit the Daily Mail and was replaced by Ted Verity, into a truly rogue newspaper has been gathering pace of late. Today it crossed the line from being a newspaper into operating as a propaganda tool, a deniable arm of Conservative HQ. Its front page splash is also notable for being total invention, a pack of lies so obvious that it is laughable.
“As MoS exposes plot to let Bercow send surrender letter to Brussels … No 10 PROBES REMAIN MPs’ ‘FOREIGN COLLUSION’” thunders the headline. It is as if every Tory tribalist’s masturbatory fantasy were thrown into one climactic wet dream. All the devils are brought together: Brussels, World War 2, Speaker Bercow, dastardly plots, betrayal, treachery, and of course all those ghastly people who don’t speak English.
But sadly, fantasy is all it is, hence the quote marks around the supposedly killer phrase “Foreign Collusion”. Because there isn’t any (minor point, eh chaps?): this claim was first invented some weeks ago by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog (along with the “Surrender Bill” claim). That means the MoS should have got at least one more reliable source to back it up. They haven’t, and so they can’t.
So let’s see what now passes as journalism at the MoS. “Downing Street has launched a major investigation into alleged links between foreign governments and the MPs behind the 'Surrender Act' which could force Boris Johnson to delay Brexit, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Sources said No 10 took the unprecedented action after officials received intelligence that the MPs, including former Cabinet Minister Oliver Letwin, had received help drafting the Bill from members of the French Government and the European Union”.
And to that I call bullshit. There is no credible intelligence to back up that claim. But good to see that the old stand-by of blaming the French is being wheeled out again. So where has the story come from? Ah well. It does not take too long to discern the hand of Downing Street’s chief polecat Dominic Cummings at work behind the scenes.
Like here: “Last night, a senior No 10 source said: 'The Government is working on extensive investigations into Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and Hilary Benn [who tabled the Bill] and their involvement with foreign powers and the funding of their activities. Governments have proper rules for drafting legislation, but nobody knows what organisations are pulling these strings”. The Government is doing no such thing.
But do go on “'We will demand the disclosure of all details of their personal communications with other states. The drafting of primary legislation in collusion with foreign powers must be fully investigated.’” We’re getting very close to the language being ramped up to “Collaborator”. There is also a whiff of anti-Semitism.
Not that the MoS wants to suggest a connection between Oliver Letwin, who is Jewish, and the phrase “pulling these strings”. Especially as the article goes on to talk about “claims from senior sources that Mr Letwin had agreed the January 31 date in the first Benn Act with figures at the French Embassy in London”.
All that this lamentable piece of pseudo-journalism tells us is that the MoS’ political editor has been reduced to taking dictation from Polecat Dom. Sad, really.
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6 comments:
Has the Mail used the term "quisling" yet? Probably just a matter of time.
Once upon a time it was possible to think fascism could never get traction in this country. We thought our institutions - especially our working class institutions - made it impossible. That is no longer the case. Almost all of them have come close to disintegration since 1979.
In their place we have The World According To Murdoch/Rothermere. Exactly the same mentality that underpinned destruction of the Weimar Republic and created the mad myths, lies and mass murder of Nazi Germany. Which is why at times it feels like Britain is occupied by a creed alien to everything decent in a civilised society. Make no mistake: Murdoch/Rothermere and their bought-and-paid-for employees are evil and rotten to the core.
Johnson and his gang and their dupes may not be uniformed Nazis. But they have the same kind of desensitised, conscience-free greedy lunacy which poisoned half the world in the last century, and which now threatens to do the same here and in the USA. All of it is dressed up in Far Right Newspeak written and formed by cowardly corrupt apparatchiks in broadcast and press media. Don't kid yourself they'll ever change.
We have reached the stage where Britain either wants a civilised and fair society or it doesn't. If it doesn't, WE KNOW WHERE IT LEADS.
The Mail was strangely silent on the attempt by Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski to influence the Polish government to block a previous Article 50 extension.
The information was "surrendered" by someone who was too "chicken" to be accountable.
Sounds like an Alexander the Great Piffle modus operandi to me.
Shirt Cummings propaganda to divert attention away from 'foreign collusion' to block another extension.
I have many reasons for hoping Jo Maughnam's petition for a Boris related "nob off" succeeds but the devil in me is looking forward to the Mail's reactions if it does.
https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1177682688804868096
It's an abbreviation of a privilege afforded in Scots law, nobile officium, which allows the court in matters of urgency to act in the name of a recalcitrant sinner. Essentially if it succeeds the Scottish Court would write the letter requesting an extension to Brexit required by the Benn act on Boris' behalf like a parent apologising for a misbehaving child.
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