As the final campaigning for this week’s General Election gets under way, the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, for which read most of it, has embarked upon an orgy of Labour bashing unparalleled in modern times, or perhaps in any times. The Express, Mail, Telegraph and Times have trumpeted the marvels of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his late allegiance to walkabouts.
But at the Murdoch Sun, it is all about knocking copy, as the front page headline screams “Devastating Special Report … Waking up to Corbyn as PM on Friday the 13th would just be the start of a … NIGHTMARE … Seduced by Labour’s manifesto bribes? Read our experts’ grim vision of Marxist Britain”. Frightened shitless, much?
So let’s see just who those “experts” are. After all, not even the Super Soaraway Currant Bun would just cobble together a bunch of right-wing nonentities with a variety of axes to grind and nothing more to offer than slagging off the Labour leadership, would they? Er, that’s exactly what they’d do. “Experts” is pushing it a bit.
Take Robert Colville, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies. He’s their expert on the economy. The CPS is deeply Conservative. It was co-founded by Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher. It is an Astroturf lobby group which, like the TPA, IEA, ASI and others, seeks to shrink the public sector. Colville is not a disinterested party to this election.
Nor is Liam Halligan, who claims to be an “economist and broadcaster”. Halligan fronted the infamous Channel 4 Dispatches hatchet job on the HS2 project, which had clearly decided what its conclusion would be beforehand. He later endorsed a claim that reopening the Great Central Main Line would be a viable HS2 alternative. It would not.
Then we have Richard Kemp sounding off about defence. Kemp is a racist bigot who has no experience of Government. He is, by inference, supporting Bozo The Clown, who is frightened of a couple of interviews. Bozo would not stand up to anyone, let alone Britain’s enemies. And then we get to allegations of anti-Semitism.
Enter Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, who claims to speak for “the vast majority of British Jews”, which he does not. Pollard is also deeply Conservative. He told Guardian readers back in 2012 “A political heavyweight with mass appeal - Boris Johnson is the holy grail of Conservatism”. He’s a long-time Bozo booster.
And finally we get to the “expert” on the press. Sadly, Brendan O’Neill was unavailable to sign for his paycheque, and so it is Mick Hume of Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago, who has volunteered to claim that Jezza “effectively wants to nationalise the news, with publicly-funded media outlets promoting ‘public interest’ journalism”.
That is dishonest drivel, but predictably so, as is the final “expert”, Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK. Yes, a selfish lobby group bleating for cheaper fuel so that those who drive can keep on chucking out the pollutants, while we’re facing a Climate Emergency. Right on cue, he’s whining about cycling and rail travel. For him, climate change isn’t a problem.
These are not experts. They are, to a man, deeply Conservative. They support the Tories. And none of them can be trusted any further than they can be usefully chucked.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at
21 comments:
Looks like they're running scared
Gammons of the world unite!
"with publicly-funded media outlets promoting ‘public interest’ journalism”. From a writer who is funded by the billionaire extreme right-wing Koch Bros.
God give me strength.
It's all Putin's doing I tell you...Putin...Putin...And Putin again. Or something. Button duly pressed again......
Meanwhile, as forecast, bullshit again excretes from the Murdoch/Rothermere neofascist jobsworth Uriah Heeps. Who become less relevant with every increasingly hysterical lie. They and their dupes are the only ones who don't realise it. Tedious far right meffs the lot of them. An entire media-savvy generation is laughing in their faces.
If this country is crazy enough to elect the Bozo tories you might as well ready yourself for an even worse socioeconomic Dark Age of thievery and looting at EVERYBODY'S expense - except, of course, the Bullingdon/Canary Wharf/London Plastic Yanks money-laundering mafia. Nobody else will be safe. The past four decades will be a comparative picnic. The eventual consequences don't bear consideration.
The warnings are all there, including the final dissolution of the British union. They are ignored at the peril of national sanity. That's how rotten-to-the-core are the tories and their allies in New Labour and the LibDems.
It's election week... I predict a fresh "scandal" for labour, and possibly another terrorist attack. They wheeled out the rabbi's attack a bit early, I can't believe they don't have something else ready to fire.
Something has got the Tory media rattled, wonder why?
Best wheel out 'Tory' Laura for a No10 PR broadcast.
@13:35 So if the Tories win on Thursday is that going to be the fault of New Labour and the Lib Dems as well?
@ 19:00.
If you can't see the connection you haven't been paying attention to the public record of the last four decades.
Which makes you a naive political mug. Which is your problem to solve. Good luck.
@19:55
Labour want me to vote for them, so I'd say it's their problem to solve.
Sounds like your problem is you are heartless enough to vote any party other than Labour. I'd be inclined to say that was your problem and, as thus isn't a therapy site, perhaps you'd us all a favour and go elsewhere
@ 21:24.
It isn't Labour's task to do anything other than present their case for government. Which they have done rather well in the face of the worst far right corporate media propaganda barrage in British history - even by the "standards" of that corrupt industry.
If you are "unable"* to read and understand a clear explanation then the problem lies with yourself.
Still, good luck in your "efforts" to understand. It seems you have a long, long way to go. Which will suit only the tories and their paymasters.
* This may be more than slightly tongue-in-cheek.
There's none so blind...
I haven't actually said who I'm voting for (although I do live in a place with a strong enough majority that voting is almost but not quite pointless). I'm trying to make the point that it's the duty of each party to convince the electorate, and if the response of people to anyone who isn't sure about voting Labour is to insult and belittle them then I think that's a terrible, self destructive approach that will result in another lost general election and 5 more years of Tory rule. Stop smugly agreeing with your friends and start actually trying to convince your enemies.
(Of course this is a bit of a derailment so if Tim wants to block this off then that's fine.)
"They are, to a man, deeply Conservative."
I know you used a capital 'C', but the way it reads suggests the subjects of the article have conservative political views. I would counter there is nothing conservative about today's Conservatives - the closest that comes to conservatism as we have known in our lifetimes is probably the lib dems. Perhaps I could suggest the more cumbersome: "They are, to a man, deep Conservative party supporters"
@ 09:37.
"...convince your enemies"?
Christ, where have you been for the last four decades? The country has been quite literally crumbling around you and you think you can argue with a bulldozer driven by a gang of sociopaths? A gang who even deny the existence of society. A gang with a mindset not too far removed from Nazism. And a country on the brink of disintegration.
Blair and Brown were supposed to "convince their enemies" too. Instead, they joined them. And then helped destroy whole societies and kill hundreds of thousands of innocents and create millions of refugees. The same goes for the LibDems. So much for your "convincing".
You can no more "convince" that mindset than you could convince a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi, Fascist or religious Falangist. If you think you can you are living in cloud cuckoo land. So are those who think they are "safe" - but who will eventually become victims too (for which, see threats against the BBC).
So here are a couple of suggestions: Nip down to tory HQ and "convince" them. Then do the same with any of the Murdoch/Rothermere/BBC propaganda clerks. Then report on your "conviction rate". Alternatively you could retry the Blair-Brown approach. See how far you get.
Or you could just carry on as you are...deluded and duped about some mythical "middle way" or "third path". Given your previous comments the latter is more likely. But it's your funeral.
Liam, I'm not being funny but almost all of your contributions to this site seem to follow a fixed pattern of arguing with Anonymous, criticising Labour and then falling back on two things; one, the 'you don't know how I vote' line and two, the hope that Tim will close the comments down, which has occurred in the past. I suspect your whole intention is to derail frankly. Also for what it's worth, it's pretty poor to act the injured party and claim everyone presumes how you vote and then go on to presume something of others. I have spent every spare minute of this campaign canvassing and convincing voters as I'm sure others have too, rather than 'smugly agreeing with friends'. But the golden rule of canvassing is to know when you're fighting a lost cause with a voter on the doorstep or on the phone. I suspect it's a lost cause with you.
I agree with Squizzler there. Cameron calling a referendum on the EU was the least small-c conservative thing could have done... He took something that was important to a tiny fraction and turned it into a massive political fight that has fractured both his party and the entire country. He gambled that it would shut up the ERG lot oncr and for all and lost. That's not small-c conservative. That's reckless abandon.
@Mark
That's a completely fair comment. I don't tend to post much the rest of the time because, well, I normally agree with Tim and don't see much point in just posting "you are correct". I think my frustrations come because the thought of the Tories staying in power makes me absolutely sick. I would be thrilled for Labour to win this election. And I have huge respect for people going out and canvassing (which is what I meant by my over dramatic "convince your enemies" line... We absolutely need to convert Tory, BXP and non-voters to our side).
I just get frustrated at Labour supporters who spend almost as much time criticising Blair and the LibDems as they do the actual current government. I do think there is merit in an approach that appeals to a larger variety of voters. I'd much rather have a party that I 60% agree with that actually wins a general election than a party that I agree with 90% that doesn't. Until and unless we change our election system, I am going to have to vote with the least worst option, which in this case would be whatever party has the best chance of keeping out the Tories in my area.
We literally have 4 days left to save the country and Twitter is still full of rapid fanatics convinced that every poll is a conspiracy that that the Tories are running scared. It's a willful blindness that depresses me. Until Labour confront the issues of their lack of popularity then they'll never win. And everytime they don't win, the Tories do, and the country just gets worse and worse.
So, you're right, this isn't healthy, I've said my piece and I'll now stop and go back to having anxiety attacks for the next 3 days. :)
Liam, thanks for taking my words on board without offence, which I did not intend. Ultimately I just don't see the merit of us arguing, and I'll address that remark to Anon too. If we find ourselves here on Tim's blog then the chances are there's more to unite us than divide us... Unless there is trolling of course. I do agree though, we should direct our anger towards the tories, though I do take on board Anon's view that the Lib Dems and the Blairites are responsible for the mess we are in. Thanks for responding to my somewhat inarticulate plea
*the Lib Dems and Blairites arelso responsible... That should read
No prob. I'd actually argue against the LibDems being responsible... There is plenty of evidence that they curbed the worst of Tory policies when they were in coalition, as can be seen by how much worse the Tories got when they were free of them. I do think that they were at best naive and at worst absolute idiots not to realise that they'd take all the blame for every bad thing that happened, and they should have insisted on a change to FPTP rather than settling for a referendum that they were always going to lose. But ultimately it doesn't matter and that's a conversation that can be tabled for the future. The LibDems aren't in power. Blair isn't in power. The Tories are, and the absolute priority is getting them out. Anything else is just a distraction.
Post a Comment