Boris Proves Owen Jones Right

As if the media class had not already disgraced itself enough during the Covid-19 outbreak, off it went again yesterday, only to be pulled up sharp by another intervention of reality. This time it was journalist and campaigner Owen Jones whose actions started off a torrent of sneering, only for him to be proved right once again.

On Sunday evening, Jones had a thinking out loud Tweet where he asked “We need to all unite around 5 demands the government must agree to implement during the coronavirus crisis. What should they be?” It soon became clear that what he was thinking was not what the vast majority of the media class was thinking. Because they were not considering anyone else, and especially not those at the bottom of the economic food chain.

So it was that Robert Colville of the CPS - a superb example of an economically unproductive individual - sneered “Demand one: listen to medical and epidemiological experts not online activists. Demands two-five: see demand one”. He’s all right, Jack.

Jones reminded him “You can afford to snark about people using their platform to address the crisis facing low paid, insecure workers who can’t survive on statutory sick pay or face redundancy, because you [have] a well paid job at a think tank funded by wealthy donors whose identities you are hiding”. For Colville, the world is still excellent.

Trying to straddle the issue, with eye-watering consequences, was the Mail on Sunday’s not even slightly celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges: “One thing I would say - although [Owen Jones] and [Grace Blakeley] et al are going to spend the next couple of months launching ritualistic attacks on the Government, Ministers are going to have to get a grip on the economic side. Branson's ‘take 8 weeks paid leave’ won't cut it”.

Jones had two things to say to that. “I’ve spent the day with a delivery driver, and a cleaner paid poverty wages to clean government buildings, neither of whom can live on statutory sick pay. It’s not ‘ritualistic attacks’ to demand our government act to stop millions like them being driven into extreme hardship”. Oh, and “it's 8 weeks UNpaid leave, and I hope you'll now use your platform to draw attention to the huge social crisis threatening millions of workers, rather than whatever tittle tattle you've picked up from a drunk Tory minister in a Parliamentary bar”. OUCH! And the Tweeter known as James in Germany had more.

“[Owen Jones] is making the point that very large sections of the population are about to become borderline destitute. Why are you mocking and vilifying him for caring about those people? More to the point - why don’t you care about those people?” Quite. Colville and Hodges demonstrate how selfish, featherbedded and out of touch the media class really is.

And then alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson proved Jones’ concerns in spades, by advising against visiting pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and arts venues. But not mandating closure of them. Paul Brand at ITV: “Massive problem for restaurants, pubs, entertainment industries. Government says don't go, but has not enforced closure, meaning none of them can claim insurance. One event organiser tells me: ‘If they don't enforce any closures then pretty much the whole arts will go bust.’”

This morning, Sunny Hundal has concluded “Anything less than a Universal Basic Income isn't going to be enough, it looks like”. Owen Jones’ concern is spot on. Once more.

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