Harry Cole? John McDonnell Was Right

During his stint at Politics Co UK, Adam Bienkov sat in on a meeting of Jeremy Corbyn supporters, noting that John McDonnell “told the audience he had recently received a phone call from somebody introducing themselves as a journalist from The Sun. ‘I said look, you can be one or the other, but you can't be both,’ he quipped”. McDonnell has just been proved right, as the Murdoch title has announced a change of political editor.

The odious flannelled fool himself ...

As Press Gazette has told, the current incumbent, non-bullying Tom Newton Dunn, is being shuffled off to new Murdoch venture Times Radio. He “will be a presenter and chief political commentator at the station, owned by Sun and Times parent company News UK, which is due to launch this summer … He will host shows in the station’s weekly schedule and present special political programmes for events like election nights and the Budget. He will also continue to write for the Sun”. So who is his replacement?

Ah well. Remember what McDonnell told that audience back in 2015? Here it comes: “Harry Cole will replace Sun political editor Tom Newton Dunn … rejoining the paper from the Mail on Sunday where he has been deputy political editor since 2018 … He was previously Westminster correspondent for the Sun after leaving political blogging site Guido Fawkes. He has also worked as contributing editor for The Spectator”.

Ha ha ha ha ha Harry Cole. Who couldn’t edit his way out of a paper bag. Who has been pretending to be a journalist ever since, as sole author of the Tory Bear blog, he called the phone hacking scandal disastrously wrong. Who claimed that being a contributing editor to the Spectator would open the door at any party, just before it failed to get him access to a private event hosted by Steve Coogan on behalf of campaigning group Hacked Off.

... and one of his greatest scoops (like heck)

Harry Cole. Whose first Sun front page was a pack of lies, disowned by the source Cole quoted to stand up his untrue claim that Jeremy Corbyn would have to be sworn of the Privy Council or Labour would lose their allocation of “Short Money”. The same Harry Cole who was big pals with Mark Clarke of Tory bullying infamy. Harry Cole, whose skill set extends very little further than being able to take dictation from the spooks.

Master Cole has continued the unintentional hilarity by telling “I want to thank Tom Newton Dunn, who … gave me a shot in the Lobby”. I say, is that legal? But Sun editor Victoria Newton, recently named in court documents relating to more of those pesky phone hacking claims, is more than happy to have the principle-free Cole on board.

The only problem is her detachment from reality: “Harry started his career at The Sun, and in his inimitable, mischievous way has firmly established himself as the scourge of politicians, breaking a string of fabulous scoops”. Like the one about Corbyn, the Privy Council, and Short Money? Cole couldn’t score a scoop in a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday needs a new deputy political editor, and Cole’s former pal in the service of the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham, is at a loose end after BuzzFeed ended its UK political operation.

Why is the press stuck in an increasingly downward spiral? I couldn’t possibly comment.

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