Bozo Gets Miliband + Corbyn Treatment

While Ed Miliband was Labour leader, the Daily Mail, under the less than benign editorship of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, attacked him via his late father Ralph. More recently, Miliband’s successor Jeremy Corbyn was the target of a hatchet job biography by ultimate bad faith actor Tom Bower. Now the two attack lines have come together to go after alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

The paper bringing both barrels to bear on Bozo is one which had been in the vanguard of his support - the Mail on Sunday. And the front page tells you all you need to know, thundering “Affairs, family feuds, dynamite gossip - major new biography by top investigative author … BORIS’ DAD BROKE HIS MUM’S NOSE … PM’s mother reveals she ended up in hospital as she tells writer: I want to truth to be known”.

We are then told that this is the “Political book of the year”, which, along with calling Bower a “top investigative author” is inflating this particular soufflé way beyond the limit of viability, but that is not the real story here. Less than a year after his General Election triumph, we are now being told that Bozo has somehow become “not the Boris people voted for”. The right-wing press would not have bothered with this book last December.

A smile, a song, and a smear - Tom Bower

So what would the MoS like us to know? “Mr Bower describes Stanley’s first marriage, to Mr Johnson’s mother Charlotte, as violent and unhappy, quoting her as saying: ‘He broke my nose. He made me feel like I deserved it’ … Last night, family friends confirmed the story to this newspaper, but insisted that the incident had been a one-off … They added that Stanley, now 80, deeply regretted the incident, which led to Charlotte being taken to hospital and denied that he had been violent on any other occasion”.

Then comes a revealing snippet: “Marina [Wheeler] blamed Stanley for her marriage’s collapse and refused to speak to him. Like Boris’s first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, she said that Boris’s adultery mirrored his father’s habits. The same unhappiness Stanley had spread among his own children, Marina said, was being repeated by Boris towards his four children with her”. Students of recent US Presidential history will recognise the parallel.

Old Joe Kennedy mistreated women horribly; both Jack Kennedy and his younger brother Teddy were appalling womanisers. It was said that JFK, who bedded three women on the night of his inauguration - none of whom was his wife - was a man able to make love with one eye on his watch. But Bozo is not JFK. He’s an increasingly sad figure.

Another fine mess you've gotten me into, Stanley

And that appears to be Bower’s view. Sad, alone, needy, insecure, finding any security in a series of affairs, Ms Wheeler putting on a brave face very much in the manner of Jackie Kennedy. So why is the MoS kicking him now? It appears to be yet another manifestation of the right-wing media establishment falling out of love with their former champion.

Everyone already knew Bozo couldn’t keep his pants zipped up, that his Dad had also screwed around, that he’d fallen out with his kids. But to have it trowelled on by an infamous smear merchant in a right-leaning paper is different. It will hurt. And it is designed to keep on hurting - until and unless he decides to quit Downing Street.

The Murdoch press suggested Bozo was finished. The Rothermere press seems to agree.

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

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet7