He may have held his nose as he did it, but Tony Blair deemed it so important to get the Murdoch mafiosi on side during the mid-1990s that he paid fealty at the court of Don Rupioni. As a result, he received the backing of the Super Soaraway Currant Bun during the three General Election campaigns he undertook as Labour leader.
And with Dark Lord Mandelson rumoured to be hovering in the background of Keir Starmer’s inner circle, it should surprise no-one at all that the current Labour leader is also moving to play nice with the media group that, more than any other, has coarsened public discourse, indulged in a variety of illegal behaviour, stirred up hatred, and in leaving the EU, which will impoverish 99% of its population, well and truly screwed the UK.
That much is predictable: what is sticking in the craw of many a Labour supporter this morning is that, while the Tories are gathering for a party conference in Manchester, not so far away from the city where the
Sun is still unwelcome 32 years after the Hillsborough stadium disaster, Starmer should have chosen this moment to court the
Sun.
Rupe's most likely message to Labour
What did he have
to tell the readership? “
I don’t want people to have another Christmas spoiled by Boris Johnson’s incompetence”. Did he need that to appear in the Sun? But there is more. “
This chaos hasn’t come about by chance. It is a crisis made in Downing Street … A crisis created by this Prime Minister’s incompetence. The shortage of HGV drivers should not have been a surprise to the government”. So far, so routine.
He’s pointing out the reality of where we are now. But, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here.
One, during his pitch for the Labour leadership, in Liverpool, he said this: “
This city has been wounded by the media - The Sun [fx: booing] - a hurt for this city. And I certainly won’t be giving any interviews to the Sun during the course of this campaign”.
A city the Labour leadership may have forgotten about ...
And
Two, it was revealed by the host during the newspaper review on
The Andy Marr Show™ this morning, that it was not the Murdoch goons who approached Starmer to write for the paper, but he and/or his team who went to the
Sun and asked them to let him.
It was his initiative. That just makes it look worse to all those activists.
It also comes not so long after the Hillsborough death toll rose from 96 to 97. Andrew Devine, who suffered irreversible brain damage as a result of the crush in the pens of the Leppings Lane End, was deemed by the coroner to have been the disaster’s 97th victim, and that he had been unlawfully killed. His
name will be added to the Hillsborough memorial outside Anfield stadium. He only died two months ago.
... and one event in particular
Maybe Keir Starmer believes that, despite the adverse comment, he has to make nice with the Murdoch mafiosi. Maybe the reaction is “priced in”. Maybe he thinks that Labour is in such a strong position on Merseyside that the party will still clean up there at the next General Election. But this will not enthuse Labour activists across the North West.
His problem is that the likes of Mandelson are yesterday’s politicians. Their tools were focus groups and triangulation. But you can’t focus group and triangulate against a congenital liar like alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
Nor can you trust the Murdoch goons not to shit on you come the next election.
Hint.
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9 comments:
No surprise there, then.
At least for those who watched his toe-curling, cringeworthy, embarassing "speech" at the Labour Conference.
Complete with Jo Swinson pantomime-style outstretched arms (remember her five months LD "leadership"...which ended with her dumped onn her arse) and tory bullshit "family values", "crime" and "work ethic". Then, most comic of all, the slogan "Action not slogans" - without, of course, proposing any action at all. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the useless gett and his apologists.
The fellow is a fraud, a fake, a liar and a hypocrite of the worst kind. Just another red tory Quisling, an embryo Bliar/Brown and just as capable of absolute betrayal and treachery. An appalling figure who looks and sounds as though he doesn't even believe his own words. A classic political example of why this country has become a far right reactionary shithole.
So no wonder he's ended up schmoozing the OzYank nazi, as did Bliar/Brown. Like them, he's peddled what remained - virtually zero anyway - of conscious morality.
I remember I bought Peter fondlebums self penned biog from a charity shop not long after it came out. Only 2 quid I thought, I’ll give it a pop and read it on the lav from time to time. Straight away he’s talking about being aboard some oligarchs yacht in the med with Osborne and they’re all luvin each other up. Enuff I thought. In the bin it went. An hour or so later I retrieved it, then Tore it up and burnt it. M Proud to say I take my beliefs seriously. I wouldn’t inflict the duplicitous cunts writings on anyone.
More bovine excrement in The S*'n today.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16313127/migrants-crossing-channel-detained-albania/
Uncritically picked up by you know who.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10053959/Migrants-arrive-UK-crossing-Channel-flown-1-500-miles-Albania.ht
Given the Sun is way, way down in readership numbers and is now losing cash hand over fist, do Starmer and Labour need them? Yes, the Sun still is (sadly)influential. But its influence has waned as have most newspapers as sales have gone south and new media fills the gap.
Tony Benn on writing for the Sun...
"I wouldn't mind writing occasionally (for it) .. because you are getting through to a working class audience that is potentially Thatcherite but should be socialist"!
Robert Bolt writing for "Thomas More" in A Man For All Seasons:
"... when statesmen abandon their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties they lead their country by a short route to chaos..."
Starmer, Bliar/Brown and the rest of their ilk long ago abandoned conscience in favour of corrupt office. Which is why we have a de facto far right one party capitalist state. Which is why the lies, hypocrisy and looting will go on.
Specifically, watch as print and broadcast media try to portray current economic and pandemic horrors as "a triumph in adversity". Leni Riefenstahl would have nothing on this gang. Witness the TV pictures of nodding donkeys in the shadow cabinet, then view audience reaction shots - particularly Streicher - in Triumph Of The Will.
Watch out too for another US/UK provoked "incident" in the East. War is a necessity when economies dive.
Starmer and co are useful lethal idiots in the usual script.
I doubt if Blair 'held his nose' when cringing to Murdoch. He was more likely holding Murdoch's prick.
“Merseyside unchained” working title of starmers close to final draft piece for news international
Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating warned Tony Blair at a Oz Labor Party get-together in Queensland before Blair became PM, not to get into bed with Murdoch as he was so treacherous he would pull the rug from under him just at the right time. The quisling Blair ignored Keating and despite Blair's subsequent wins (on minority votes)the UK would have been so much better if Blair & Labour had never won office at the time. The party moved sharply to the right and allowed the Neo-Fascist Tories to eventually drag Britain to the far right. Of course history cannot be changed but what we are witnessing is the birth of Her Majesties Permanent Opposition where Starmer will have all the kudos of a party leader, power and wealth but never have to do the hard tasks.
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