As part of their campaign to hobble the BBC, and any other broadcaster that does not toe the desired line, alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of supreme ineptitude have gone to exceptional lengths to instal the least credible placemen in jobs overseeing the media. First came comedy Culture Secretary (yes, it’s
her again) Nadine Dorries. And then came the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre.
Just give me the f***ing job, c***
Dacre’s pent-up aggression was, for so many years, the fuel that powered the hate machine at the
Daily Mail. He conceded on
Desert Island Discs that he did a lot of shouting. In
Flat Earth News, Nick Davies quoted a
Mail insider who revealed that Dacre was “
known as the Vagina Monologue, because he calls so many people a cunt”.
Private Eye magazine brought us news of Dacre’s appetite for “
double cunting” - he would become so aggressive that he would use the C-Word to an underling twice. He had the manner of a bully: whether the target was Judges, Remainers, human rights activists, social media giants, or anyone who was Not White With Malice Aforethought.
So when the Tories tried to get Dacre appointed as chair of media regulator Ofcom, they knew exactly what they were doing, and indeed what kind of message they were sending. But here a problem entered: despite his being coached for the all-important final interview beforehand, Dacre flunked it. He was deemed unfit to be appointed.
No problem for Bozo and Co: the interview process would be re-run. Panel members proved elusive, but they would be found so that the Tories could get their candidate appointed. All that would be needed would be for Ms Dorries to rubber-stamp the expected recommendation, and not even
she was going to make a hash of that.
But now has come shock news: as
Times political editor Steven Swinford has revealed, “
Paul Dacre has pulled out of the race to become the next head of Ofcom … In a letter to The Times he describes his 'infelicitous dalliance with the Blob' & says senior Whitehall figures are determined to exclude anyone with right-of-centre views”. Yeah, right.
As the
Guardian told,
he said more. "
To anyone from the private sector, who, God forbid, has convictions, and is thinking of applying for a public appointment, I say the following: the civil service will control (and leak) everything; the process could take a year in which your life will be put on hold; and if you are possessed of an independent mind and are unassociated with the liberal/left, you will have more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job”. Leak? It’s called transparency and accountability.
Moreover, he’s just whinging because he thinks there should be no process to speak of, and he should just have the job awarded to him. Besides, he’s not going to be without something to do: he claims to be taking up “
an exciting new job” in the private sector. While slagging off two senior Civil Servants who just happen to be women.
In doing so, Dacre shows why he is not fit to be appointed to any job in the public sector. In any case, had he been appointed, he would have been one of the biggest hypocrites going - in charge of regulation, where he had previously railed against all and any regulation where the Mail and other press titles were concerned.
Now who will the Tories rope in?
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It occurs to me that this was probably his intention all along - now he gets to rant against a lefty liberal establishment engaged in censoring "centre-right" views like his, without having to do any of the inconvenient work that might have arisen had he actually got the appointment
ReplyDeleteAccording to Private Eye it was Dacre's “Enemies of the People” front-page in 2019 which got him kicked upstairs out of the editorship of the Daily Mail. Apparently Lady Rothermere told her husband that she was getting flak from her friends over the article on the three judges who overturned the proroguing of Parliament.
ReplyDeleteIn all fairness, Dacre did at least make it difficult for his readers to easily identify the judges in the street by publishing photographs of them semi-disguised in wigs and legal robes.
Haven't laughed so much since the last time I saw the Morecambe and Wise Andre Previn sketch.
ReplyDeleteGoodbye Dacre. It must be tough down there in the sewer.
"As the Guardian told, he said more. "To anyone from the private sector, who, God forbid, has convictions, and is thinking of applying for a public appointment,"
ReplyDeleteShouldn't have broken the law then. Oh, those sort of convictions.
I think the new head of OFCOM will be Nigel Fagrage, although I understand Geordie Greig is looking for a job right now?
ReplyDeleteThing is, too many people think that OFCOM is just about keeping TV in check and specifically, the BBC - but its remit is so much wider than that...
That this pack of witless oaves can't get their candidate to pass the exam even when they've not only given him a copy of the question paper but also the answers speaks volumes.
ReplyDeleteI expect the name of Dido “Queen Of Carnage” Harding to emerge shortly, and/or that of the currently, and deservedly, unemployed Andrew Neil.
Apparently he is going back to Rothermere's now privately owned restructured empire with at the Mail Group as as some sort of managing editor overseer over Ted Verity- thus pleasing the Tories. Gone now Geordie Greig who was critical of Bozo.
ReplyDeleteTry to imagine Dacre in his decaying old age.
ReplyDeleteDuring daylight, found slumped on a kerb while throwing orange peel and curses at passing buses.
At night time, in some desolate deserted field howling at phases of the moon.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving dickhead.