Mail - Shame And Silence

The Mail titles, right now, are continuing their assault on the Sussexes, with their pointless Phil Space “journalism” exemplified by headlines like “'The wild lad died the day Prince Harry met Meghan Markle': Bombshell new book claims 'dashing' Duke of Sussex was saved from turning into a 'seedy old roué' when he began dating ex-Suits actress”. There was no bombshell.

Keep quiet, c***, or you're f***ing next

But there was the usual Megs bashing, with headlines such as “Princess Diana would NOT have been an admirer of Meghan Markle because 'she would think she'd stolen her son Harry', royal photographer claims”, and “Courtiers 'felt sick' when they had to work with Meghan and Prince Harry who 'carried out loyalty tests' on Palace staff, royal author claims”.

On and on and on, a constant churn of hatred, lots of claims from fringe nonentities given undue importance by the obsession of the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker, driven on by the greater obsession of their editor in chief, the mass of boiling rage that is the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre. Why do they do it? An article given rather less prominence tells why.

“The publisher of the Daily Mail last night unambiguously rejected 'groundless' and 'preposterous smears' after legal claims were lodged by a group including Sir Elton John, Prince Harry and Baroness Doreen Lawrence … These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims - based on no credible evidence”. The rebuttal carries the imprimatur of the chief reporter.

But apart from the whining braggadocio, we learn little about what is being alleged. For that, we have to look elsewhere. Like the BBC: “Sir Elton John is among several public figures taking legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail over what they call ‘gross breaches of privacy’. The Duke of Sussex, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and actresses Sadie Frost and Elizabeth Hurley have also filed cases against Associated Newspapers Ltd”.

There was more. “The company's alleged activity includes having listening devices secretly placed inside people's cars and homes”. Also alleged is “The commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people's live, private telephone calls whilst they were taking place … The payment of police officials, with corrupt links to private investigators, for inside, sensitive information … The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception”.

The Guardian report adds “Their lawyers issued a statement claiming they have ‘compelling and highly distressing evidence’ they have been the ‘victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy’ by Associated Newspapers. The group claimed this could be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and there may be many more alleged victims”. There is more.

“Lady Lawrence’s decision to start legal action against the newspaper group is particularly notable given the Daily Mail led a campaign for her son’s killers to be brought to justice”. And, my goodness, is the Mail crying like a mardy toddler over that. But the allegations are mounting up.

Byline Investigates notes that they also include “Private Investigators allege that landlines were tapped - a much more serious offence than phone hacking … Further allegations include breaking into cars and bugging homes”. Oh, and “the paper’s long-serving Editor-in-Chief Paul Dacre denied his papers hacked phones in sworn evidence at the Leveson Inquiry … If it turns out the Mail were involved and he knew, Dacre potentially faces 51 weeks in jail for misleading a public inquiry”. And maybe no peerage.

But at least the fear factor is keeping other papers from embarrassing the Mail by republishing the story. And the Mail titles are maintaining their righteous denial while keeping up their campaign of obsessive hatred against the Sussexes. The reason for such righteousness is not hard to fathom: the Mail managed to get out of the phone hacking débàcle more or less unscathed. This time it is set to look very different.

Worse for them, it will only increase the clamour for Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry, shelved by the Tories in a deal with the devil the party may come to regret, to be revisited. Hence the discomfort of the Vagina Monologue.

The Mail so often got the story before others. This case may reveal how.

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