Zack Polanski And Anti-Semitism

The Green Party, in no small measure because of its new leader Zack Polanski, is advancing in the opinion polls. One recent survey suggested that Keir Starmer could be vulnerable to losing his seat to a Green opponent. And then, by total coincidence you understand, the nudges and winks began, the first signs of a concerted attempt to pin anti-Semitism on the Greens.

But here a problem entered: Polanski is Jewish. What to do? Fortunately for anyone needing to see the direction of travel, help was on hand from the so-called “Anti-Semitism Czar”, “Lord” John Mann, who is hot on the slightest hint of anti-Semitism, providing someone explains it to him first, nice and slowly. “Lord” Mann suddenly decided to go after Polanski.

In doing so, he revealed the Modus Operandi: “he refuses to deal with antisemitism in his own Party”. Owen Jones spelt out what is likely to happen next. “Expect the state to try and do over the Green Party on bogus claims of institutionalised antisemitism. This could involve John Mann, and certainly the EHRC … whose Commissioners are handpicked by the government”.

And for those whose first thought is to dismiss Jones’ take as a step too far, he added this: “You might think that trying to crush the only political party led by a Jewish person on grounds of antisemitism is just too ludicrous to pull off. But I would not put it past them”. After all, as he observed of “Lord” Mann, “He's not Jewish, and he is lecturing the only Jewish party leader on antisemitism”. Mann, meanwhile, got a little tetchy with Polanski.

“Perhaps you can identify which antisemitism you have dealt with inside your party as leader? And every manifestation of antisemitism that I have chosen to ignore”. Well, apart from not defending Polanski against the recent cartoons showing him with A Really Big Nose, there are other instances.

Like now disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson authoring a novel which “was also criticised for depicting Jews as ‘controlling the media’ and being able to ‘fiddle’ elections, an evidently antisemitic trope”. Like Jacob Rees Mogg referring to Oliver Letwin and John Bercow (who are both Jewish) as “Illuminati”, an old anti-Semitic trope.

Like Suella Braverman talking of “Cultural Marxism”, a Nazi-era anti-Semitic slur. Like Priti Patel using the phrase “North London Metropolitan Elite”. Maybe I failed to notice “Lord” John Mann’s interventions in all these instances. Nor did I notice “Lord” Mann being on the case of Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage over recent allegations.

But all those instances were from the right, while Polanski is most definitely on the left of the political spectrum. Moreover, he “has stated that he believes that the Gaza war is a genocide and should be treated as such by the UK government”, thus drawing to the Greens an increasing number of voters who empathise with the plight of the Palestinians and are critical of Israel.

On top of that, “He has expressed the belief that the British government conflates Jewish people with Israel, and that this ‘makes [him] feel less safe as a Jewish person’”, which will infuriate those running the Labour Party, some of whom actively undermined former leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to throw the 2019 General Election.

Polanski has said he could not imagine supporting a coalition Government led by Keir Starmer, which will also infuriate the pro-Starmer cabal. But having “Lord” Mann going after him is risky, especially as “Mann faced criticism for allegedly perpetuating racial stereotypes against Romani people and travellers in a booklet he produced on antisocial behaviour in 2007”.

No matter, “Lord” Mann has carried on taunting Polanski, playing the victim and suggesting a meeting. File under pointless. But, as Mrs Beckermann tells Charlie Croker in The Italian Job, it wasn’t an accident. Whether it is low grade clowns like “Lord” John Mann, or the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, the smearing of Zack Polanski will get worse.

The Green Party leader needs to learn from what happened to Corbyn. Because Mann has let slip that this is what is intended for Zack.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

So Farewell Then US Democracy

We may not like the verdict passed by voters in the USA, but it is their right, their call, and their majority preference that Combover Crybaby Donald Trump be returned to the White House for another term as President. What creative propaganda was fed to the electorate we may never know. What we do know is that Trump is not fit to serve a burger and fries, let alone his country.

His all too recognisable mental decline has been on view for some months. His mind is failing him, and those who have backed him to the hilt with their millions know it. They know he is not up to the job. Yet they supported his re-election; Trump is easily flattered, and his business empire almost bust. He gets some praise, some money, and his backers bend the USA to their will.

It is easy to look two years forward to the 2026 midterms, and reason that all will be corrected as the GOP loses waves of House and Senate seats, thus bringing into play those checks and balances for which the Constitution is rightly famous. But Trump has also told his fans that they will not have to vote ever again. He showed you who he was; believe him the first time.

For those in the USA who will suffer the bigotry, the misogyny, the uncaring authoritarianism, some did warn us, like Mehdi Hasan: “People - including top US journalists, perhaps especially top US journalists - don’t quite get how bad it’s going to be. How beyond term one it’ll be. How bad the Musks and RFKs will be. I don’t think even I fully accept how bad it’s going to be and I have been shouting how bad it’s going to be for years”.

Here on the other side of the North Atlantic, though, the problems will be very simply trade and defence. Trump is threatening swingeing tariffs on anything coming into the USA. Maybe NAFTA will not survive. So countries in Europe, inside the EU or not, will have to learn to do without that market.

That is, of course, easier said than done. But it must be done. It will not be easy to do, especially as, more or less at the same time, European countries that had seen the USA as The Great Protector, the one country that underpinned the NATO alliance, will have to learn to look after themselves, singly or, more likely, collectively. Which probably means via the EU.

Those countries will include Ukraine, as Trump has repeatedly voiced his backing for the gangsterist régime of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and his disdain for the Government in Kyiv. US aid for Ukraine will wither away; either Europe allows the country to be annexed by Russia, or does something to prevent that. Trump’s USA will not ride to our rescue this time.

So where does that leave the UK, with its Government, headed by someone formerly so enthusiastically pro-EU, but now implacably opposed to closer ties with the European Club? Keir Starmer has to realise two things here: One, there is no point cosying up to Trump, who couldn’t give a crap about him. And two, he can’t ride the European Club horse and the Special Relationship horse at the same time. He has to choose one, and only one.

He must also learn to shut out the howling of our free and fearless press at even the mention of closer ties with the EU. Because he has little choice, when faced with an isolationist USA, but to mend fences with the EU, and forget his repeated refusal to countenance rejoining the bloc. In this, Trump and his gang have unintentionally done the UK a great service.

In the meantime, he will fulfil his promise for the USA to engage in no more wars, and instead keep those wars within his own country - a war on women’s rights, a war against ethnic minorities, a war against anyone opposed to his power grab, and a war against the freedom of speech he falsely promotes.

And those countries that have embraced neoliberalism can, in the meantime, reflect on its failure to deliver Trump’s opponents the White House. We might usefully consider re-reading The General Theory Of Employment Interest And Money, whose embrace saved the West from revolution after World War 2, while The New Great Dictator gets on with laying waste to the USA.

Europe needs to look after itself. And the UK has to choose - wisely.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Laurence Fox - YOU LOST

Due to the inability of Himself Personally Now and his cheerleaders to keep their Norths And Souths shut, we knew that former minor thesp, failed chanteur and never-even-was politician Laurence Fox was to have judgment handed down at 1500 hours today in the defamation action brought by two individuals whom he had smeared as paedophiles.

Dear Larry. Dear Dear Larry. Dear Losing Larry

He had told his followers on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat is calling it this week, that “There aren’t many days which one can narrow down to definitely say the outcome will define the direction of travel life takes moving forward. Tomorrow, after many years is one of those rare days for me. Just after noon I will know my path moving forward”. Yes Lozza, it’s in front of you.

But do go on. “I will be making a statement outside the Royal Courts of justice tomorrow at 4pm”. Does he have to? Oh, hang on a minute, there’s been a change of schedule. “I will now make my statement at 3:30 outside the Royal Courts of Justice, because I’ve read the judgement and absorbed it”.

You’ve lost, haven’t you? But he did have some supporters, not least flap-mouthed bigot of no fixed vanity Julia Hartley Dooda, who trilled “Good luck [Laurence Fox]. It's easy for people to sling outrageous slurs around but freedom of speech doesn't include the right to lie about someone's character”. But she made no more sense than in her TalkTV rambles.

Larry’s exhibition of FREEZE PEACH had one effect, and that was to alert his critics, who, verily, number as the grains of sand in the desert. And yes, he lost. He lost twice over. As the Guardian has reported, “The actor and rightwing activist Laurence Fox has lost a high court libel battle with two men he called paedophiles after they called him a racist. The former actor defamed the men when he used the slur on social media”. There was more.

“The Reclaim party founder was sued by Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee, and Crystal, a drag artist, over a dispute on Twitter, now X, in October 2020. Fox, 45, called Blake and the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant paedophiles in an exchange about a decision by Sainsbury’s to provide a safe space for black employees during Black History Month”. And more.

“Fox’s call for a boycott of the supermarket had prompted claims by Blake, Seymour and Nicola Thorp, a former Coronation Street actor, that he was a racist. Fox counter-sued, telling the high court that being accused of racism was a ‘reputation-destroying allegation’ and ‘career-ending’”. Well, as Kenneth Wolstenholme once said, it is now. His counter claim failed.

Mrs Justice Collins Rice concluded “Mr Blake’s and Mr Seymour’s claims succeed. Mr Fox’s counterclaims are dismissed”. So they sued him, and he lost. He sued them, and again, he lost. So Dear Dear Larry will now be liable for all of his own costs, and all of theirs, in addition to any damages that may be awarded. What d’you reckon, a cool half million all up?

As Fox had already stated “Just after noon I will know my path moving forward”, one has to wonder what role Jeremy Hosking will play in all of this. The Brexit backer and twelve-inches-to-the-foot trainset owner had previously given significant funding to the Reclaim Party, Fox’s political vehicle. Maybe his generosity has reached its limit. Maybe Fox will declare bankruptcy.

Still, at least Ms Hartley Dooda, full of worthless opinions but with no legal qualifications, is still in Lozza’s corner: “This is a ridiculous ruling. It was blatantly clear in his posts that [Laurence Fox] did not believe the two men were paedophiles. He was simply trying to point out that it's wrong to make horrible unfounded claims like ‘racist’ or ‘paedo’. against people that hurt their reputations”. Like he did. Which caused him to come unstuck.

They never learn, do they? Settle as soon as you can and live to fight another day. As Nicola Thorp put it, “The same man who later told a black man to ‘fuck off back to Jamaica’, posted pride flags in the shape of a swastika and shared blacked up images of himself and his children. It’s time that Mr Fox accepted that any damage to his reputation is entirely his own doing”.

There goes Laurence Fox, on his way … out. Just rejoice at that news.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Piers Morgan Ultimate Desperation

Ratings. They drive the reputation of broadcasters, the attention of advertisers, the fragile egos of presenters. Without good ratings, shows languish, are avoided by those advertisers, and ultimately get cancelled, whoever hosts them. So it is understandable that broadcasters and their hosts will go to great lengths to improve those all-important ratings.

And what's more, Ron

Those great lengths can lurch all too easily into desperation. Add in the evidence of creepy obsession, and we arrive at the latest effort by former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan to get the ratings of his supposedly “Uncensored” show, on Murdoch property TalkTV, off the noise floor. As so often, his efforts mean slagging off the Duchess of Sussex.

Morgan thought he had an in with the Royals when Megs, who he had met once in London, became engaged to Haz. But it looks very much as if her future husband’s experiences at the hands of our free and fearless press, of which Morgan is a paid-up establishment member, became known to her, and the former editor soon found himself blanked. And it got worse.

He threw a mardy strop live on ITV Good Morning Britain, walking off the set when confronted about his Megs obsession, and very soon after that was told his services were no longer required. He blamed Megs. It was, as for so many in the media, someone else’s fault. Except it wasn’t.

Now, with the news that a book by Omid Scobie about the Royals called Endgame has allegedly named two people who “had concerns” about the skin colour of Haz’n’Megs’ first child (but only in the version published in the Netherlands, you understand), everything has come together for The Great Man. He dislikes the Duchess obsessively. He detests Scobie. He could now do them both over and score more ratings: he would name the names.

And so it came to pass: “Either Omid Scobie or the Sussexes come forward with evidence of racism, or this will be Endgame for his career” boasted The Great Man. He named the names. Perhaps his ratings improved. But here the same problem he had on GMB going up against the Beeb enters: the way in which the ratings were improved cannot be replicated on a daily basis.

Make his pay performance related? Good idea Mate

Worse, he could not refrain from abuse. “Scobie’s obviously lying (again). I’m told the two names in the Dutch edition match the names of the alleged ‘racists’ cited in the Meghan/Charles letter exchange post-Oprah, which Scobie details in his book with info he can only have got from Ms Markle or her pals”. His paper hacked on an industrial scale. Calls liar on others.

Do go on. “The ongoing malevolent guilt-by-association smearing of the entire Royal Family as a bunch of racists, ignited by the Sussexes with zero evidence, and now fuelled by their lying lickspittle [Omid Scobie] is disgusting. I'll be addressing this on tonight’s [show]”. Malevolent smearing just about sums up Morgan’s pursuit of the Sussexes. And there is more.

“Comical to watch lying Sussex lickspittle [Omid Scobie] say he’s never written a draft of his book naming the 2 supposed royal ‘racists’. How else did the Dutch version get printed with those explosive details? He wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him round his Botoxed chops”. Yes, there goes the ad-hominem abuse again. Then came his direct smear of Haz’n’Megs.

“The silence from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is increasingly damning. They normally rush to denounce [no citation], and sue anyone who reveals details of their private correspondence .. why is [Omid Scobie] getting a pass for revealing such damaging information? Did they give it to him?”. Yesterday’s Daily Mail recycled: they must denounce Scobie, or they become complicit. Both Morgan and the Mail seek more attention; both fail to find it.

What is not told - so I will - is that this is a desperate throw of the dice: Morgan has been paid an eight-figure sum for his services, the ratings aren’t coming, and Rupe and his team are getting impatient. 8.7 million Twitter followers, yet few tune in. He’s been reduced to interviewing Kyle Rittenhouse. A white creep who got away with murdering BLM supporters.

The low moaning sound in the noise floor that is The All New Percy Moron Show was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

So Farewell Then Rupert Murdoch

As the dust settles, and we see clearly a political landscape ravaged by hatred, bigotry, paranoia, division, denialism, faux populism, and an Overton Window dragged deliberately and relentlessly to the right, those elected to serve may take responsibility for the impoverishment of debate and livelihoods, and they may not. But they are just the fall guys.

Out goes the old face of evil ...

In the English-speaking world, from his native Australia to the UK to the USA, which gave him citizenship, one individual bears responsibility for poisoning the well, and his name is Keith Rupert Murdoch. Here we have had a mafia boss to outrank all other mafia bosses, whose empire has messed up whole countries, and with no comeback to worry about. Let that sink in.

So when the news came yesterday that Don Rupioni was finally relinquishing the reins of power to his favourite son Lachlan, and some commentators began to praise the old tyrant, one could be sure that this reflected only the emptiness and amorality of so much of the media class. Rupert Murdoch was not just an unelected foreigner. He was the embodiment of pure evil.

One need only consider the kinds of people that the Murdoch mafiosi have willingly employed: the deeply unpleasant Kelvin McFilth, their UK CEO Rebekah Brooks (twice), the singularly repellant Dan Wootton, and over at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) there were wackos like Glenn Beck, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson.

When the new media idiocy like Darren Grimes (not at all craftily) say of him “Rupert Murdoch has been a force for good in the world throughout his life and through his media empire”, you can deduce two things: Grimes is full of crap (which you probably knew anyway), and he is desperately trying to gain the attention of someone in the Baby Shard bunker - to score some money.

This is not an isolated example: as with the central premise of Terry Southern’s Magic Christian, people will do anything for money; everyone has their price. The Murdoch empire added fear to that equation: do as you’re told and you’re paid well, don’t do as you’re told and you become a journalistic Unperson in very short order. And don’t even think about whistleblowing.

... and in comes the new one

So while the BBC report on Rupe kicking himself upstairs is procedural and anodyne (the Beeb is also scared of him), the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh has brought us “Power and scandal: how Murdoch drove the UK, US and Australia to the right”, which is rather more revealing, reminding us that phone hacking is still a thing, and Fox News is in big defamation trouble.

He notes “The Sun, whose Page 3 topless photographs lasted 44 years, turned from Labour to supporting Margaret Thatcher. Murdoch bought the Times titles with a supportive government in the background and fought the print unions at Wapping - before switching later to Tony Blair, eagerly backing him over the invasion of Iraq and sticking with him long after it had been revealed to be a disaster”. Hundreds of thousands dead. A failed state.

Every Murdoch newspaper backed the Iraq War. All 170 plus of them. The idea that all those editors came to the decision independently is pure tosh. Sabbagh again: “When the polls turned again, the papers, always with the proprietor making the final call, backed David Cameron, then Brexit, a once marginal cause that had been kept alive by a handful of rightwing newspapers … until it eventually went mainstream”. Another disaster.

And another disaster for which Don Rupioni does not have to face any kind of judgment. He is a politician unanswerable to electorates, the ultimate example of Stanley Baldwin’s “Power without responsibility”.

What, then, of favourite son Lachlan? He is just as far to the right as his father. He also, it seems, would continue the now loss-making Sun. The editorial line at Fox News is unlikely to change. The hatred, bigotry, paranoia, climate change denialism and faux populism will carry on. The elected politicians will bow down before the new Capo di Tutti Capi.

Unless the Murdoch family indulge in a little infighting. That’s your only hope.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Farage Bank Doesn’t Give Two Coutts

Former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has tried so hard to play the ordinary bloke over the years, even resorting in 2017 to telling anyone who would listen that he was “53, separated and skint” … adding “there’s no money in politics”. That would be For Some Value Of Skint, where “Skint” equals “having well north of a million notes in the bank”.

Because it was later reported, and effectively confirmed by The Great Man yesterday, as he took out a king-sized onion and played the victim for one time too many, Nige banks at Coutts, where you are expected to maintain an account balance of at least one million Pounds. He was never skint. And there was always enough money in politics to maintain that account.

Like his equally unprincipled contemporary, disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, he talks well, but lies badly. So what was his schtick? “I’ve been living with something for the last couple of months that may fundamentally affect my future career … and whether I can even stay living in this country”. Don’t get our hopes up, now.

But there was more. “I have been with the same banking group since 1980 … I’m with one of the subsidiaries of this big banking group, one with a very prestigious name [oh what a giveaway] … I got a phone call a couple of months ago to say ‘we are closing your accounts’. I asked why. No reason was given … I went to seven other banks and asked, can I have a personal and a business account, and the answer has been no”. Do go on.

“There was nothing irregular or unusual about what I do … why is this happening to me?” He then rambles on about EU definition of a Politically Exposed Person, one who may be open to bribery or other leverage by an external state actor. But we’re no longer in the EU. Not convincing.

Then he dumps on the banks themselves. “The banks … are part of the big corporate structures in this country. These are the organisations that did not want Brexit”. Everyone’s agin him, he’s a victim, woe is he. Then he comes up with someone else he can blame for his own misfortune.

“A few months ago, in the House of Commons, Sir Chris Bryant … said, using Parliamentary privilege, that I had received large sums of money directly from the Russian Government, and he named the calendar year in which it had happened. The truth is, I didn’t receive a penny from any source with even any link to Russia … I wrote to the Speaker. I demanded an apology … I wonder whether that is what’s given me part of the problem”.

So he doesn’t know, he’s just guessing, but why not start a pile-on out of spite? Bryant later noted “I have been called all sorts today. Some of it is highly actionable. A lot is nasty, vicious, spiteful and homophobic. So what? Well yes it’s water off a duck’s back and I never stop standing up for what I believe. But why do we allow politics to be such a sewer?”

No bank worth its credibility is going to shut down accounts on the say-so of Chris Bryant, or any other MP. This thought was not allowed to enter as Nige’s pals weighed in. “We call ourselves a democracy, but our banks are increasingly refusing to serve politicians with views they don’t like. What’s happened to [Nigel Farage] is NOT a one off” whined Isabel Oakeshott.

Sadly, she missed telling us who else had been treated so despicably. And, although LBC host Iain Dale and former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil joined those passing severely adverse comment on those who were agin poor Nige, Jim Pickard, deputy political editor of the FT, cautioned “I would want to know more about the state of his finances, the sources of his income, and the names of all the banks, before making any conclusion either way”.

Law lecturer Rob Palmer reminded Mr Thirsty “Nige, this (your bank accounts being closed) only usually happens if money laundering or illegal activity is suspected. They won't comment because it can impede a criminal investigation. Please, stop gaslighting”. Nige did not stop gaslighting.

As the presence known as Otto English observed, Farage went on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) yesterday evening and, backed up by the caption “FARAGE CANCELLED BY BANK”, blubbered “For once, I’m pretty thoughtful … about whether it’s worth living in this country … so what I am going to do is to take some time off”. Tell us more.

“Take a week or two off, maybe more, to consider what my next steps are going to be. This is going on in our country [no shit, Sherlock]. It’s happening to plenty of people. I just happen to be one of them”. Has he parted company with GB News? What would cause such a rupture to occur? His show is the channel’s top rated programme. And one other thought has entered.

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, so often Farage cheerleaders, have not as yet even mentioned Mr Thirsty’s little local difficulty. Why might that be? Whatever the answer, we should wait for the facts to emerge, not merely a partial version from The Great Man.

Meanwhile, let’s see which country is prepared to have him. Bye bye Nige.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Press Cat Uses Up Ninth Life

The central premise of the 70s crime caper Silver Bears - well, apart from everyone conning everyone else - is the presence of a silver mine. Except there is no silver mine: financial guru “Doc” Fletcher is shown what he is told is a silver mine, he wants to believe there is a silver mine, and so, ergo, there is a silver mine. Even though there is no silver mine.

What we are witnessing is falsehood and misinformation

It is an idea that those in and around the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press are most reluctant to take on board right now, when the premise on which so much of their recent copy has been based is one which they wanted to believe, but is in fact false. Worse, it has been demonstrated repeatedly to be false. But sales, clicks, and culture war bullying, eh?

What has happened can be put directly: two school pupils recorded a conversation with a teacher into which they deliberately introduced the idea of a fellow pupil identifying as a cat. The recording was then, not by accident you understand, made available to the Mail titles, where the underlings of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre went off without checking their facts.

No matter that the school concerned repeatedly told anyone prepared to listen that the story was not true, and that there was no pupil identifying as a cat, the right-wing press wanted to believe that children were allowed to identify as cats, they had a recording apparently backing up their belief, it served their culture war paranoia, and listening to mere facts was out.

This belief spread to the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, which amplified the Mail’s Trans-bashing line while still having no factual evidence. At this point, Mic Wright published a post calling out the Tel (read it HERE) and it might have been thought that the farce could not get worse. But that thought would have been sadly misplaced. It got worse. A lot worse.

The following day, the Tel quoted “Britain’s strictest head” Katharine Birbalsingh, who also had no factual evidence. But Sideshow Birb had an opinion, and that was all that mattered. “‘I know of a child who identifies as a hologram’ [ho yus] … [she] says children allowed to self-identify as animals and moons should be moved to a different school by their parents”.

Could it get worse still? Don’t ask: SNP MP John Nicolson brought the bad news on Friday. “The Tory Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has asked Ofsted to carry out a snap inspection of a school because, apparently, she believes a spoof story that a child at the school identifies as a cat. This MP has risen to Cabinet rank”. And then, yes, it got even worse than that.

In waded the Mail on Sunday and alleged journalist Mary Harrington to howl “Pupils identifying as cats. Teachers too scared to speak out. And a bid to smash every rule and boundary … What we are witnessing is an all-out war on parental authority - but the ultimate victims are our children”. No, what we are witnessing is an orgy of bad faith lying and bullying.

A pile-on under a totally false pretext. Joined by the likes of Helen Carroll, who also claims to be a journalist, Tweeting “Looking to speak to a mum whose secondary school age child identifies as an animal. Can be anonymous and fee paid on publication”. She has now deleted the Tweet. The ridicule raining down on her may have had something to do with it.

But the damage may have already been done: hard-up parents see the opportunity to pay for that much-needed new washing machine, sofa, bed, wardrobe, TV, or just to clear accumulated debt, and cobble up yet more false claims that the press can then feed into their hatred generating War on Trans. Meanwhile, few are thinking of the children caught in the crossfire.

Those for whom gender dysphoria is part of the everyday challenge of getting through life. Those who are already marginalised, othered, vulnerable, fearful and often lonely. The filth in and among the press doesn’t give a rat’s arse about that. So there may be the occasional fatality? They should care. They didn’t care about Lucy Meadows; they won’t care about the next victim.

Why is trust in the UK’s press so low? You may ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Labour Grovels To Murdoch

Getting Don Rupioni on side has been achieved by just one Labour leader in recent times, and it needed all of Tony Blair’s charm, together with Murdoch losing faith in John Major, to achieve this. More recently, party leaders have paid fealty to Creepy Uncle Rupe: Ed Miliband went to his 2011 summer party, and look how far that got him. Thus the lesson for today’s leaders.

So the Murdoch summer party has come around again, and the usual suspects from the Government rocked up: Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty, Oliver Dowden, Suella Braverman, Simon Hart, Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, James Cleverly, Chris Heaton Harris, Michael Gove, Kemi Badenoch, they all featured. So did ex-leaders William ‘Ague, Liz Truss and Iain Duncan Cough.

So far, so predictable, but then came the roll of shame as a host of senior figures from the Labour Party were also seen attending the gathering around the head of the Cosa Rupra. Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Sadiq Khan and Anas Sarwar were among their number, and then came party leader Keir Starmer, but not his wife. She is clearly a woman of sound judgment.

Sarwar may have concluded that having the Scottish Sun on his side (the paper has recently backed the SNP) is a distinct possibility, and, given the SNP’s recent problems, a likely one. Why Sadiq Khan turned up is less clear: the Murdoch press hates anyone who is not white, and anyone to the left of Attila The Hun. They also don’t like Khan’s ULEZ proposals.

He may have thought Rupe’s troops will give him an easier ride if he makes the right noises, but that’s a doubtful one. For Streeting and Ms Reeves, their attendance is very obvious: they want to at least stand a chance of succeeding Starmer if the latter were for some reason to become indisposed. This will not be news to the Labour leader: he’ll know who wants his job.

But why, why, why did Starmer himself feel the need to grace the proceedings? Attending gatherings like the Spectator summer party, alongside the racist bigots, the occasional anti-Semite, climate change deniers, media C-list has beens and never weres, is bad enough. But paying homage to the interfering foreigner who has screwed over the UK?

He's not listening to you, Labour people

Yes, screwed over the UK: the Murdoch press was in the vanguard for the 2016 EU referendum campaign, with the Sun splashing front page packs of lies after front page packs of lies, competing only with the Daily Mail, then as now under the jackboot of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, to see who could invent the biggest whoppers about the European Union.

The Murdoch hatred generater also includes publishing falsehood and misinformation about Scary Muslims™ (including in the Times, as with the “Muslim fostering” story, which was mainly untrue when not being highly selective in its deployment of facts), and Rupe’s personal swerve across the anti-Semitism line, before someone prevailed on him to stop Tweeting.

But what should concern Starmer above all this is the illegal activity that the Murdoch empire has either encouraged or commissioned, or in which it has participated. Phone hacking was initially about the late and not at all lamented Screws: only later did the Sun, the Mirror titles, and perhaps others arouse suspicion. Then there were the activities of the Fake Sheikh.

Mazher Mahmood entrapped unwary media people for fun, ruining careers for kicks until the Tulisa Contostavlos case brought his undoing. Maz also wasted considerable amounts of Police time with the fictitious Victoria Beckham kidnapping plot (there wasn’t one), and the “Dirty Bomb” plot (there wasn’t one of those either). Mahmood went to jail. Not for long enough.

And there has never been a convincing explanation to the apparent involvement of Rupe’s troops in the aftermath of Daniel Morgan’s murder in a south London car park. Rather a lot of reasons not to go anywhere near any gathering hosted by Don Rupioni, and it seems Keir Starmer has discounted every one of them - if he bothered to consider them in the first place.

Meanwhile, Labour loses more members. Why d’you think that might be?

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Boris Johnson - End Of An Error

When (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries suggested yesterday that she was not going to resign as an MP, only to do just that five hours later, she explained that “something significant did happen to change my mind”. We did not have to wait long for the “something significant” to reveal itself as the Privileges Committee report into her Bestest Commons Pal.

This is total shite ...

Because formerly very occasional Mayor of London, and disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson soon followed Ms Dorries out the door. All signs were that the Privileges Committee, which has a Tory majority, was about to recommend a suspension of more than ten days for Bozo, which meant a by-election. He jumped before being pushed.

There was a resignation statement. He was being “forced out of Parliament” over Partygate. The Privileges Committee was a “kangaroo court” whose intention “has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”. Its report was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice … They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons … I did not lie”. He didn’t? Why change the habit of a lifetime?

This was total crap, as was his claim that a committee made up of democratically elected MPs was “anti-democratic”. He was finished. But his pals in the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press were still prepared to publish his lies as if they were fact - especially the Sun and Mail.

At the former title, the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, who claims to be a real journalist, told readers “A RAGING Boris Johnson last night sensationally quit as an MP after learning the findings of a ‘kangaroo court’ inquiry into Partygate … The ex-PM said he was ‘bewildered and appalled’ at the anti-democratic way he had been forced out”. The Mail was worse.

“Ex-PM quits as MP with blast at ‘kangaroo court’ … He says his ousting sets a ‘dangerous an unsettling precedent’ … Claims ‘political hitjob’ is revenge for Brexit … And attacks Tories for ‘endlessly’ putting up tax”. The freezing of tax thresholds took place when he was PM. His successor is a Brexiteer. The press is not reporting fact. It is printing the legend. And it’s complete shite.

He was sacked from his first job in journalism for lying. He was made editor of the Spectator on condition that he would not run for Parliament. He then ran for Parliament. He was sacked from the Tory front bench - for lying. His supposedly stellar time as London’s very occasional Mayor was nothing of the sort, with Sadiq Khan being left to clear up the mess.

... and this is even more totally shite

He claimed that “driverless trains” would be introduced on the Tube. He and anyone listening was told it wasn’t going to happen. His useful idiots in the press published his lies anyway. It didn’t happen. More millions were spaffed up the wall, to use his happy phrase, on a study for an airport in the Thames estuary. It had no change of happening. It didn’t happen.

There was the vanity cable car across the river, now with no regular users. As well as the New Bus For London, not a Routemaster, overweight, overpriced and of which a thousand had to be acquired before TfL could secure the intellectual property rights on it. The NB4L’s air cooling was inadequate and all 1,000 have had to be modified with opening windows.

He bought water cannons. They were never used. We now know that his on-off mistress Jennifer Arcuri secured significant loans while Bozo was Mayor. He lied about his relationship with her. He lied when promising not to close any Tube ticket offices, then closed every one of them. He courted the Taxi trade, then sold them out to Uber. And screwed TfL’s finances.

George Osborne persuaded Bozo to give up TfL’s subsidy. Sadiq Khan got the blame for trying to sort it out. As Prime Minister he kept on lying, and his press pals kept on printing the legend. He lied about the cost of EU membership. He lied to the Northern Ireland business community about his Brexit deal. And he lied about what he oversaw during the pandemic.

The UK locked down too late. Many tens of thousands most likely died as a consequence. Bozo lied about Covid’s severity. And while We The People stuck to social distancing rules, delayed family visits, put off travel plans, and even obeyed the diktat not to visit elderly relatives in hospitals and care homes, he turned 10 Downing Street into Party Central. And lied about it.

Still the right-wing press defended him, as it defends him still. He may have been an SOB, but he was their SOB. Instead, the Mail thunders “THERE will be sanctimonious crowing today from Boris’s enemies, that unholy alliance of Leftist loudmouths, hand-wringing liberals and embittered Remainers. But he can hold his head high. His everyman vision was genuinely inspiring”.

Yeah, right: billions sprayed up the wall on PPE contracts for his pals, a country progressively more impoverished as Brexit bites, the UK’s influence in the wider world shredded, the NHS on the verge of collapse, and it’s all someone else’s fault, nothing to do with Bozo the lying narcissist, the monumentally lazy, sexually incontinent, national wrecking ball.

He should never have been allowed anywhere near power. That is all.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Schofield Pile-On - Stop It. NOW

And so we have reached the weekend, and the more downmarket right-leaning part of our free and fearless press is still laying into now former ITV host Phillip Schofield, in one case in a manner which is highly likely to increase the chances of his being accosted, or worse, if he dares venture out in the street. The public interest in this story is long gone. So why continue?

Do the Murdoch mafiosi want a body count?

Some in and around social media will respond that it’s all about safeguarding children, but to stand that one up, there needs to be exaggeration and/or flat out lying about the age of the much younger man with whom Schofield had a relationship. The young man started at ITV after he turned 18; the affair happened some time after that. The press knows that. It’s still on the attack.

Over at the Northcliffe House bunker, yesterday brought “Schofield’s wife ‘furious’ at his lies about lover”. Why the quote marks? She wasn’t furious. The Murdoch Sun, though, had secured an allegedly exclusive interview, which generated the kind of headline suggesting his choice of paper was unwise. “I’m broken and ashamed … but NOT a groomer”.

Which gives the green light to every righteous thug in the country to conclude that he really IS a groomer. Building on this mound of hatred, today’s Mail has run a column from Amanda Platell, another of those economic migrants whose presence the UK could well do without. “No, Phillip Schofield didn't groom his lover - but he did groom his This Morning audience”. Bullshit.

There is more. “And yet I do believe Schofield is guilty of grooming. I'm not saying he groomed his former lover”. Not much you’re not, nudge nudge, wink wink, nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat. Ms Platell then lets us know that “he started following the man on Twitter when he was just 15”. This is one step from incitement. Nothing happened until the man was over 18.

But do go on. “I had the same experience with Rolf Harris. Now I am not for one moment suggesting Schofield broke the law like Harris, as he clearly did not [You just equated Schofield to a convicted paedophile] A relationship between two consenting adults of whatever sexuality is completely legal [so what’s with the nudging and winking?]. But during my long friendship with Harris, the Aussie doodler was always cheery and full of charm [big deal]".

So, with Sun and Mail giving every sign that they won’t stop until they have a body count, some in and around the media are indicating their disquiet with the pile-on, not that the senior editorial staff at the Mail and Sun will care. They do, after all, have significant previous in this area.

Looks like they do want a body count

One pushing back was former prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who revealed “I’ve been asked to write about Philip Schofield by a national newspaper. If Schofield has committed a crime then it’s a police matter.He is not a person ‘in power’ whom we need to hold to account. I’ve seen people targeted in a ‘pile on’ who have harmed themselves - it’s a No from me”. There was more.

Derren Brown was another putting his head above the parapet. “I must be morally dim - I don’t see why a TV presenter’s intimate business should lead to public persecution. Makes me so uncomfortable. Having to ask friends why anything terrible has happened, why it warrants such shaming, and why it’s supposed to be endlessly my business”. Others were concerned.

Concerned for Schofield’s wellbeing. Like Benjamin Butterworth: “The Philip Schofield debacle has gone too far. An adult having a workplace affair with another adult is inappropriate, but it is hardly illegal. Obliterating their life and career in front of millions is deeply cruel, and I fear for Schofield’s wellbeing”. And for anyone who thinks his response is OTT, I give you Christine Flack.

That surname may be familiar, because as the BBC has reported, “Caroline Flack's mother has criticised ITV over its handling of the departure of presenter Phillip Schofield, saying the broadcaster had failed to learn lessons from the death of her daughter … Presenters are not always protected, Christine Flack, whose daughter fronted ITV's Love Island, told Newsnight”.

“Christine believes ITV ‘haven't learned anything’ since the death of her daughter … Christine told the BBC that Schofield ‘knew Caroline’ and when she died, ‘he was very upset’ … ‘I think he's now realising even more what she went through,’ Christine said. ‘But until it happens to you, you feel sad but you don't understand.’” She had more to say on the two former presenters.

“Schofield told the BBC that the fallout in the media had been ‘relentless’, which Christine said was ‘exactly’ how her daughter Caroline had felt. ‘Every day she would try to be a bit stronger, which I should imagine Phillip is [doing],’ she said. The problem is, she continued: ‘You get more and more thrown at you’”. An apparently infinite roster of bad faith “journalism”.

If those so-called journalists don’t back off - you know they don’t care.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Press Loses It Over This Morning

Our free and fearless press has a disproportional view of how important breakfast and daytime TV is to the nation: it was not so long ago that the Mail targeted ITV breakfast offering Good Morning Britain, indulging in a series of viciously personal attacks on its new co-host Susanna Reid. Those attacks ended when former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan arrived.

This was, of course, nothing to do with Morgan being one of their own, and also that he was at the time an “editor at large” for Mail Online. Now the Mail, along with the Murdoch Sun, has gone off the end of the pier in no style at all at another ITV offering, This Morning, after co-host Phillip Schofield was the subject of a series of personal revelations, and left the show.

He’s left the show. Departed. Gone. Not there any more. No longer on the scene. But this counts for nothing with those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet: the time has come for another attempt to test ITV and its morning programming to destruction. It’s a competitor to the papers, so when it was announced the programme would continue, off they went.

Yes, we continue to endure a cost of living crisis, with energy bills not reducing very much, food inflation still racing ahead, the NHS continues to be in its own rolling crisis, there is still uncertainty over a deal to raise the debt ceiling in the USA, rents and mortgages become more expensive, yet the press wants to kick ITV hard enough to do some damage.

Hence today’s edition of the Sun telling readers “Schofield Backlash … ITV loses millions as sponsors quit … Staff fear for jobs if show is axed … WE’VE AD IT WITH THIS MORNING” (geddit?!?!?). There is also the obligatory made-up quote “A source said ‘Brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment’”. So what is the source for the “loses millions” claim?

“[The show’s] main sponsor, car dealers Arnold Clark, announced they would not be renewing their mega-money deal”. Worth how much? We don’t get to find out. Also, let’s have that in full, with context, shall we? “Arnold Clark said its existing multi-million pound sponsorship will end this autumn as planned”. AS PLANNED. No other evidence is ponied up. None. Zip. Zilch. Nil. Nada.

All we get is “A source said”, which is the Murdoch goons making it up on the fly. So can the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker manage anything marginally more credible? “TV DOCTOR HITS OUT AT ‘TOXIC’ THIS MORNING” thunders the headline. But once more we don’t get the context: that should read “Doctor who left the show two years ago”.

And had Ranj Singh spoken to the Mail? Er, no: they lifted it all from a post he put up on Instagram. Still, the Mail insists “Calls for an independent inquiry into the scandal gathered pace, with ITV's most senior bosses under increasing pressure to admit what they knew and when about Schofield's relationship”. No. Shit-stirring from vindictive Mail bosses gathered pace.

Meanwhile, the Mail has also invented a source. “One source said: 'It's time for some truths to be told now, this has been brushed under the carpet for so long and it has to come to an end. The younger man has got to the point now where he won't lie for anyone but actually, he says he was never asked by ITV about any relationship. It is time that people were held to account, or at the very least explain themselves.’” And so the barrel-scraping continued.

“Ex-Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries joined the calls for an independent investigation … 'How did that young boy, so young, get a job at ITV? What were the processes involved? What was the safeguarding in place for someone so young at that age?’” He was 18 when he started work for ITV.

The fragrant Nadine seems to have no problem with the irretrievably corrupt figure of disgraced former occasional Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who appears to have been on good terms with a series of much younger women, one of whom is now his third wife. Bozo has been shown to be a congenital and shameless liar, but hey ho.

Millions of Britons have no interest in what happens behind the scenes at ITV. They are hard at work, in call centres, cleaning, waiting on table, delivering take-aways, on the road with lorry loads of goods, looking after elderly and disabled people, nursing, driving buses and trains, out there on building sites, mending the plumbing, fixing cars and vans, keeping the country moving.

The Sun and Mail have no interest in them. Because they are not newspapers. News is not their game. Propaganda, monstering, bullying and otherwise working over their targets, stoking hatred against minorities, smearing those they judge do not have the means to fight back, and otherwise exercising more Power Without Responsibility. That’s their game.

They showed what they are. Believe them that one time. But don’t buy them.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Labour Attack Ads - And Reality

A sudden descent into the gutter by whoever is overseeing advertising for the Labour Party has taken many observers by surprise. More surprising is that, when called out for the suggestion that Rishi Sunak was somehow soft on child sexual exploitation, there was no apology or contrition, but a decision to very publicly double down. It will not end well for The Red Team.

When the advert attacking Sunak appeared - no doubt the claims made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman last weekend had something to do with it - the initial reaction of many was, like Paul Waugh of the i Paper, “Labour’s latest attack ad on @RishiSunak is truly appalling. Nothing can justify it and I assume it will be deleted. Like the grooming gangs/Savile memes of the far right going mainstream, this stuff cheapens our politics”. It’ll get deleted.

However, Carl Shoben of Survation reminded us “As a previous Labour strategy director, I guess I have to comment on that ad. Labour would have known it would cause outrage and that would have been its purpose. Political messages in ads can only cut through if people outside twitter talk about it. That’s been achieved here”. Although he didn’t think it was a good idea.

Not when the Party is 20 points ahead in the polls, and more mundane issues like the cost of living are likely to dominate the upcoming local election campaign. Why are they doing it? Someone told Kevin Schofield of the HuffPost “They [Aus Labour and US Dems] told us to ignore the people who expect you to be kind losers and fight as viciously as the Conservatives”.

But, as Alex Nunns pointed out, “Labour put out a baseless attack ad blaming Sunak for not locking up all adults convicted of sexually assaulting children. But it appears Starmer himself sat on the sentencing council responsible, and minutes seem to show this issue was discussed”. Oh dear!

Worse, the dead giveaway is that Labour now has a Dirty Tricks operation which has a direct line to the Party leadership. Which negates the idea of Keir Starmer as being a bit dull and uninspiring, but not in a very positive way. Just who is behind this needless campaign I know not and care less, save to point out that handing them any authority was a most unwise move.

That is because, as I keep having to remind those who think Starmer and his team will walk into 10 Downing Street by default come next year’s General Election, the Tories can do attack ads too - plus they can call on the inmates of the Northcliffe House and Baby Shard bunkers to back them up with more knocking copy, coupled with faux outrage at those Dem Sayshlists.

As a taster of what might come back over the fence, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog have already picked up on Starmer’s presence at that sentencing council, and have mocked up their own attack advert. That is just the tip of the attack dog iceberg. Imagine the Mail and Sun taking that and running with it. And all the others.

The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph would fall into line, as would the Daily Brexit, still called the Express. The increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine would be a willing participant. And the BBC would feel duty bound (ha ha ha) to “both sides” the whole thing. All this is before someone gets that big bad skeleton out of Labour’s cupboard.

One Tweeter gave us a taster of what that may mean: topping and tailing an image of Starmer and Peter Mandelson, it asks “Do you think Labour should be advised by a friend of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein?” and signs off “Sir Keir Starmer Does”. Mandelson, press hate figure, sacked twice by Tony Blair, a pal of Epstein, and there he is at Starmer’s side. Oh dear indeed!

And that would just be for starters. There would be so much more, especially now that Labour has legitimised the dirtiest dirty tricks. Picking this as the hill on which someone at Labour HQ is willing to die could very easily mean the entire election effort takes a hit as a result. Voters will shrug their shoulders and say “they really are all the same” before not voting for them.

As Paul Waugh has noted, there is also Starmer’s lack of consistency: “One frontbencher says a current online video of Starmer’s flip-flops is a taste of things to come. ‘The general election campaign is going to be full of videos of Keir, “he said this, now he’s says that”.’” Labour can have no complaints if it gets vicious. Not when they were full participants in writing the rules.

One day, Starmer’s advisors will engage brain first. But maybe not just yet.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Bent Cops And Worse Hacks

When it comes to the ultimate in lack of self-awareness, out free and fearless press is without peer. The state of the economy and its effect on ordinary citizens stems directly from the press’ fawning endorsement of successive, and successively inept, Tory Governments, helped, or hindered, depending on your point of view, by Brexit. But it’s not their fault, honestly.

The state of the NHS, exacerbated by Tory underfunding, Brexit, and a welter of press attacks, is also nothing to do with them. So it is no surprise to see a report castigating the Metropolitan Police for sexism, misogyny, racism and homophobia sending those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet into faux pearl-clutching mode. How COULD they?!?

But as the late John Smith might have observed, this is a bit rich coming from the same Fourth Estate that has had no problem working hand in glove with bent coppers, and for decades past. Corruption in the Met and other Police forces was fine as long as the press benefited from a host of informants, and all that not always legally obtained information they provided.

Louise Casey’s report, as the Guardian has told, says the Met “is broken and rotten, suffering collapsing public trust and is guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia … The report … one of the most damning of a major British institution … details disturbing stories of sexual assaults, usually covered up or downplayed, with 12% of women in the Met saying they had been harassed or attacked at work, and one-third experiencing sexism”.

The report “warned that ‘public consent is broken’ with just 50% of the public expressing confidence, even before revelations about the force’s worst recent scandals. She pinned the primary blame on its past leadership and said: ‘Public respect has fallen to a low point. Londoners who do not have confidence in the Met outnumber those who do, and these measures have been lower amongst black Londoners for years’”. Shocked? Not shocked.

But the press claims to be. The Mail is especially righteous, howling “BROKEN AND ROTTEN … Devastating review says Met is ‘institutionally racist, corrupt, misogynistic and homophobic’ … May be many more Police like killer Couzens … Force must reform or be ‘overhauled’”.

That’s the same Daily Mail, together with the Mail on Sunday, which featured so prominently in the information gathering work, much of it illegal, undertaken by the likes of Steve Whittamore - often depending on bent coppers to improperly access the Police National Computer.

And while the Murdoch Sun leaves the report off its front page, the supposedly upmarket Times splashes with “Rotten Met ‘has lost public faith’ … Predators could still be hiding in Police force rife with bigotry, says damning review”. The same Murdoch press that, once upon a time, contained within its list of titles the now late and not at all lamented Screws.

That’s the same Screws that was intimately involved with the Daniel Morgan murder case, still unsolved and at every turn hampered by Police corruption. The same Screws that was a by-word for phone hacking, about which we would have known more, and known it sooner, had it not been for cops like Yates of the Yard getting in the way. The Screws and the cops moved as one.

As they did in service of Mazher Mahmood’s various sales-generating setups and stings: all those the Fake Sheikh set up for drugs busts, and also the fake stories, like the Beckham kidnap that was never going to happen, and the Dirty Bomb Plot that wasn’t. The press wasn’t so righteous about the Met then. Now that same press is chucking the Met under the bus.

Worse, there is no mention of one recent event where the Met’s inertia has been to the benefit of the right-leaning part of the press - its unwillingness to investigate apparently illegal activity by the two Leave campaigns. As with phone hacking, the Met sat on the evidence, to the benefit of both campaigns, and with the press not saying boo. Corruption wasn’t so bad then, was it?

Our free and fearless press has known full well that the Met was “Broken and Rotten” years ago. And what did they do about it? Nothing. Nix. Nil. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Not a sausage. Bugger all. Because bent coppers were good for business. Illegal information gathering, joining in with manufacturing fake stories, obstructing investigations, covering up - that was OK.

Anyone might think the press were massive hypocrites. And they’d be right.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Tory Death Cult’s Final Act

Those in and around the Tory party who know just what kind of person disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson really is have warned against returning to him as a successor to the disastrous, but mercifully short, premiership of Liz Truss. Their voices have been largely ignored as the death cult approaches its date with destiny.

Voices like William ‘Ague, who put it directly: “Him returning is the solution? That would be going round in circles and that could become a death spiral of the Conservative Party. And I think it's possibly the worst idea I've heard of in the 46 years I've been a member of the Conservative Party”. Paul Goodman at Conservative Home was also using the D-word. But in German.

“First, Johnson made the Tories a comedy. Then Truss turned them into a laughing stock. A Johnson return would risk emptying the theatre altogether, as most of the public run screaming for the exits … Conservative members may not grasp the extent to which their party is becoming a joke - here and abroad”. Then he makes the connection very few of his contemporaries have.

“The thought occurs that maybe the Conservative Party no longer cares. Perhaps the sum of its ambition is to become the provisional wing of the right-wing entertainment industry: happy to preach to a diminishing band of true believers, and good for a newspaper column or fringe TV turn, while Keir Starmer gets on with the tiresome business of actually running the country”.

“If so, it can look forward to a Prime Minister staffing his government with fifth raters, since the bulk of the 66 Ministers who resigned in the summer will refuse to serve. If a by-election forced by a Commons suspension doesn’t get him. If the Tory benches don’t first vote down the report into his conduct that would trigger it, thus speeding the spiral of decline”. There was more.

“The Germans have a word for it: Totentanz - a dance of death. Conservative MPs, peers, donors, hacks and activists caper onwards an open grave, with Death himself - sorry, Johnson - leading the procession. The dance possesses them; it has a momentum of its own; they are powerless to stop”. Or perhaps they are merely unwilling to confront reality.

Matthew Parris, the former Tory MP who called Ms Truss’ disastrous interlude correctly, was all too willing to confront reality, telling “Put a stake through this vampire’s heart now … Johnson leaves only political death or injury in his wake so a return could kill the party and wound the country”. But for those who consider this just another game, reality has gone out the window.

This combination of denial and stupidity was exemplified by the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, still pretending to be a real journalist as political editor of the Murdoch Sun. “Even if Boris doesn’t run, the mere idea of it has provided one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences on twitter in ages. The horror, the horror. Something must be done. But, but, but.. splutter. *Heads exploding*” he blubbered, in between visits to the buffet.

For some reason, Master Cole managed not to mention the latest YouGov poll, which gave Labour a 37% lead over the Tories, and a 13% lead for Keir Starmer over Bozo as Best PM. The Blond carries a larger negativity rating than his opponents Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. What Cole and his pals also miss is that it would be in Labour’s interests for Bozo to win.

As to that popularity, reporter Harry Taylor noted that “Sky News reporter Mark Stone, who is on the flight with Boris Johnson back from the Dominican Republic to Gatwick, said that Johnson was booed by passengers as he boarded”. Although Bozo was apparently flying economy, he, along with Carrie and the two kids, were allowed to board the aircraft first.

And from Germany, Jon Worth concluded “If you take a risk based approach to [Johnson’s] candidacy you conclude immediately it’s too risky. You can only stomach Johnson if you deny reality”. Which some right-wing commentators are now doing, including those at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”). Bozo is OK because he triggers the Rotten Lefties™.

The problem for them is that this is no longer a game. As the BBC has reported, “The UK's economic outlook has been lowered to ‘negative’ by ratings agency Moody's due to political instability and high inflation. Moody's changed the UK's outlook - which is a marker of how likely it is to pay back debts - from ‘stable’”. They saw Bozo coming. And they deal in reality.

The right-wing idiocy is beyond the looking glass. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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 becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton