Robert Jenrick - Dutch No Master

Last week, there was a Europa League football match hosted by Ajax Amsterdam; their opponents were Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv. So far, so procedural, except that after the match, accusations of anti-Semitism were made, together with talk of a modern-day pogrom. Supporters of the visiting side were portrayed as victims. And then those accusers fell silent.

Why that should be was not hard to see: as Ian Fraser put it, “A pogrom is an organised massacre of an ethnic group e.g. of Jews in Russia and eastern Europe in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. The photo shows an Israeli football hooligan tearing a Palestinian flag off a Dutch person’s home in the 21st century”. It was not the only piece of bad behaviour by those supporters.

Ori Goldberg summed up the mindset that led to talk of pogroms: “Israeli football fans go on a rampage in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags and shouting racist slogans … Then, of course, we are surprised. How is it that when we do such things we suffer the consequences? How is it that we are attacked? How is it that the Dutch police doesn't recognize that we are on a mission for peace, that we are good while they must be bad?”.

There was more. “Events last night in Amsterdam are presented as a ‘pogrom’ here in Israel. We do not occupy the same plane of existence as the rest of you. Our actions have no implications. We can never be the cause of anything. Everything happens to us. Only we are real. Murderous solipsism”.

Ben Sellers pointed out that supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv had been involved in violence in Athens a few months ago. Rafael Shimunov confirmed “They're engaging in [the] theater of ‘victimhood’, supporting a historically violent, racist fanbase who came to [the] Netherlands to assault and incite violence against Arabs, then flipping it to claim the reprisals and anger in return are simply targeting Jews”. And then came Robert Jenrick.

Jenrick, a deeply immodest individual with much to be modest about, had already tried his luck as he dribbled “Meet Jason Hoganson. Jason was jailed for hitting his ex-girlfriend. Keir Starmer let him out early. Within hours of his release, the police got another call, saying he’d assaulted her yet again. Now he’s on the run. Who could have seen that coming?” Maybe Jenrick could.

Especially as the Labour “40% of sentence” early release excludes crimes such as that described. Hoganson had been released after 50% of his sentence had been served, a move introduced by the previous Tory Government, of which Jenrick had been an unswerving supporter.

Having demonstrated his less than consistent relationship with reality, Jenrick then turned to the disturbances in Amsterdam, claiming “These weren’t ‘clashes’. It was a modern-day pogrom. And another warning to the West about the consequences of mass migration and failed integration. Wake up before it’s too late”. The BBC’s report was not good enough for him.

That’s the same BBC report that resorts to using the infamous phrase “on both sides”. The responses to Jenrick’s crude Islamophobic opportunism showed that this was a campaign destined to not necessarily to his advantage, with comments such as “You’re an idiot”, “You’re a nutcase”, and “You lost to Kemi Badenoch. Best sit this one out” standing out.

No use waiting for Robert Jenrick at Barking. He’s beyond there already.

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Tories - Bent Beyond Redemption

With its polling numbers now widely below 20% and entering wipeout territory, it might have been thought that the Tories’ situation could not get any worse - except that it has got worse, and is about to get worse still. What hundreds in and around the party are being investigated for - making a fast buck rather than governing the country - will not go down at all well with the electorate.

Or rather, that part of the electorate still prepared to vote for them before the latest scandal unfolded. That latest scandal is now being referred to as Gamblegate, Fluttergate, Betgate or Bettinggate, and allegedly involved using knowledge that the General Election was to be called for early July to nip down to the nearest bookies’ shop to get a few Bags of Sand on it.

Although some of those involved are thought to have only pitched a Monkey-sized stake, the impression of impropriety is now inescapable. Advisors, hangers-on, prospective candidates, retiring and now former MPs, and yes, even one or more Government ministers are, it seems, under investigation.

Even the Murdoch Times was reporting it, with George Grylls telling “a dossier containing a list of all bets that stood to win more than £199 has been compiled by the Gambling Commission. An industry figure said this list contained ‘hundreds’ of names. Among those known to be under investigation are Sunak’s aide Craig Williams, the Tories’ chief data officer Nick Mason and party candidate Laura Saunders - all of whom insist they did nothing wrong”.

HOWEVER. “Though Williams has admitted to a ‘huge error of judgment’, which is certainly one phrase for it”. Jo Maugham mused “When you have learned that the rules are for the little people” and also asked “If you watched other Tory VIPs make PPE gazillions from who they knew, you might well think, 'why not grab a little for myself?’” Why not indeed.

Edwin Hayward added “Seems the Tories have learned absolutely nothing from Partygate … Back then, they hid behind ‘the police are investigating’ to avoid commenting or taking action … Now it's ‘the Gambling Commission are investigating’, but in all other aspects it's the same mistake all over again”.

By yesterday, Sky News had more, with Beth Rigby declaring “Betting scandal crisis deepens: Many more people than Tories already identified being investigated by gambling regulator re bets on election date. Watchdog widened inquiries to investigate whether people with inside knowledge may have asked third party to place bet, via [Jon Craig]”. Soon after came news that bookies’ odds were on Sunak to lose his seat come polling day.

Strangely, one thing that could help the embattled Tory leader - taking action against those betting - is not happening. But the kinds of papers that might be seen as sympathetic to the Tories, like the Times and indeed the Telegraph, are reporting the news alongside their latest lame efforts to blunt Labour progress by dredging up culture war stories that few care about.

We’re back to the Italian Job derivative, where Mr Bridger tells Camp Freddie “we need that senior Tory MP - get on to it, Freddie”, Camp Freddie asks “but Mr Bridger, what if the senior Tory MP isn’t bent?” and Mr Bridger responds firmly “Camp Freddie, everybody in the Conservative Party is bent”.

When the choice came between serving the people and making a fast buck, the modern Tory did not hesitate. Nor should the voters. Out they go, then.

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BBC DG Meets Tories - Press Silent

Once again, our free and fearless press brings us another reminder that its power lies not merely in what it chooses to print, but what it does not: a story has been broken by an online news source, and only one national daily has picked it up, despite it being about the hated BBC. The one paper to break ranks has had to mimic the name of its owner rather too much, too.

Tim Davie

It was Kevin Schofield of the HuffPost who told yesterday that “BBC director general Tim Davie will address the next meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers”, following up with the observation “To say this is highly unusual would be an understatement”. So it would. What is worse is that Davie is a former Tory party member and candidate.

His candidacy was for a seat in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, a council that would later become a target for the Tories’, shall we say, more radical fringe, like lawyer Donal Blaney of Young Britons’ Foundation infamy. Tory MPs Stephen Greenhalgh and Greg Hands also began their political careers as councillors at LBHF.

So who, among those who scrabble among the dunghill that is Grubstreet, has chosen to publish this news, and how are they spinning it? Surprisingly, it is the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, and part of Reach plc. And Reach is what the paper is doing, not least with its claim of an Exclusive, when Schofield had already prefixed his version with the word SCOOP.

And the spin applied? “Gary Lineker row triggers massive showdown with BBC chief Tim Davie and Tory MPs in days”. Eh? The “Gary Lineker Row”, to use the Express’ happy phrase, has already been and gone. Have a more wide-ranging go. “The Director General of the BBC Tim Davie has agreed to meet backbench Tory MPs amid growing fury over the BBC's coverage”.

What fury would that be, perchance? “BBC Director General Tim Davie has accepted an invitation to come to talk to Conservative MPs over increasing concerns that the national broadcaster is biased with an anti-Conservative, woke agenda”. Bullshit. The Express wouldn’t even be able to define the word “Woke”. And “anti-Conservative”? Seriously? Away with you.

But there was more. “But the meeting next Wednesday comes at a particularly sensitive moment with the BBC facing the prospect of being banned from Israel for appearing to report Hamas propaganda as factual news”."Appearing to report”. And “being banned from Israel”? That would be another very long Reach. Would the Daily Brexit care to be more specific?

“The Corporation incensed the Israelis and Conservative MPs at home by claiming that Israeli forces had blown up a hospital in Gaza when there was no evidence beyond allegations being put out by Hamas”. No evidence beyond a lot of dead bodies, the Israelis putting out a now discredited chat between two Hamas operatives, and the Israeli version changing over time.

Also, the jury is still out on who sent the munition that hit the hospital, where Forensic Architecture’s analysis “suggests a munition larger than eg a Spike or Hellfire missile commonly used by IOF drones. It is more consistent w/ the impact marks from an artillery shell”. Hamas don’t have those. And the direction of delivery is not from the direction the Israelis have claimed.

This is included to emphasise that putting out one side’s claim as data, and under duress, is not a wise move. Nor is making it about one presenter the Express doesn’t like. As in “MPs are still angry that the BBC backed down and changed the rules to allow Lineker to use his platform as its top-paid star to launch attacks on Government policy”. Nor is whining about WOKE.

What the Express, and anyone else out on the right, is missing is that for someone who is not merely BBC Director General, but has a political past with the party to whom he will be speaking, it looks very bad. Because it is very bad. Will Davie be speaking to the Parliamentary Labour Party? How about the Lib Dems and SNP? Would anyone take bets? Maybe not.

It’s not about Lineker or Israel. It’s about the Beeb’s credibility. That is all.

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BBC Capitulates In Lineker Row

Look before you leap: one of the oldest of proverbs, and yet somehow overlooked by the BBC’s hapless Director General Tim Davie or anyone in his team. Last week he was on a mission to bring a little more of his version of impartiality to the Corporation; now, having failed abjectly to think through his and his team’s actions, he rightly faces calls for his resignation.

Match of the Day lead host Gary Lineker passed severely adverse Twitter comment on the Tories’ Illegal Migration Bill, noting that the language used by those promoting it was akin to that used in 1930s Germany, which it was. The right-leaning part of our free and fearless press became most indignant and demanded he be sacked for, well, something. The Mail was especially righteous on the matter, as ever.

Here was Davie’s opportunity: Lineker was to “step back” from presenting MOTD. At first this move was briefed as “agreed”. But it was not agreed: Lineker had made no such agreement. Still, impartiality was being enforced. But then a problem entered: what about Andrew Neil when he had been at the Beeb? What about Alan Sugar? What about Chris Packham, who was a freelance, like Lineker?

Then the house fell in: first Ian Wright, then Alan Shearer, then many others, withdrew their services in solidarity. MOTD was severely curtailed; other programmes were cancelled. Suspending Lineker had been intended to show that BBC management was still strong; instead, it served only to show weakness and supreme foolishness, as well as what looked like pro-Tory bias. And not impartiality.

It was OK for Neil to use his Twitter feed to promote the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine, and get away with misogynist abuse directed at Carole Cadwalladr. It was OK for Sugar to smear former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. And on it went into the weekend, with Laura Kuenssberg obediently giving viewers a pro-Corporation, and apparently pro-Tory, slant on the affair.

But now a problem entered: in addition to all those hosts who had already declared their solidarity with their suspended colleague, a series of team meetings, at least partly via Zoom, had been scheduled for Monday morning. These could have proved mutinous. So, in another show of weakness, the BBC backed down. According to some accounts, they apologised to Lineker. He was reinstated to MOTD.

He would follow the Corporation’s social media guidelines, but this made no sense, as those guidelines were to be reviewed, which suggested they were not fit for purpose. Davie was now under severe pressure, with calls for his resignation coming from Ed Davey of the Lib Dems, and, at long last, Keir Starmer, although Labour has once again shown zero backbone in its response to the row.

After all, their talking heads refused to endorse Lineker’s criticisms, saying the presenter was OTT in his 1930s Germany comparison. This once again suggests The Red Team is so scared of the right-wing press that it dare not even peep in a direction that press finds disagreeable. But Starmer’s lukewarm response pales into insignificance when compared to the precarious position of Tim Davie.

The DG has shown himself to be both out of touch and inept: he is not there to bow down before the Murdoch and Rothermere press. He should treat the Tory fringe, whether it’s the European Research Group or the so-called Common Sense Group, as what they are: fringe wackos, paid up members of the Brexiteer death cult, a convocation of the mindless, bigoted, and intolerant.

But what he should also do as a matter of urgency is to signal his admission that he loused up, and then hand in his resignation. When leaving the building for the last time, he should take Richard Sharp with him: the Corporation’s Chairman should not be a Tory donor, or indeed former fixer for disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. The BBC should be independent.

Moreover, if we are to have impartiality, there is no place for Robbie Gibb anywhere in the organisation, and certainly not the news gathering and presenting part of it. This fiasco could, and should, have been avoided. The buck stops with the DG: that is all.

The BBC is not there to pander to the right-wing establishment. Clear out the Tories.

Piers Morgan Hack Mystery

And so it came to pass that the host of Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkTV’s overhyped flop The All New Percy Moron Show had his Twitter account hacked, to the considerable amusement of all those who not only wished it had happened rather earlier, but also considered the result to be an improvement on what had gone before.

While The Great Man’s colleagues in the media class - one hesitates to use the word “friends” where Morgan is concerned - have been swift to make light of the incident, the Mail pointing the finger at someone from Somalia and plastering their face all over Mail Online, the possibility exists that someone from rather nearer home might have been involved.

For starters, the name of the account was briefly changed to “Piers C**t”; this was the name of a hack in a Viz strip about Baxter Basics MP, who had caught the mythical MP having a relationship with an under-age male. The all too obvious question is quite straightforward - just how big is Viz in Somalia? Because if it isn’t, then maybe the Mail should have investigated further.

But then, the Mail and investigative journalism are only occasional bedfellows, and only then when those labouring under the less than benign direction of the paper’s editor-in-chief, the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, want to get some dirt on their targets. Otherwise, it’s recycled press releases, hatchet jobs and the dirge of obscenely overpaid pundits all the way.

Morgan now has control of his Twitter feed back, but the questions are mounting up: his password can’t have been too challenging a guess, or maybe it was too short and too straightforward. Then comes the information that may have been available to the hacker. Like the Twitter DMs which Morgan may have exchanged with his colleagues and sources.

Why, so the question goes, were his DMs not pored over and then released? But the thought should have already entered: just because we have not seen the contents of Morgan’s DMs does not mean they were not accessed. Maybe they were. So the possibility exists that some of them may yet be published, and without reference as to whether Morgan agrees. Or not.

Worse, there are two further scenarios, neither of which will make happy reading for The Great Man. One is those DMs being used to blackmail him: after all, Morgan is filthy rich, with his rumoured eight-figure deal to host for TalkTV making him a very obvious target. The other is the holder of the DMs eschewing such crudity and merely forwarding them to those Morgan has targeted.

Or, of course, their legal representatives. Like those acting for the Duchess of Sussex and her family. That would also have the potential to lighten Morgan’s account at Coutt’s considerably. Whatever happens, the potential outcomes are universally bad for The Great Man, and universally good for anyone who dislikes his rampant egotism, which is probably most people.

Piers Morgan got his Twitter back. But what might someone else have also got?

The Wonder Of Momentary Interest

England 3 Wales 0. And that, apart from an occasional caution on the possible shortage of free range turkeys this Christmas, a new Alzheimer’s drug, and fewer than half the UK population now identifying at Christian, is almost all the front page news on offer today. Momentary Interest has replaced reality as news. Which suits our free and fearless press just fine.

Why Marcus Rashford, who scored two of those goals, is especially well known - advocating for free school meals - is not told. That would mean the press having to admit that there is increasing poverty, and especially child and food poverty, across the country (the Express gives more prominence to Phil Foden, who scored the other goal, but they’re not racist, honestly).

The identity of hacks writing up what was supposed to be a sports story was also interesting: The Murdoch Sun’s front page lead, with its banner headline “RASH BANG WALLOP!”, is attributed to chief reporter Nick Parker, he of handling a stolen mobile phone infamy. Parker has also featured on Zelo Street helping the Murdoch mafiosi stoking hate against the GRT community.

So readers Look Over There, including those few hardy souls who, for reasons best known to themselves, tune in to Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”). So they won’t have seen Calvin Robinson, a host at the broadcaster, putting a photo of Enoch Powell in his Twitter bio, and quoting from Powell’s infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” Speech.

And, Looking Over There, they won’t see stories which even the Mail is carrying (but not on the front page) suggesting “Suella Braverman 'failed to act' on warnings about diphtheria outbreaks at migrant centres across mainland Europe … The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued an alert more than seven weeks ago urging governments to step up measures including vaccination against the infection”

Nor will that vast majority of the population that has wedded itself to the motor car have seen the effects of rail operator indifference and ineptitude that leave those who commute by rail stranded, having to take taxis, and arriving home rather later at night than they had intended. But they will know that those taking strike action are the root cause of it all (they’re not).

Worse, they won’t know why people take industrial action, because not only has that been edited out of much press coverage of disputes in favour of demonising union leaders, but also that the press now has its own Squirrel! event to cover its tracks. England won - what’s your problem?

A winning national football team is like manna from heaven for most of the press, because most of the press backs the Tory party, and right now, all that the Tory party stands for is continuing infighting, a refusal to admit reality into any and all policy discussions, and a rather more serious refusal to take the blame for fouling up the economy on their watch.

Moreover, with most papers now just tabloids, a football photo can fill the entire front page on its own. Cuts out doing actual journalism, which, given decades of running down staff numbers, is another win. And not many churning out the football stories are willing to confront the obvious corollary: what happens when there is no more England football good news?

Because that would mean telling readers that there is a cost of living crisis - anyone who does their own shopping knows that a week does not pass when one or more items in the basket or trolley has increased in price, and often by non-trivial amounts - which does not affect all those obscenely overpaid star hacks and columnists. It would mean letting reality into the room.

They wouldn’t object to majoring on the “less than 50% identify as Christian” story from this morning, mind. Even though most of them would run a mile rather than behave in anything like a Christian manner. Like football, Christianity is something they love to talk about, but not practice.

But only football can be guaranteed to be the momentary interest by which the proletariat is diverted from its struggle. The country is truly screwed.

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More Lawsuits - Sun And Mail Silent

The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker have today decided that, despite the share crisis, the pension funds crisis, the Sterling crisis, the cost of living crisis and whatever other crises emerge from our terminally inept Government, we should Look Over There at its campaign to have the May Day bank holiday moved because of King Charles’ upcoming coronation.

Phone hacking? Not at the Sun when I was editor ...

Likewise, the Murdoch faithful working on the Super Soaraway Currant Bun want us to look at yet another Maddie story, as if the public needs to know, and indeed whether the McCann family wants the constant reminders. But what neither title is going to tell you is that the litany of lawsuits against them has just taken on a new impetus. And they won’t like it one bit.

The Sun’s management won’t want to be reminded that they spent so many years telling the world that phone hacking had only happened at the late and not at all lamented Screws, which was closed down as a result (OK, Rupe and Co wanted to close it anyway, and turn the Sun into a seven days a week operation, but we’re supposed to ignore that). They didn’t do it, right?

Indeed, as James Doleman has pointed out, “It was a key part of Rebekah Brooks' defence in court that there was no evidence phone hacking took place at The Sun while she was editor … Indeed, it was an ‘agreed fact’ put to the jury”. So guess what is now alleged? You got it - that phone hacking did indeed take place at the Sun during Ms Brooks’ time as editor.

As Jim Waterson at the Guardian has told, “There are now eight additional ‘Sun-only claims’ working their way through the legal system. The group is led by the actor Hugh Grant, who has been joined by the 7/7 London bombings survivor John Tulloch, the jockey Kieren Fallon, and David Beckham’s father, Ted. The other individuals making Sun-only claims include Charlotte Church’s mother, Maria, George Best’s former agent Phil Hughes, Paul Gascoigne’s friend Jimmy ‘Five Bellies’ Gardner and Tricia Bernal, the mother of the murdered stalking victim Clare Bernal”. And there was more.

“The Sun-only claims come after more than 150 individuals launched new phone-hacking cases against Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN). They include … Gerry McCann … Peter Mandelson, Andy Burnham, Tom Watson, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Alistair Carmichael [and] Tim Farron … Tom Parker Bowles and Andrew Parker Bowles … Doreen Lawrence”.

Any more? “Tulisa … Christopher Jefferies … Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robbie Fowler … Jimmy Carr, Christopher Biggins … Sam Mendes … Tom Bradby, Clare Balding, Chris Moyles, Diane-Louise Jordan, Anne Diamond … Louise Redknapp, Gary Barlow and Nadine Coyle”. That’s a lot of claimants for something that never happened. But for the Mail, the news is worse.

... and not at the f***ing Mail either, c***

Remember that the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, now editor-in-chief of the Mail titles, told the Leveson Inquiry that his paper - he was then editor of the Daily Mail - had not indulged in phone hacking. And even the claims that someone working on behalf of the Mail had planted bugs and listened in to landline conversations did not necessarily mean hacking took place.

Jim Waterson again: “The Daily Mail’s parent company is facing its first legal claim for phone hacking, after the former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes filed a case against the newspaper publisher. Hughes is alleging that Associated Newspapers … misused his private information. He is expected to claim that the newspaper publisher employed a private investigator who improperly accessed his voicemail messages”. Ouch!

Dacre’s testimony to Leveson - “I cannot be any more unequivocal, that all my inquiries and all the evidence I’ve received, and having spoken to the editor of my group: our group did not hack phones” is repeated. Waterson’s colleague Jane Martinson tells why this is bad timing for Dacre.

“News of the legal action … and the subsequent revelation that [Simon Hughes] has filed a case accusing Associated Newspapers, the owner of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, of phone hacking have done little so far to dent expectations of Dacre’s imminent elevation to the House of Lords”. But there are misgivings about the Vagina Monologue’s peerage.

“Chris Bryant … who has accused Dacre of ‘poisoning the well of British politics’, has called for any potential peerage to be delayed during the legal action”. Ms Martinson concludes “for [Dacre] to go to a place of public service without clarity about claims that allege a great deal of public harm would be a travesty”. Lords Appointments Commission take note.

The Murdoch mafiosi said there was no hacking on Ms Brooks’ watch. Dacre said his paper didn’t do hacking. So there’ll be no payments to any of those claimants, will there? Meanwhile, there may be a garden bridge for sale.

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Rebekah Vardy And The Sun

After the all too predictable outcome to the lawsuit launched by Rebekah Vardy in the general direction of Coleen Rooney, the observation by J K Galbraith about the Bay of Pigs fiasco came to mind: “not since Joshua’s trumpets at Jericho had there been a military operation in which there was so little rational expectation of success”. Ms Vardy lost. So she’s paying.

Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney ((c) Reuters)

How much? First estimates have come in at around the £2 million mark. The action, brought after Ms Rooney suggested that Ms Vardy was the one who was passing personal information to the Murdoch Sun, became known as the Wagatha Christie case, or alternatively The Scousetrap. It showed that the paper was effectively using Ms Vardy as a source of cheap copy. A lot.

What led the two WAGs to court was put directly by the Guardian: “[Ms Rooney] wrote that for several years she suspected someone of selling stories from her private Instagram account to the Sun … she posted fake stories on Instagram - she was looking into gender selection for her next baby; the family’s basement had flooded - and alternately blocked and unblocked her followers, restricting access to the fake stories until there was only one account viewing these stories, which then appeared in the Sun”.

She then revealed whose account that was: “It’s.......... Rebekah Vardy’s account”. Ms Vardy denied that she sold stories: “I’m not being funny but I don’t need the money”. But the steady drip-drip of evidence suggested otherwise. Her agent, only days after being ordered to disclose messages to the court, “dropped her phone in the North Sea while filming the coastline”.

Also, “many of Vardy’s messages mysteriously vanished when she was trying to send them to her lawyers”. And then there was “the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when Vardy and several other Wags were photographed together, which, according to Rooney’s lawyer, Vardy secretly set up with the paparazzi without telling the other women”. These revelations had one result.

They had a most unfortunate effect on Ms Vardy’s reputation. The same reputation that she had brought the case in order to defend. The Guardian piece noted that “Vardy enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Sun: she posed for paparazzi shots and gave interviews, and they ran puff pieces with her and referred to her as ‘Queen of the Wags’”.

However, “By contrast, the Rooneys, being Liverpudlian and more private by nature anyway, never talk to the Sun and are frequently trashed in that paper”. They did, though, whisper it quietly, come out of the trial process with their reputations considerably enhanced: Wayne, the supportive husband and straight-down-the-line witness, Coleen someone who knows who her friends are and sticks by them. They are what Scousers would simply call Sound.

That cannot be said for the Murdoch Sun, which took a highly partisan view of the trial, with headlines like “Coleen Rooney slapped with £250k court bill as she’s forced to pay Rebekah Vardy’s legal costs in Wagatha battle” allied to claims such as “COLEEN Rooney has suffered another huge blow in her battle with Becky Vardy”. The paper suggested Ms Vardy might win the case.

Hence claims such as “I will donate every penny to charity if I win my bitter court battle with Coleen Rooney, vows Becky Vardy” (for which the paper claimed an “exclusive”, merely fuelling claims that Ms Vardy was passing them stories). Even when the verdict was revealed, readers were told that “DEFEATED Rebekah Vardy today insisted the judge ‘got it wrong’ after she lost her epic Wagatha Christie case against Coleen Rooney”.

One look at the Sun’s hoard of Goss from Ms Vardy tells you how beneficial the relationship between the two has been. All of which begs the question: they used her to get stories about the England football team, and much more - so when are the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker going to open their wallets and contribute the odd million to Ms Vardy’s legal costs?

Those could be £2 million. They could be as high as £3 million. The Super Soaraway Currant Bun would have had to shell out a significant percentage of that amount to bring in the stories, had they not had Ms Vardy and her agent doing the work for them. One Rebekah helping another, perhaps.

The Sun could redeem itself here. But the possibility of that? None at all.

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Free Speech Press Slams Free Speech

There is no greater supporter of free speech - or so they would have you believe - than the Mail titles. Free speech. we are constantly being reminded, is one of the Mail’s values. Only last Friday, Lord Rothermere was cited, as the paper owned by Himself told readers “The proprietor of the Daily Mail has delivered a passionate defence of free speech and family values in a historic address to celebrate the newspaper's 125th anniversary”.

The article went on to tell “Lord Rothermere hailed the Mail's tradition of holding the powerful to account and exposing 'corrupt, pompous, incompetent and immoral' politicians from all parties”. Well, apart from alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and most of his predecessors, that is. But the point was well made.

Sadly, Rothermere, like his chief henchman, the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, suffers from an inability to take on board that freedom of speech also includes the freedom to dissent from what the Mail titles want to impose on the country. This was shown superbly by today’s Mail on Sunday as it went into pearl-clutching overdrive.

“ANGER AS LIVERPOOL CUP FINAL FANS BOO WILLIAM … MPs condemn ‘shameful’ abuse hurled at Prince when he shook players’ hands” thundered the headline, as readers were told “LIVERPOOL fans sparked widespread outrage yesterday for booing Prince William and the National Anthem at the FA Cup Final”. And there was more.

“Jeers rang out around Wembley Stadium as the Duke of Cambridge, who is president of the Football Association, was introduced to Chelsea and Liverpool players before kick-off. Fans gesticulated and made obscene hand gestures while the solemn Prince stood singing God Save the Queen. The outburst by thousands of fans was last night denounced across the political spectrum”. AY DYAH! High jolly GHASTLY!

Only later in the article does the MoS explain the hostility of many on Merseyside to Establishment figures in general. As the Liverpool Echo has told, “The origins of why the red half of Merseyside boo the national anthem can be traced back to the 1980s … The Conservative government's 'managed decline' of the city was then followed by the failings of the government following the Hillsborough disaster further entrenched those feelings”.

The article goes on to note “While in recent years, the people of Merseyside feel they continue to be let down by the state and believe the foodbanks outside Anfield and Goodison is evidence of widening inequalities. The frosty relationship between city and country also translates to the English national team, with many Liverpudlians not supporting England during major tournaments like the Euros or the World Cup”.

Also, there is a fierce sense of community on Merseyside, which goes against the Mail’s - and the Tories’ - selfish individualism. And Liverpool fans are as entitled as anyone else to express their feelings and views freely. The problem for the Mail titles is that free speech is something they only cherish when it allows them to tell the rest of the world what to think.

Which aligns the Mail with those régimes Rothermere’s predecessor, Harold Harmsworth, the first Viscount, was so keen to support in the 1930s. There’s consistency for you.

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The Sun - From Hillsborough To Hacking

Yesterday marked the 33rd anniversary of that fateful FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, where Liverpool were to play Nottingham Forest for a place in the Wembley final. Except the match had to be abandoned after a few minutes as a fatal crush developed in the lower level central pen of the Leppings Lane end. 97 Liverpool fans never came home. But some in our free and fearless press didn’t leave it there.

Evening all

The Murdoch Sun, edited at the time by the deeply unpleasant Kelvin McFilth, blamed those same Liverpool fans for the tragedy. Other papers ran the smear; the difference was that everyone else withdrew the claims and apologised. The Murdoch mafiosi maintained the pretence that they were right; on Merseyside, the Sun became a pariah newspaper, and its circulation has never recovered. Nor has its reputation.

But at least the Sun has managed not to become tarred with the same brush as the late and not at all lamented Screws, whose demise was hastened by revelations of the endemic phone hacking that went on there. Until yesterday.

The Murdoch empire recently failed to bring phone hacking claims to an end. But, as Guardian media editor Jim Waterson has pointed out, “the still-publishing Sun and the defunct News of the World are owned by the same parent company, which means it can settle cases against the latter on the condition that victims cannot bring a separate claim against the former”. So denials of Sun wrongdoing can be maintained.

However, and here’s the sting in the tail, “individuals who secured some of the first phone-hacking settlements in the early 2010s … were not asked to agree to such terms”. And yesterday, on the 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, came the news that actor and campaigner Hugh Grant, who was one of those early claimants, had returned to the fray to bring a second phone hacking claim - specifically against the Sun.

Maybe not such a happy bunny this Easter

This brings an almighty headache for the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker: the Sun was edited at the time by Rebekah Brooks, now News UK’s CEO. She and her team would rather focus on the imminent launch of TalkTV, whose star presenter is former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Which just takes us back to phone hacking.

As Waterson points out, “Morgan has himself faced ongoing accusations - which he strenuously denies - that he must have known about the practice while editor of the Daily Mirror in the 2000s … Reach, the current owner of the Daily Mirror, is also facing lengthy and ongoing legal claims for historical phone-hacking offences at its tabloid newspapers”.

And what's more, Ron ...

And guess what? “Prince Harry also has a case working its way through the courts alleging wrongdoing at the Sun, the News of the World and the publisher of the Mirror”. It was the hacking of the Princes’ phones that set the whole ball rolling back in 2006. Today’s Sun editorial sneers at Haz. Morgan will be airing his obsession with Megs very soon, maybe alongside his hatred of Hugh G. What goes around has come around.

Murdoch, Ms Brooks and Morgan want so much to leave that less favourable part of their collective pasts behind. Sadly for them, it just keeps on coming back to haunt them.

While we are reminded of that wisest of Merseyside advice: Don’t Buy The Sun.

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Cops Interrupt Tate Exhibition

During one of many doorsteppings performed by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson - in his usual inimitable manner - he turned up to harass Mike Stuchbery, on the dishonest premise that the latter had revealed Lennon’s address. He also claimed that Stuchbery had sent someone to harass Lennon’s family, which was also untrue. So far, so routine, but then someone else entered the frame.

One day, without actually knocking at the door, Andrew Tate appeared at the Stuchbery house. In a very expensive and very fast car. Who he? Tate is a kickboxing champion and one-time occupant of the Big Brother House, although here a problem entered: he was ejected from said house, and, it seems, not for the reasons he gave afterwards.

The Mail later told readers “A video has emerged of Andrew Tate beating his ex-girlfriend with a belt, which he claims is the reason why he was removed from the Channel 5 reality show the day before [the clip] shows the star continually hit the blonde with his belt - he also slaps her across the face [Tate later said] it was all a bit of playful fun”.

He also said that women should “bear responsibility” for being raped. And this week we learned “According to the US Embassy, DIICOT prosecutors raided the home of world champion Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan in Bucharest after kidnapping 2 women. News Hour with CNN reports a woman of American citizenship was allegedly recruited for sexual exploitation through webcam”. What’s a British-American doing in Romania?

As one must-read thread [HERE] has pointed out, “According to #AndrewTate himself, he moved to Romania because he had 11 charges brought against him by UK Law Enforcement after they seized his devices while he was under investigation for assaulting one of his webcam models”. There are other videos of him beating women.

So far, so unsavoury, but the bad news for the wider far right is that rather a lot of them have been palling up to Andrew Tate. Most prominent among the collection of villainy is Battersea bedroom dweller Paul Joseph Watson, stepping away from his very important world map to tell his adoring followers “He’s a nice boy really”.

Following Watson’s lead was Raheem “call me Ray” Kassam, for whom it seems the vicious racism in the Tate back catalogue was not a problem. And then came the likes of Jack Posobiec. Finally, just to bring home to mainstream UK politics watchers that this is not a mere fringe phenomenon, there is Tate alongside the gurning figure of former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who is giving the thumbs up.

The populist far right likes to portray itself as just another safe political option: Farage in the UK, Marine le Pen in France, AfD in Germany, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Vox in Spain and André Ventura in Portugal. But its embrace of figures like Tate shows that it is anything but safe. Tate is alleged to have links to the Romanian Mafia, his use of violent misogyny is well-known, and he is apparently a fugitive from British justice.

But he has done the world one big favour this week: he’s showed the world just where the populist far right is at. And where it’s at is not where its leading lights are pretending to be.

So a big thank you to Andrew Tate. Not so sure it will help with the law, mind.

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Nigel Farage Campaign Rally ISN’T

While the conflict in Ukraine continues, and people remember just who said that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the leader they admired the most, it might have been thought that former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage would have difficulty making himself relevant for a while. But that thought has been shown to have been misplaced, as Nige and his pals have come roaring back with a new campaign.

A smile, a song, a blatantly dishonest false equivalence, and he was away, telling his adoring followers “We need a referendum on the net zero madness. I am excited to launch a new campaign with [Richard Tice] called [Power Not Poverty] … The Richmond Greens don't have to worry about paying their gas bills - but millions of ordinary people do”.

At a stroke, anyone caring for the environment is smeared as “rich”, and Farage puts himself on the side of the working class. But the really rich ones are himself, Tice and their pals. Rising energy prices are mostly down to the wholesale cost of gas - wherever it comes from. And where Farage wants it to come from will hurt the working class - badly.

“We cannot rely on foreign powers for gas and oil any longer. The only way to keep the lights on is to ensure we have energy independence”. That means when alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson “suggested” that the UK may consider fracking, Mr Thirsty was wholeheartedly on board. “The first victory for common sense”.

So how would he get the word out there, apart from shooting off his North And South on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”)? We did not have long to wait. “Join me alongside Richard Tice and Dominique Samuels in Bolton on Saturday 26th March, as we start our campaign for a referendum on Net Zero”. A campaign rally!

This would take place at the University of Bolton Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club. But here a problem entered: as the BWFC Twitter feed has told, “A 'Vote Power Not Poverty' Rally scheduled for later this month at the Bolton Whites Hotel will not be happening … The event has been cancelled by BWFC and is not something the club and business wishes to be associated with”. The Manchester Evening News had more.

“Responding to [a] tweet by [Power Not Poverty], a number of the club's fans voiced their discontent at the ground being used as a venue … Bolton Wanderers confirmed that the event, which was selling VIP tickets for £100 and was also set to feature Reform UK leader Richard Tice and political commentator Dominique Samuels, had been cancelled. Bolton Wanderers also moved to distance itself from the event”.

Farage and his pals pick their moment to sneer

So what say Vote Power Not Poverty? “The owners of Bolton Wanderers Football Club and the Bolton Whites Hotel had reneged on our contract … In a Moscow style rebuke to free speech … Though wealthy owners of football clubs may not care about ordinary people, our campaign to deliver cheaper, more secure energy to the people of the UK remains resolute and an alternate venue will be announced in the coming days”.

Sneering about “wealthy owners of football clubs” when BWFC has just endured several years of financial problems is the pits. On the anniversary of the Burnden Park Disaster.

Nige’s campaign to fleece the poor falls at the first hurdle. Just rejoice at that news.

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Piers Morgan Raducanu Hypocrisy

Winning the women’s singles event at the US Open Championships, without dropping a set and having had to get through three qualifying rounds beforehand, Emma Raducanu made history yesterday. At the age of just 18, she had only played one major tournament beforehand. One moving coda was that she was cheered on by the last British woman to win a singles major, Virginia Wade - whose victory came at Wimbledon in 1977.

And what's more, Ron

But while most pundits were reaching for the book of superlatives, and praising Ms Raducanu for her achievement, others were either hoping that no-one looked too hard at their previous utterings, or frantically trying to reinvent them, so as to appear that they were in her corner all along. In the former category was former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who offered his congratulations.

Yes! COME ON!! Er, Piers who?

What Mr Thirsty hoped no-one would notice was that Ms Raducanu is of Romanian and Chinese heritage, and was born in Canada. Farage infamously told anyone who would listen that he wouldn’t want to live next door to, er, Romanians. But his was a mere bit-part, compared to former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

Morgan, who is famous only for knowing famous people, and whose sporting achievements extend no further than being a season ticket holder at Arsenal FC, was characteristically keen on not merely congratulating Ms Raducanu, but telling the world that he had a part in her victory, even though this proposition is complete crap.

When Ms Raducanu was forced to retire from her fourth round match at Wimbledon after experiencing breathing difficulties, Morgan scoffed “McEnroe told the truth. Ms Raducuna’s a talented player but couldn’t handle the pressure & quit when she was losing badly. Not ‘brave’, just a shame. If I were her, I’d tell my fans to stop abusing McEnroe, & seek his advice on how to toughen up & become a champion like he was”.

Hiding behind John Mac and spelling her surname wrong. And as one Tweeter pointed out yesterday, “McEnroe’s comments were taken out of context. What he also said: ‘Maybe it’s not a shame this has happened right now when she is 18, I played this tournament at 18 and in a way I was happy I lost. I was able to understand what it would take to make it.’ He wasn’t wrong was he?” Also, Morgan accused Ms Raducanu of choking. Baselessly.

But even last July, Morgan was gearing up for the all-important process of basking in someone else’s reflected glory. “I trend all yesterday for saying Emma Raducanu couldn’t handle the pressure of her Wimbledon match which is why she quit … Then Emma tweets that she couldn’t handle the pressure”. We’re on first name terms already.

Brutus Moriartus, this man is a bit of a crawler

Then came the reinvention of reality as Ms Raducanu won. Had he had a bad day? “A bad day? I've been totally vindicated. She took my advice and won”. It got worse. “Imagine if [Emma Raducanu] had taken Twitter’s advice & carried on ‘bravely’ and ‘heroically’ quitting and losing… thank God she’s made of tougher stuff & realised that winners don’t quit & have to learn how to handle the pressure. That’s why she’s Champion today”.

Who is this Twitter of whom he speaks? Who knows, and, indeed, who cares? Once again, Piers Morgan is unable to admit he called it wrong last July and didn’t know what he was talking about. Honesty is clearly for losers. The sickness of our media class laid bare.

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