Nadine Dorries Defends Sex Pests

Nature, so it goes, abhors a vacuum. Both old and new media follow the same rule, and so when Christmas turned out to contain no nasty news surprises, someone somewhere had to make something up to fit the gap. Sadly for those expecting any kind of entertainment, the someone stepping up to the plate was Mid Bedfordshire’s Tory MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries, whose ability to open mouth and insert boot knows no bounds.

So it was that she declared earlier today “Left wing snowflakes are killing comedy, tearing down historic statues, removing books from universities, dumbing down panto, removing Christ from Christmas and suppressing free speech. Sadly, it must be true, history does repeat itself. It will be music next”. The oppression of free speech is so severe that it has had no effect whatever on her ability to Tweet rubbish, but hey ho.

I missed the rest of the supposed oppression, too: nobody wished me a Happy Mas this year. What the fragrant Nadine might also have missed is that the Daily Mail article she is citing in support of her outburst might not be the wisest choice when presenting her defence: reading it might have saved her blushes. So what’s the problem?

Ah well. The piece Ms Dorries cites is headlined “Oh, yes they are! 'Snowflakes' are killing panto with their political correctness, claims Christopher Biggins as producers bin smutty gags in wake of Harvey Weinstein scandal”, and goes on to tell “Panto star Christopher Biggins slammed the censorship of panto”. Then comes the bad news.

Because it then says “Stage legend Christopher Biggins has slammed those who are trying to censor pantomime … The 69-year-old's blistering response comes after theatre bosses removed a Dick Whittington sketch at the London Palladium where a male actor looks up a female character's skirt”. And this is mere “snowflake” behaviour?

There is more. “Managing Director of Qdos Pantomimes, who manage the show at the London Palladium, cut the sketch after allegations made against Harvey Weinstein … He told the Daily Telegraph: 'I have cut that. Last Christmas it was in nearly every panto in the land, including the Palladium, but this year it just feels wrong’”. And yet more.

“'What I have not done and what I won't do is change any jokes, as I don't believe there is a link between sexual harassment and pantomime … ’Nobody touches anybody in pantomime. And as far as somewhere like the Palladium goes, of course the show is full of innuendo because we are working with Julian Clary’”.

So all that has been “censored” is a moment in a panto which might make any number of theatregoers uneasy, especially after recent revelations not just against Weinstein, but also against those who try and sneak upskirt photos of women without them knowing. To remove the suggestion that this is somehow funny is hardly “snowflake” behaviour.

Of course, Ms Dorries may not have been paying attention, which is entirely possible, and then just sounding off for the sheer hell of it. But she is supposed to be an MP, and therefore someone who should look first, before leaping to conclusions.

It looks like she’s goofed yet again. And for a public servant, that’s not good enough.

Tis The Season Once More

And so the clock is ticking down to Christmas once more. The presents are wrapped, the cards written, the packing under way, and another hopefully relaxing occasion is in prospect, at the end of yet another momentous year.

We have seen Brexit go from hero to zero and beyond. The Tories, under the less than charismatic leadership of Theresa May, went to catch a huge majority, screwed up their campaign, took the electorate for granted, and dropped it.

More potentially illegal behaviour from our free and fearless press was exposed, the clamour for more effective press regulation persisted, the spectre of Leveson part 2 has not gone away, and the likes of Mazher Mahmood face an uncertain future.

The far-right made itself look increasingly stupid, and although it gained a new and determined recruit in pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins, her star diminished further during the year. Zelo Street correctly told the world that she was being sacked, and that she had then been sacked. Even Press Gazette had to confirm that. Sort of.

And the Press and Pundit Establishment have been held to account, whether they like it or not (usually the latter). This includes many, like the Murdoch mafiosi, their poodles the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, and the UKIP saloon bar propper-uppers, who claim not to be part of it. Bullshit.

Then some of us decided we had to change our minds about Jeremy Corbyn. Sadly, some decided not to, and began to throw a series of mardy strops about which nobody gave a flying foxtrot. There will be more in the New Year.

The result of all that is that we continue to live in interesting times - sometimes it seems that those times can get a little too interesting.

Meanwhile, Zelo Street will be taking a break over the Christmas period. I hope that, whatever your stance on the political spectrum, you enjoy a peaceful festive season.

As one much-missed and famous man might have said, thank you, and may your God go with you.

Do Not Arise, Sir Nigel

Even before Christmas has been and gone, the speculation and leaks begin as to who will be, and who will not be, receiving gongs in the New Year’s Honours List. This time, the news is on one person who will not be achieving recognition this way, and rightly so. That is because this name in the frame is none other than former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. His fans are not best pleased.

Squeaky no K finger up the bum time

The joke newspaper that is the Express was distraught: “Nigel Farage SLAMS Remainer establishment after being SNUBBED AGAIN for Brexit knighthood … NIGEL Farage has lambasted the British establishment after being overlooked again for a knighthood despite his monumental role in delivering Brexit” it whines plaintively. And there was more.

“The former Ukip leader has confirmed that he will not be receiving the honour from the Queen when this year’s New Year’s honours are announced next week … Speaking of the revelation, Mr Farage said: ‘Of course I have not got an honour of any kind - I am not a Remainer … Everyone of them got CBEs, they got knighthoods, quite extraordinary. I have got a Brexmas present far more important than the honour’”.

And what would that present be? “A campaign to get back British [blue] passports has been successful. I held that passport up every day [during the referendum campaign] so I couldn't be happier”. Yeah, right. Our citizens get dumped in the “Other Passports” queue, we might have to apply for visas, the economy is heading south, we’re an international laughing stock, but Nige is happy because he can have a Blue Passport.

Whine, Sir?

What makes this charade worse - Farage whines at the establishment but wants so much to join their ranks - is that there are some who think he deserved the honour. Although we can dismiss the blubbering creep Raheem “call me Ray” Kassam sniffing “Shock horror, @theresa_may and the remainer establishment fail to honour the most successful UK political figure in a generation - AGAIN. There’s a special place in hell for these people”, some who should know better think Farage really deserves it.

Tim Shipman of the Murdoch Sunday Times has declared that “Also, I’d give Farage a knighthood by the way. Most effective single issue politician of his generation. I suspect this will happen after March 2019 when everyone has calmed down a bit”. So let me put him, and all Mr Thirsty’s cheerleaders, straight on exactly what The Great Man deserves.

Wrong, wrong, wrong

Nigel Farage has been caught fiddling his European Parliament expenses. He is a person of interest to the FBI. He is widely believed to be a Russian asset. He is utterly and completely without principle, other than the continued enrichment of Himself Personally Now - hence he detests the EU so much that he will willingly accept a £70,000 plus a year pension from them. He’s a lush. He’s a congenital liar. And he is no patriot.

Had he been one, he would do what was best for the UK. But Farage is not about doing the best for the UK - only what is best for him. You wouldn’t have given Al Capone a knighthood, nor any of the Great Train Robbers. Farage is just as much a thief as they were. So stop the pretence. He’s not worth paying in washers, and he’s not worth a K.

The honours system may be bust - but it’s not that badly bust.

Top Six - December 24

So what’s hot, and what’s not, in the past week’s blogging? Here are the six most popular posts on Zelo Street for the past seven days, counting down in reverse order, because, well, I have Christmas travel prep to do later. So there.

6 Uber And A £1 Billion VAT Bill After the European Courts decided that driver and rider matching service Uber was a transportation company, and not a tech one as it had claimed, maybe all that VAT could now be collected.

5 Godfrey Bloom SACKED By Think Tank After Godders The Clown had smeared Goldman Sachs as a “Jewish Bank”, the Ludwig von Mises Centre, named for a Jewish economist, stripped him of his Hon Presidency.

4 Press Bullies Threaten Labour Activist The Daily Mail sent a reporter to harass the social media presence known as Rachael Swindon - it wasn’t down to any kind of public interest, just a crude way of shutting her up. And it didn’t work.

3 Ben Goldsmith Grenfell Smear BUSTED The deeply unpleasant Goldsmith proved he was a chip off the family block by trying to connect an alleged incident at a West London club to the peaceful march in support of the Grenfell victims and their families.

2 Jess Phillips In Deep Trouble The motormouth Labour MP going to Rupert Murdoch’s penthouse party was bad enough, but then came well-sourced claims that she had been getting a little too close to one very right-wing Tory MP.

1 Bercow Faces Down Dacre The Commons Speaker put himself on a collision course with the Daily Mail’s legendarily foul mouthed editor by telling MPs that they were not “malcontents” or “enemies of the people”, in the wake of death threats following another assault by the Mail.

And that’s the end of another blogtastic week, blog pickers. Not ‘arf!

Oxford - Daily Mail Loses It

When the Mail puts out a hatchet job under the by-line of Guy Adams, that is the signal telling readers that this has been personally directed by the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, and directed in order to tell those readers (a) what to think, and (b) make sure there is no problem in telling which are the good guys, and which the bad ones.

Why the f*** shouldn't I denounce leftist c***s as f***ing foul-mouthed, c*** features?!?!?

So it was with today’s Zhdanov-style denunciation of more of those Enemies Of The People, as the headline thunders “Revealed: How Oxford University is 'home to loud mouthed, Tory-loathing, anti-Israel academics who believe only they should have freedom of expression’”. So who is the poor victim here?

“The Reverend Canon Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Christ Church, Oxford, is a gifted orator who has published eight books during the five decades of his career … A leading authority on religious ethics and an Anglican priest, he is also a senior adviser to the Vatican”. And what happened to poor Nige?

“Professor Biggar has become the target of a hysterical social media mob for expressing his views on the British Empire … he attracted an avalanche of odium on Facebook and Twitter … some of his fellow Oxford academics were also vehement critics, and this week it emerged that 58 of them had signed an open letter declaring their 'firm rejection' of his ‘agenda’”. Sinister quote marks! Guess what’s coming next?

“So far as we can tell, almost all the 58 Oxford academics who signed the letter appear to be card-carrying members of the Left”. You didn’t bother finding out. “A vast proportion are fully paid-up Labour activists and supporters of Jeremy Corbyn”. How many is vast? “20 have endorsed or campaigned for the Labour Party and two are Labour members”. Fewer than half. “Thirteen are anti-Brexit campaigners”. Fewer than a quarter.

But Adams did find one supporter of Momentum. And some critics of Israel, which for the Mail is truly taking the biscuit: nudge-nudge Labour-means-anti-Semitism after the paper carried an attack on Lord Leveson which gratuitously described him as “a Liverpool-born, Oxford-educated Orthodox Jewish lawyer”. The Mail’s bizarre assault on the memory of Ralph Miliband also generated concern over at the Jewish Chronicle.

Moreover, Biggar has form for running to the Mail: earlier this month, it carried a sob story telling “Oxford students have branded an eminent professor ‘bigoted’ after he suggested feelings of guilt around British colonialism may have gone too far”. In 2016 it was “Nigel Biggar, professor of moral pastoral theology at Christ Church, criticised students calling for the removal of a memorial to Cecil Rhodes, during a debate yesterday”.

And Biggar should not be surprised to find some of his colleagues opposed to his stance - he has, after all, authored “Outing yourself as a rightist isn’t easy” for The Conservative Online. Earlier this year he delivered a lecture to right-wing think tank Policy Exchange. Right-winger finds views challenged by a few left-wingers no shock horror.

Worse, Adams’ hatchet job has gratuitously smeared many Oxford academics whose colleagues clearly feel his article has been deeply unfair. Jonathan Healey is one who has shared his thoughts, which you can see HERE. As usual, the Mail selectively trashes those of whom it disapproves in order to burnish the image of its favourites. No change there.

Blue Passports - Less Freedom

Those who travel regularly between the UK and mainland Europe will already know that, although we are able to use priority lanes for EU and EEA citizens to pass through Customs and Passport controls, because the UK did not sign up to the Schengen agreement, we have to watch as most other travellers out of European airports walk straight from security check to boarding, as we queue for another passport check.

So by showing Johnny Foreigner how different and special we are, this proud yet deluded mentality just makes travel so much more difficult and time consuming. It is something that our free and fearless press has difficulty taking on board. So when the news came that after Brexit, our passports would change colour to blue and gold - which happen to be the colours of the EU flag - no-one stopped to consider the implications.

Those championing Britain’s departure from the EU have banged on ad infinitum, and indeed ad nauseam, about freedom. We were, it was argued, stifled and shackled by being in the EU; outside it, we would enjoy so much more freedom. This was the most blatant bullshitting of the electorate: as the blue passport ruckus dies down, it is becoming clear that our freedom is about to be degraded, not enhanced, outside the EU.

You think I jest? What the likes of Andrew Bridgen, Jacob Rees Mogg, Bill Cash, Peter Bone and the inevitable contribution from Dan, Dan The Oratory Man will not tell you is that our new blue passports will mean more delays, more inconvenience, more spot checks, more bureaucracy, more hassle, and ultimately more ridicule at our decision to precipitate a national act of self-harm for no point whatsoever.

Even the Daily Mail has seen the penny drop, telling “offficials in Brussels said holders of any colour of British passport could see their travel rights diminished after Brexit unless there were further negotiating concessions … One senior official told The Guardian 'depending on how negotiations go on all free movement issues after Brexit' there was a significant risk that Britons would lose the right to use a fast-track citizens lane when travelling on the continent”. And there was more.

“One expert warned it is unlikely Britain will retain fast-track privileges unless there is further shift in the prime minister's red lines on immigration … ’At the moment, it looks absolutely certain that we won't be able to go through the European citizens lane because the legal code in the Schengen borders code says it is only for citizens or people with free movement rights,' said Steve Peers, a professor of law at Essex University”.

You believed all that guff about Free Movement being A Very Bad Thing? You’ve been taken for a mug again. It gets worse: we could have had blue passports at any time in the last 30 years. The EU recommendation to adopt a burgundy colour for the documents was merely advisory. Worse again for all the clowns cheering the change in passport colour is that a majority of the public don’t think it’s a very good idea.

The more that the electorate discovers about Brexit, the less they like it. And how they will treat politicians and parties who took them for fools does not bear thinking about.

Telegraph Whines At Taxman Doing His Job

Taxation. Along with death, those things in life which are the most certain. And taxation enables the Government to pay for those little essentials - like the benefits system, the NHS, the law enforcement agencies, the emergency services, keeping our transportation systems moving, education, and so much more. We all pay taxes. The better off pay proportionately more. And boy, do some of them whinge about it.

So when the authorities clamp down on any kind of tax underpayment, the rich and greedy can be relied upon to squeal like so many pigs arriving at the local pork pie factory. And as those are the kinds of people who have the ear of our free and fearless press, we can expect any and every article on the subject to be framed in a way that paints the taxmen as the baddies, just for doing the job for which they are paid.

Thus today’s bleating headline in the increasingly downmarket and desperate Telegraph: “Tax ‘revenge’ on tycoons who bankrolled Brexit … HMRC under attack after demanding up to £2m on entrepreneurs’ EU campaign funding”. Collecting tax has become “revenge” in the retelling. For doing its job, HMRC is “under attack”. Those receiving the bills are lauded as “entrepreneurs”, and not tax dodgers, oh no.

The blubbering and moaning is unrelenting: “DONORS who bankrolled the Brexit campaign have accused the taxman of a ‘political attack’ after they were hit with six- or even seven-figure tax demands on their contributions … Among those targeted were … Peter Cruddas, the City mogul; and Arron Banks, who made millions from his insurance businesses”. I’ve considered just how much Banks is really worth previously.

Did diddums get a nasty tax bill, then?

Why the mardy strop, then? “In what has been dubbed the ‘revenge of the Establishment’ [by whom? And they ARE the Establishment] the tax authorities have seized upon a relatively obscure area of inheritance tax laws which forces people to pay tax upfront on large ‘gifts’”. That’s a straight-A F*** Right Off. Is tax due? Then tax is due. Full stop, no conditional statement, no get-out clause, end of story.

And then comes the admission “At least one Remain donor has also been sent a tax demand”. So it’s not “revenge”, it’s not singling out Brexit backers, and it’s not a “political attack”. But we do know that “banks including Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan, which bankrolled the remain campaign, have not been embroiled in the crackdown because they cannot be made liable for inheritance tax”. This is significantly dishonest.

None of the top ten donors to the referendum campaign - on either side - were Goldman Sachs or J P Morgan, although the Tel has claimed otherwise. So why the pretence? Why keep whining about “Goldman Sachs”? Why claim the tax authorities are carrying out a revenge attack when they’re only doing their job? This is the lamest non-story to be foisted on the Tel’s dwindling readership in a long time. And not worth the “exclusive” claim.

Arron Banks has been hit with a tax demand? He’ll just have to pay up, or get whoever he’s fronting for to pay up. No hearts bleed for this repellant creep and his equally unpleasant pals. The overmonied and uncaring whining about having to stump up their fair share of the tax burden is not a story. Even though it is enough to make you puke.

Jess Phillips In Deep Trouble

Labour MP Jess Phillips has, by her own choice and personal demeanour, a higher than average profile among those in the Commons. She is not backwards in coming forwards on any number of issues, some of which she is eminently well qualified to talk about. But she is not universally liked across the entire political spectrum of her own party, and her recent behaviour has not helped her cause in the slightest.

Jess Phillips MP

Her latest problem has come not from anything that has happened in Parliament, but from the kind of association that she should have known would cause her trouble. Think back to the leadership of Mil The Younger: the amount of stick he got from his own party when he decided to go along with the Murdoch Sun and endorse one of their “campaigns”, otherwise known as campaigns to sell more papers, was legion.

The Guardian recorded his buyers’ remorse: “Ed Miliband has apologised for agreeing to be pictured holding a special World Cup issue of the Sun … The picture angered people in Liverpool, where the paper has been subject to a boycott ever since its controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 … Liverpool’s Labour mayor, Joe Anderson, issued a statement highly critical of Miliband”. It’s a live rail kind of issue.

Not for Tories, you understand: The Blue Team can be as close as it likes to the Murdoch mafiosi, and in Michael “Oiky” Gove they have one of Murdoch’s hired hands in the cabinet. But since the election to the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, association with the Murdoch mafiosi has been Streng Verboten. Except not for Ms Phillips.

Natalie Rowe

As the Evening Standard told earlier this week, “Media mogul Rupert Murdoch invited MPs and editors out to play at his pad. Combative Labour MP Jess Phillips was there too”. No other Labour MP attended. The Skwawkbox was unimpressed, noting that she “missed last night’s weekly PLP meeting”, but “later attended … a private event thrown by Rupert Murdoch at his penthouse apartment”. Along with other less than distinguished guests.

 

These included the Daily Mail’s legendarily foul mouthed editor Paul Dacre, along with the Sun’s deeply unpleasant editor Tony Gallagher. I expect that the twinkle-toed yet domestically combative Rebekah Brooks would have been in attendance, taking notes.

Ooh, look who's here. Again

Steve Topple at The Canary went suitably OTT with “Jess Phillips has shamed Labour and Birmingham with her latest stunt”, but made the very valid point that the Sun has been in the vanguard of demonising minorities - along with disabled people. It was, as the baddies told one of their own in Charade, a Dumb Move.

And now has come the suggestion from the well-informed Natalie Rowe - who blew the whistle on former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale - that Ms Phillips had been getting a little too close to old Whitto. The Labour MP has claimed this to be “libellous”, but has failed to issue a straight denial. Also, she is on record as saying “People having affairs is their own business”. Well, she does have a point in this instance.

After all, having some kind of Close Encounter with a notorious Tory MP is probably less bad for a Labour MP than breaking bread with Rupert Murdoch and his pals.

Damian Green - Tories Deflecting

After Theresa May bowed to the inevitable, and told Damian Green, Ashley Madison non-member and female party-goer toucher-upper with special responsibility for legal threats, that he had to resign, there had to be a backlash. After all, none of those ghastly socialists had been caught with pants down, hands in the till, or exhibiting sackable foot-in-mouth tendencies, and there had to be a scapegoat. So it had to be the Police.

That's right Sir, both hands where we can see them

Why so? Well, two retired cops had blown the whistle on Green, and while whistleblowing was fine when it was done to politicians who have incurred the displeasure of the Press Establishment, for one of their pals to get caught was totally out of order. So today brought the Murdoch Times telling readers “Police turn on officers who brought down Green … Porn leaks attacked as Tory anger mounts”. The paper is not alone.

Indeed, the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph goes further, with “Police had Green vendetta, says Boris … Backlash against officers who leaked details of porn on sacked minister’s computer”. The lack of self-awareness is staggering.

So let me put the collected cluelessness of the Press and Pundit Establishment straight. For starters, London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is in no position to call “vendetta” on anyone, nor to pontificate on those who have been caught behaving inappropriately towards any number of young women. Hint.

Moreover, someone is missing the obvious detail: Damian Green had porn on his workplace computer. That, in A N Other Everyday Normal Workplace, would be a gross misconduct offence resulting almost certainly in summary dismissal. Green was not dismissed. He continued to draw an MP’s salary, and later a ministerial one, for almost a decade after being caught. That is not the Police’s fault.

It gets worse: Kate Maltby, who first raised the question of Green’s inappropriate behaviour, has claimed that 10 Downing Street knew about the Deputy PM’s behaviour last year. She has told “Eventually I spoke to a very senior and long-serving aide of Theresa May … I was aware that he was the deputy prime minister and I was aware that No 10 knew about it”. They knew about Green’s behaviour.

She added “I would never, never have told my story about Damian Green if I did not believe I was exposing a pattern of behaviour of which I thought the Prime Minister was personally aware”. Yet the Press Establishment is trying to divert attention on to the Police instead, while the two obvious questions go unaddressed and unanswered.

One is, as Geoff Ho has pointed out, “Staggered by how so many in the Government have their knickers in a twist about Damian Green. It’s simple: he had porn on his WORK computer. That’s a sackable offence in the private sector … Then he lied. He got what he deserved”. Forget what the cops may or may not have done. He’s bang to rights.

And two, as My Sweet Landlord muses, “Kate Maltby; "Eventually I spoke to a very senior and long-serving aide of Theresa May". Did Sue Grey speak to Nick Timothy or Fiona Hill?” That’s why the right-wing press and punditerati want you to look over there.

Because the possibility of cover-up could be bad for the Tories. Don’t be distracted.

Sun Blue Passport Idiocy

The Murdoch goons at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun have today shown that they have their finger on the pulse, a deep knowledge of the issues that affect all those ordinary hardworking Brits whose cause they claim to champion. No, it’s not the cost of housing, energy, food, drink, travel or anything else that is the number one priority for the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker, but the colour of British passports.

British passports. That’s the document you have to take with you whenever you travel abroad. That you show once when leaning the UK, and once when arriving at your destination. And the same number of times when returning. It is not worn around your neck. It is not tattooed on any part of your body. It does not need to be displayed to all and sundry when you are in a foreign country. It does not make you more or less British.

Yet the Murdoch mafiosi has decreed that changing the colour of the British passport will somehow confer greatness on our nation once more. Think about that. The economy could go off the proverbial cliff, Britain could become an even greater laughing stock, we could become a vassal state of the USA (the Murdoch goons would love that one), but as long as we have blue passports, none of that will matter. Thus the idiocy.

So today, readers are told “Sun Victory … BACK AND BLUE … Return of the Great British Passport”. This alleged “exclusive”, under the by-line of the paper’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn, sees immigration minister Brandon Lewis, mistakenly believing that sucking up to the Murdoch mafiosi will make him look other than a credulous patsy, telling “within five months [of leaving the EU, British passports] will be dark blue again”.

Well, whoopee-do. That’ll pay yer heating bills, compensate fully for the job that went off to mainland Europe, and fund any number of boozy nights out, eh? But the Sun also has news of what will be in the new passport: “Inside pages will be adorned with patriotic background scenes from all four corners of UK”. Like the current version, then.

Would anyone REALLY want to go back to this?

The idiocy continues. “The new blue passports will also be one of the most secure travel documents anywhere in the world”. The current one already is. “A raft of cutting edge security features and technologies are being built into the design to guard against fraud and forgery”. Like the current design. “They include polycarbonate pages, a double set of photos of the holder so they can be cross referenced, and a biometric microchip”. Either in the current version, or on the way. This is not an exclusive. It’s just lame propaganda.

Newton Dunn even manages to recycle popular Euro-Myths about British passports. “In 2000 the UK had to fight off a plan to remove the Queen's crest from the passport and possibly introduce the 12-star EU logo on its cover”. A Telegraph Fake News story - the giveaway was the claim that the EU Justice Commissioner could make proposals on passport design which would then “Become compulsory”. Not possible.

Another myth was “And in 2007 Brussels tried to make our passports ‘more European’ by removing the phrase ‘Her Britannic Majesty’”. Mail scare story coming out of the Lisbon Treaty: “Mention of the Queen could be removed from British passports … the time-honoured passage could be dropped”. No it couldn’t. And it wasn’t.

Brexit is turning into a farce. And no, Murdoch goons, I don’t want to look over there.

Melbourne - Enter The Terrorism Ghouls

At the start of the evening rush hour in the Australian city of Melbourne, an SUV jumped a red light and ploughed into a group of pedestrians. The incident happened outside Flinders Street Station, a major transportation hub, and as a result the area was busy. There were the usual suggestions that this was a terrorist act. But the cops concluded otherwise.

He's not a racist, so don't call him one, right?

Viewers may still want to look away now

As the BBC has reported, “The man who deliberately drove a car into a crowd in Melbourne is a drug user with mental health issues but no known terrorism links, police say”. But although he was an Australian citizen, the driver was of Afghan descent. Thus there was hope for the Muslim bashers. And so it came to pass that those who so wanted it to be a terrorist attack decided that it was indeed a terrorist attack, although it wasn’t.

Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, and isn’t a racist, honestly, declared “The political solution to Australia’s jihad attacks is @PaulineHansonOz”. Whatever the question, Pauline Hanson is never the answer. But do go on. Someone filed the incident? “#amerrymuslimchristmas”. Muslims Done It!

And on he went. The Police said it was not terror related, so Lennon just sneered “Yeah we believe that”. I mean, what do these people on the ground know, compared to someone with an agenda sitting somewhere in Bedfordshire? So then the attack was down to a mentally ill drug addict. No, Lennon knew better. “Who happened to be a Muslim?” The Muslims Done It! It was the Scary Muslims (tm)! It was a Jihadi!

On he droned: “‘The lone driver an Australian citizen of Afghani descent’ so he was a Muslim”. He was? How do you know? What the hell, it fits the Lennon agenda. And someone else with a hostile agenda was pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins, who declared “Leaders. Do not say you stand shoulder to shoulder with #Melbourne. Do not turn off the lights of the Eiffel once more. Your INACTION against Muslim terrorists speaks far louder than your worn words. #Melbourne #AVeryMerryMuslimChristmas”.

Also, the BBC did not know what it was talking about, but Hatey Katie did: “BBC v REALITY. #AVeryMerryMuslimChristmas #Melbourne”. And it was Sadiq Khan’s fault: “Come on the Khan’t. We’re waiting... you stand shoulder to shoulder... ‘inexplicable’ act... terrorists will never win.....beware far-right Islamophobia from relatives of the dead. #Melbourne”. It had to be terrorism, because she so wanted it to be.

But it was only a drug addict. “Time to put concrete jihadi barriers around the car parks of all drug-rehab centres. Inshallah #Melbourne” she sneered, before deciding The Muslims Done It Anyway and going totally gaga: “Get them out. Get their families out. Close their mosque. Remove the extremist Imam. #Melbourne #AVeryMerryMuslimChristmas”. Then she started to froth at the mouth and fall over backwards.

The Islamophobic hate mob don’t want peace. They want more and bigger terrorist attacks. They feed off them. It raises their profile, makes them feel big, important and wanted. So even though the Melbourne incident wasn’t terrorism, they said it was anyway.

That’s where Stephen Lennon and Katie Hopkins are coming from. And that’s why they are wrong.

Tories Confess New Media Inadequacy

Unnoticed by many of those watching the demise of Damian Green, the Tories have not merely admitted they are losing the New Media war, but have committed to regaining the upper hand in it. And they intend to do so by using a little of that exaggeration, abuse and flagrant dishonesty that props up the Trump Gang in the USA - mainly deployed by the Murdoch faithful at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

David Gauke - good of him to warn us what he's up to

Time was when the right wing had the New Media whip hand over the left: bloggers like the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog were once genuinely independent, and along with the likes of Iain Dale, Phil Hendren at Dizzy Thinks and the people at Conservative Home, far outweighed the presence of left-leaning participants like Liberal Conspiracy and Political Scrapbook.

Now the Fawkes massive has been assimilated by the Press Borg, Dale is busy elsewhere, Hendren has moved on, and ConHome has become a stale establishment joke. The rise of Labour List, the sticking power of Scrapbook, and new entrants like Skwawkbox, The Canary, Evolve Politics and Novara Media has easily bested new right-wing sites like the risible and boring Conservative Woman.

What now then? As the Guardian has now told, “A Conservative cabinet minister has said his party must ‘not desert the battlefield’ when it comes to defending policy in areas such as health and welfare, but instead be prepared to embark on Twitter spats with critics … The work and pensions secretary, David Gauke, suggested his decision to use social media to challenge a Labour MP’s claims about universal credit were part of a concerted Tory effort to respond more robustly”. And how will that work, then?

“I think it is important that we do not desert the battlefield. Social media can at the moment feel dominated by the hard left. I think it is important we engage and make the points … I strongly believe we have got a really good policy with this that will transform lives, but there is almost a sort of knee-jerk criticism and a temptation in particular with universal credit that you cannot almost say anything critical about it and it goes without challenge”.

Hard left. The pejorative language of Fox News. Worse for Gauke and his pals is that he cannot “robustly counter” inconvenient facts - like that Universal Credit does not give claimants any money for five weeks. So when he boasts “the take-up of advance payments by those having to wait five or six weeks to move onto UC had risen from around a third to 62%”, he’s talking about a loan. Which will have to be repaid.

But we do know that “the Conservative party has boosted its social media presence and Downing Street has brought in a new social media expert, hoping to tackle some of the party’s weaknesses highlighted in the 2017 election”. You don’t know whether to laugh out loud or just feel pity for them. You have to hire outside help, you’re still clueless.

Good, though, of David Gauke to let everyone on the centre-left know what the Tories are up to. Now that they’ve been warned, they’ll be ready and waiting for the cheap and amateurish abuse when it comes. The Tories don’t understand New Media.

And long may it stay that way. Given some real knowledge, they might be dangerous.