Dan Wootton’s Royal Smear

So farewell then Queen Elizabeth The Second: the monarch had looked terribly frail when she met outgoing alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his successor Liz Truss earlier in the week, but the speed at which the end came on Thursday still took many by surprise.

Creeps gonna creep

Not surprising enough, though, for the self-promoting part of our free and fearless press and broadcast media to move effortlessly to leverage the death of our longest-reigning head of state for their own ends, and indeed to pursue their own obsessions and hatreds. And when it comes to obsession and hatred, few can hold a candle to the singularly repellent Dan Wootton.

Wootton, now a top rating host at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), shares an overriding obsession with former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan: the Sussexes. Whatever Haz and Megs get up to is, by definition, wrong. Desperate Dan has willingly joined in the vicious, vindictive and unremitting campaign to break the Duchess.

The evening before the Queen passed away, he was in full cry, as the GB News Twitter feed told: “Dan Wootton urges Prince Harry to drop plans and visit the Queen at Balmoral: ‘If he had a shred of dignity’”. Even before the death was announced, he kept going: “Harry and Meghan are making this all about themselves when the Queen is ill. I actually think if Harry had a shred of dignity he would drop today's event, leave Frogmore Cottage and go to see the Queen at Balmoral”. Harry was, in fact, on his way.

Which Wootton then sort of acknowledged. “Harry and Meghan are now also travelling to Balmoral to be by the Queen’s side”. Except she wasn’t: William had gone alone; Harry had to follow suit. But having recognised that Haz was on his way to Balmoral, the original Tweet was not amended or deleted.

And then it was on to his Mail Online column for Wootton to continue shamelessly leveraging the Queen’s death in order to pursue his creepy obsession. “If the Queen's life has taught us one thing it is that blood is thicker than water. The greatest tribute Prince Harry could pay to his grandmother is to reconcile with King Charles and Prince William”.

Evening all

But that assumes the King and his sons needed to be reconciled, which, from the King’s broadcast yesterday evening, suggests they did not, as Charles sent his love to Harry and Meghan, as they built their life overseas. Was that enough to silence Wootton, make him stop and think for just a moment, get him to back off and stop using the Queen’s death to promote Himself?

As if you need to ask. Out came the smearing iron: “A pitch perfect address to the nation by King Charles III. Vowed to move on from the issues he cares so deeply (translation: no more politics). Endorsed Wills and Kate as the Prince and Princess of Wales. Expressed his love to Harry and Meghan, even though they plan to trash him”. He just can’t help himself.

And, to be fair to Desperate Dan, nor can others in the Northcliffe House bunker, with “Royal Editor” Rebecca English also using the occasion of the Queen’s passing to lay into the Sussexes, making a series of claims about the Duchess that have been at best wildly exaggerated, and at worst contain a significant amount of falsehood and misinformation.

Such is their blind determination to trash the Sussexes, and to break the Duchess, that the right-leaning part of our media class is even prepared to use the Queen’s death as another means of attack. Senior editors and hacks see the falling sales figures, yet still imagine themselves to be in touch with the public mood, and carry on their campaign of vilification.

Much of Wootton’s social media feedback has been hostile, calling out his obsession. He may read it. He may not. But he has his instructions.

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Ben And Jerry’s PWNS Telegraph

Such is the sensitivity of some in the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press that it takes very little to send them into righteous pearl-clutching overdrive, and so it has been with the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph. where assembled hacks have been well and truly Pwned by nothing more than a Tweet. With an image attached.

Suella Braverman. Now Home Secretary. Seriously

But it was a Tweet from Ben and Jerry’s, which means that by definition it was A Very Bad Thing Indeed. It was also WOKE WOKE WOKE, because, well, it just was, even though the hack writing the article probably doesn’t know what the word means. So what had a niche ice cream brand done that had got the Tel’s goat? And will lots of Tory Twitter bots withdraw their mythical custom?

“Ben and Jerry's under fire for dishing out policy advice to Suella Braverman” is the headline, the Tel seemingly unaware that, for Ben and Jerry’s, this is not the first time they have tweaked a politician, and have most likely concluded that no publicity is bad publicity. But do go on. “Ice cream company Ben & Jerry's is facing criticism for publishing a to-do list for Suella Braverman, the new Home Secretary, suggesting she should ‘scrap the Rwanda plan’ and take dessert breaks”. Ice cream breaks, more specifically.

There was more. “The firm's UK Twitter account tweeted a message of congratulations to Ms Braverman, accompanied with the image of a list including various objectives for her first day in the role on September 7, such as to ‘introduce safe routes to the UK for people seeking asylum’ and ‘lift the ban and give people seeking asylum the right to work’ … The company also included a coffee and ice cream break in the list, yet drew ire from commentators for intruding into politics”. Who would those commentators be?

Sadly, it was only one commentator. “On Wednesday, John Hayes MP said: ‘If you want to buy some ice cream you go to an ice cream company, if you want public policy you don’t.’” Were Andrew Bridgen and Mark François (note cedilla under the c) unavailable? Couldn’t they find anyone else to comment?

“Ben & Jerry's on Wednesday faced a backlash to their tweet with the Campaign for Common Sense calling on them to ‘stick to selling ice cream’”. Who gives a flying foxtrot what the Campaign for Common Sense thinks? Its front man, Mark Lehain, is a former Tory Parliamentary candidate. Someone who claimed “It hasn’t been easy being a Tory in education”. Perhaps he ought to team up with someone like the loathsome Toby Young.

But the Tel is not easily distracted. “It is not the first time the company has landed in hot water for taking a political stance … Kemi Badenoch has previously called out the ‘Ben & Jerry’s tendencies’ of companies focusing on social justice rather than profits”. That’s very much their business, not hers.

There was more. “In August 2020, the company tweeted at Priti Patel, the then home secretary, stating: ‘People wouldn’t make dangerous journeys if they had any other choice. The UK hasn’t resettled any refugees since March, but wars and violence continue. What we need is more safe and legal routes’”. Facts and advocacy, eh? The Tories will soon put a stop to that.

And the Tel wants us to know that Ms Braverman is going to get tough. On absolutely everything. “Under the new Home Secretary, MPs are expecting a crackdown on migrants’ use of the modern slavery act to avoid deportation by raising the threshold for evidence for claims, a one-stop shop approach by preventing repeated submissions of new evidence and curbs on claims on trafficking that occurred outside the UK”. And even tougher.

“Greater use of detention of migrants in secure accommodation is also being considered to act as a further deterrent to the record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel. Nearly 28,000 have reached the UK so far this year, double the rate in 2021”. Yeah, none of that wishy-washy namby-pamby allowing them to work. Let the crops rot in the fields so we can be tough.

Ben and Jerry’s has got itself more publicity, more cachet with its target demographic. It has also exposed the nastier side of the Tories and their cheerleaders, the xenophobia, the bigotry, the sheer intolerance.

Thus the goons at the Tel are well and truly Pwned. No surprise there.

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Piers Morgan Supports Lawbreaking

Social media platforms like Twitter, opined the host of TalkTV’s allegedly flagship programme The All-New Percy Moron Show, were for winding people up. “Twitter is for winding people up . . . it’s just a highly opinionated cesspit half the time. The trick is to use it to help yourself” he told the FT. He was in the opinion business, and “Twitter is very good for that”. Why so?

And what's more, Ron ...

“Because you can fire up debates, you can see what pops or doesn’t pop, what might make a column because you get a sudden huge reaction. It’s all quite scientific”. Scientific may not have been the first word that came to mind after Morgan intervened yesterday in a contempt of court case in the Irish Republic. But “confected culture war” and “trans bashing” just might.

As so often, it was the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker who were already trying their utmost to frighten the readers, gasping in horror “Teacher who refused to use gender-neutral pronouns JAILED in Ireland”. Because using CAPITALS tells those readers what is VERY IMPORTANT, and indeed a part of WHAT THEY SHOULD BE THINKING. Morgan was incandescent.

The former editor of two national newspapers was also not bothering to do his research on why Enoch Burke (crazy name, crazy guy!?!?!) had found himself in jail. Instead, he predictably went into wind-up mode. “Jailed for not wanting to call a singular person ‘they’ - what a ridiculous farce. How can anyone believe this is right in a supposedly free, democratic society?”

How? Try reading the article first. Although it begins “A teacher who refused to use gender-neutral pronouns for a transgender student has been sent to Mountjoy prison for contempt of court”, it goes on to admit “Enoch Burke was arrested yesterday morning for breaching a court order not to teach at his Westmeath school, or be physically present there”. Contempt of court.

There was more. “After Judge Michael Quinn made his ruling, Mr Burke said: 'It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs.’” However, “The dispute began over his refusal to address a transitioning student as 'they' rather than 'he', as requested by the student and their parents in May, and agreed to by the Church of Ireland school”. It’s a church school. And there was more.

“This escalated to his suspension on the day before the start of the autumn term, pending the outcome of a disciplinary process. He had refused to remain away from the school on paid leave for that suspension, the court heard, and would sit in an empty classroom, declaring that he was there to work”. Burke had added dishonestly “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl”. But “they” is not “she”. Not that Morgan cares about that.

Burke was standing firm. “It is extraordinary and reprehensible that someone's religious beliefs on this matter could ever be taken as grounds for an allegation of misconduct … My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct. They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that”.

So Piers Morgan is lining up with a real slice of Christian fundamentalism. Maybe he forgot that occasion five years ago when he mused “Christians have waged the most violence of any religion in history”. Or that “Extreme, blindly partisan opinion is pointless”. Or when he complained later that “People can't cope with calm, rational reason on Twitter. Only hysterical partisan extremism is allowed”. And now he’s indulging in it himself.

Is he that desperate to find material for that hugely expensive TalkTV show of his? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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So Farewell Then Boris Johnson

He was the turd that not even the most determinedly sycophantic part of our free and fearless press could polish; then he was the turd that would not flush. During his time in office, that turd stank out Parliament, Downing Street, the TV studios, and a host of other venues, leaving the rank and lingering stench of corruption in its wake. Now, finally, he has gone.

Former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had to be out of bed early this morning - one hopes, for the sake of his successor, that this was not due to his having shat it - to be driven to RAF Northolt for a flight, by private jet of course, to Aberdeen, from where he would be driven to Balmoral Castle, in order to finally tender his resignation to Brenda.

Being flown from RAF Northolt in yet another of those private jets - with no criticism on environmental or expense grounds likely from her cheerleaders in the press - is Liz Truss, who will arrive at Balmoral soon after Bozo departs and the stench is cleared away. Johnson may get to work on his next money making opportunity, dashing off piss-poor columns for the highest bidder.

Having been forced to rise, if not shine, at such an early hour, Bozo proceeded to address the adoring multitude outside in Downing Street (Jacob Rees and Nadine Bonkers). Accompanied by third wife Carrie, who ensured she did not let the SOB out of her sight, he shuffled out to the lectern and did what he does best: he talked well, but lied badly.

He had Got Brexit Done. Except he hadn’t: he and his ministers have spent an inordinate amount of time arguing the toss over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he signed the country up to and then claimed wasn’t what he really wanted. He repeated his claim of 40 new hospitals and this, too, was a flat out lie. The claim of 50,000 additional Police officers didn’t make the cut.

And then there was that next Big Call that he got right: he had “delivered the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe”. Sadly, this too was a lie: the Governments of Malta, and more significantly, Portugal, may want a word. Both were faster in getting 90% of their eligible population double jabbed. Any claim that this supposedly fastest vaccine rollout was due to Brexit is also a lie.

The rambling apologia included “The baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race. They changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now”. They changed the rules? No, Bozo, you broke the rules. Which happened to be the law. And you got caught. The only PM to be done for breaking the law while in office.

He also repeated the bizarre claim that the percentage of homes with access to gigabit broadband had gone from 7 to 70. What he did not say, because not even he would try to pull a whopper that big, was that those 70% of premises were actually connected to that high speed broadband.

There would be “a new nuclear reactor every year”, which is another to ignite the trousers. New nuclear was part of what Pa Broon’s outgoing Labour Government left for the Tories to progress. That progress has seen two reactors under construction (Hinkley Point “C”) in 12 years. They’ll not be generating electricity until 2027. So that’s one new reactor every 8.5 years.

Otherwise, it was the usual Bozo rambling: “And as a result unemployment, as I leave office, unemployment down to lows not seen since I was about 10 years old and bouncing around on a spacehopper, my friends.” When he was 10 years old, we had a Labour Government. But do go on.

“On the subject of bouncing around in future careers - let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently reentering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific”. If only there were some way of ensuring the SOB remains in a remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.

Rambling, and selective: “I'm proud to have discharged the promises I made to my party when you were kind enough to choose me, winning the biggest majority since 1987”. He forgot Tony Blair’s majorities in two successive General Elections. You remember - all that chaos with Labour versus the wonderful stability under the Tories. When the NHS was decently funded.

But after 12 years of Young Dave, Treeza and Bozo, we have a country crumbling at the edges, a workforce increasingly restive, a wider population disillusioned, and thanks to Brexit, an economy permanently hobbled. No amount of Bozo’s delusion and dishonesty is going to paper over the cracks.

Now, thankfully, he has finally gone. Let’s hope he never comes back.

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Joe Lycett Holds Up A Mirror

The world of BBC politics shows. An increasingly dumbed down world, a world where only those from the media class’ inner sanctum, or those having gained their approval, are permitted to enter. Gone are the brief days when opinions might be sought from the outside world, from those who actually form part of the 99%. It is, whisper it quietly, a world distant from reality.

If those within this world deem an idea, a new column or podcast, a new TV format or show to be good, then it is good. Those outside may disagree, may even ridicule it, but their views don’t matter. So it was that BBC Politics brought viewers Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: the critics could be disposed of with a few well-placed accusations of sexism.

There was A Really Big Set: no recycling the intimate atmosphere of The Andy Marr Show for Ms K. So big was the set that the presenter had to get up from her desk and walk over to a separate Serious Interview Area. The desk extended to accommodate three guests, who would make appropriate pronouncements throughout the programme, a bit like the ITV Peston show.

And it was in the selection of guests where the closed world of Beeb politics shows came unstuck: just to be that little more edgy, get down with The Yoof, maybe garner a little favourable feedback, earn some cachet, there in the middle seat was comedian Joe Lycett. Anyone paying attention would already have known that he was not going to take this appearance too seriously.

“Really excited to be on this new version of Would I Lie To You” he told, on, yes, an open Twitter feed. And so it came to pass: Liz Truss was interviewed - for some value of “interviewed” - and she was predictably wooden, failing to give straight answers, contradicting herself, and boring the crap out of viewers. There was 20 minutes of this tedium. And then it happened.

Ms Kuenssberg ended the suffering; as she thanked Ms Truss, a loud whooping and clapping broke out. Lycett might not have known, but his mic was still live, which made the intervention stand out yet more. The host tried to retain her composure. Lycett then declared that he was actually very right wing and Ms Truss had been very clear in what she said (she hadn’t).

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, sitting to Lycett’s left, clearly sensed that this was a BBC Politics campaign destined to develop not necessarily to their advantage, but kept a straight face. And Lycett was not finished: after Ms Kuenssberg interviewed Rishi Sunak, he told her Sunak wasn’t going to win, so she might as well have interviewed Peter André.

Joe Lycett

At least he didn’t mention the chipolata. But the damage was done, the bubble had been burst, and the Kuenssberg credibility lay in ruins. What to do? The rest of those in the media bubble rallied round. “Not sure inviting comedian Joe Lycett on to a serious politics show was the best idea. The cheering of Truss's interview was a bit odd” mused Rachel Wearmouth.

Rob Burley, former editor of the Marr Show, also tried to show support: “don’t put comedians on Question Time or any other serious political show. It’s not the time for that nonsense anymore”. But, as Peter Jukes of Byline Media reminded him, “You put a range of completely fatuous right wing figures on the BBC, with a false sense of balance, and they weren’t even funny”.

They made the career of former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, and gave airtime to the alphabet soup of hard right Astroturf lobby groups. Mic Wright, meanwhile, chipped in with “Even before Joe Lycett appeared on screen, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg was laughable. It has the aesthetic The Day Today skewered 28 years ago - the words ‘the squeeze is on’ followed by footage literally being squeezed and ‘one big question’ greeted by a big red [question mark]”. There was more.

Sam Bright noted “‘Serious times call for serious figures on TV’ say the media people who’ve been platforming Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan for decades”. And Matt Thomas was especially severe: “I bet Laura Kuenssberg is absolutely livid and had an appalling Sunday afternoon. She's been building up to having her own show for years and Joe Lycett has drained every last gram of credibility out of it in the first episode. Fantastic, deserved comeuppance”. He also reckoned Lycett wouldn’t be invited back.

Which might just be true. But politics shows have been taking themselves terribly seriously, while not being, er, serious, for some time, as Ash Sarkar of Novara Media pointed out. “Comedians shouldn't be allowed on politics shows, which are meant for the serious interrogation of politicians by heavyweight intellects - like ‘would Labour nationalise sausages?’ and ‘isn't this free broadband policy just the kind of thing Stalin would do?’”

Joe Lycett held up a mirror to the insular world of the media class. They did not like what they saw. And whose fault was that? Have a think about it.

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Truss Cabinet - No, No, No, No, No

Tory leadership favourite Liz Truss likes to ape Mrs T., so perhaps she will understand (eventually, after someone has explained it to her) one of her heroine’s best-known Dispatch Box utterings. So sure is her camp of following alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson into 10 Downing Street, the first Truss cabinet is being assembled.

Or rather, that is what Tim Shipman, political editor of the Murdoch Sunday Times, has told us. And on the assumption that Shippers is not shipping too much bull this time, the list of names and their prospective roles brings one message loud and clear: if you thought some of Bozo’s cabinet choices were bad, Ms Truss wants you to hold her beer. Lower that bar!

And before considering the breadth and depth of talent on offer, or the lack of it, one question enters: what about those names that are not one of Ms Truss’ cabinet picks? Where’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak? Where is her fellow leadership challenger Penny Mordaunt? The answer is that they’re not. They would, presumably, join Bozo on the back benches.

Worse, another question soon follows: why has Said Javid been pencilled in as Northern Ireland Secretary? Or, indeed, Tom Tugendhat as Security minister? They should be early choices for the great offices of state, but instead, we see James Cleverly at thee FO (Tugendhat would be a far better choice) and Suella Braverman, yes, Suella Braverman, at the Home Office.

Javid would be a far steadier pair of hands. He would also have the advantage of not tending to turn everything into a Culture War issue. Whatever the question, Suella Braverman is not the answer. And, talking of which, we come to the apparent retention as Culture Secretary of (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries. Because she’s been such a success already.

So the Tories will carry on with selling off Channel 4, because one of its presenters, in an off-duty moment, made a disobliging comment about them. And MPs like John Nicolson can look forward to his committee questioning of Ms Dorries being met by a thinly veiled barrage of personal abuse.

But Ms Truss is keen on promoting business, so she has pencilled in as the new Business Secretary … Jacob Rees Mogg. Seriously. Because he’s been such a … see under Nadine Dorries. And while Kwasi Kwarteng might be a reasonably safe choice as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to nominate Chris Philp as his deputy … that might not be the wisest of choices.

What also looks less than wise is Therese Coffey as Secretary of State for Health, although this pales into insignificance when put alongside a recall to the front bench for Iain Duncan Cough as Leader of the Commons. At least one of those choices has relevant experience: Brandon Lewis, putative Justice Secretary, has worked as a barrister, having taken two law degrees and then having been called to the bar at Middle Temple, no less.

So he might be a half decent choice. But the overall impression is one of resignation and despair, that the next cabinet is set to deploy not just very little talent, but very little of the very little talent that the Tory Party has within its ranks. The back benches will have not just Sunak and Ms Mordaunt, but also two former Prime Ministers: a recipe for disquiet and plotting.

And all the while, the real issues - increased food prices, rocketing energy prices, the UK’s relationship with the EU, a lack of that much-vaunted “levelling up”, chronically low productivity, and the NHS under increasing strain - remain unaddressed, the Tories and their pals in our free and fearless press instead deflecting with Culture War nonsense and Sleb trivia.

It looks increasingly like downhill all the way. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Bozo Legal “Bombshell” WORTHLESS

The Committee on Standards and Privileges is undertaking an inquiry into whether soon to be former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had committed contempt of parliament over statements to the House of Commons. Its chair, Chris Bryant, has recused himself, given his past criticisms of Bozo, and has been replaced by Harriet Harman.

Nothing to do with me getting a f***ing peerage, c***

But the idea of one of their own being hauled up before his peers for effectively lying to Parliament has horrified some in and around our free and fearless press, to whom Bozo may be an SOB, but he’s their SOB, a fellow journalist (for some value of journalism) who therefore exists in that parallel universe where such mere bagatelles don’t matter. Plus he’s a Tory.

To this end, the Daily Mail, under the less than benign oversight of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, has campaigned to bend public opinion, if not the behaviour of the Committee itself, to its will, culminating yesterday with the thundering headline “TOP LAWYER ‘SET TO DEAL DEVASTATING BLOW’ TO PM PARTY PROBE". Quote marks working overtime.

There was more. “A LEADING QC will today deliver a devastating blow to the Partygate probe into Boris Johnson, insiders claimed last night … Lord Pannick will say the way MPs are conducting the inquiry risks endangering democracy, according to a senior source”. Like someone close to Bozo.

The Daily Brexit, still called the Express, concurred, but not because it was cheaper for them to run the same story as the Mail, you understand. But the Mail was right in one respect: Lord Pannick had been asked for an opinion; as a QC, he had given one. And so it came to pass that this morning’s headline declared victory, albeit a highly premature one.

“As top QC delivers devastating verdict on ‘fundamentally flawed’ Boris inquiry, MPs and peers rally round to demand … NOW END THE PARTY PROBE WITCH-HUNT” was the headline, followed by “MPs faced mounting pressure last night to halt the Partygate probe into Boris Johnson after a top QC called it ‘unfair’ and ‘fundamentally flawed’”. More quote mark overtime.

But here a problem entered: we are not told the basis on which Pannick gave his opinion. Worse, Parliament decides what contempt of Parliament looks like, not a QC, not Bozo, and definitely not the Daily Mail, where the position on lawyers is infinitely flexible: not so long ago they were all “lefty lawyers”, and not long before that they included “Enemies of the People”.

Then it got worse: after Jessica Simor pointed out “You need to insist on the ‘Instructions to Counsel’ being released. It is impossible to read this 'Opinion' without seeing what they were instructed to advise on. It would also be good to know whether we the taxpayer paid for it and how much it cost”, Aubrey Allegretti told that “Taxpayers are footing the bill for Pannick’s legal advice disparaging the Partygate probe by privileges committee … £129,700 contract for ‘legal advice’ awarded last month and published today”.

We’re paying - for Bozo and his media pals to intimidate the Privileges Committee. Moreover, as Chris Bryant has pointed out, the opinion is effectively worthless: “Pannick’s ‘opinion’ is decidedly weird. There is no judicial review of a committee inquiry because it’s a proceeding in parliament, protected by the Bill of Rights. Parliament decides what contempt means. A deliberate lie is a gross contempt but so is an untruth left uncorrected”.

Pannick had dwelt on whether Bozo “intended” to mislead Parliament. If the misleading was inadvertent, he could have come to the Commons and corrected the record. On which subject, Peter Oborne has reminded us “Here is a list of more than 70 occasions when Boris Johnson misled Parliament, and has failed to correct the Hansard record. The list is not complete”.

LBC host James O’Brien mused “Two important things to note about Lord Pannick’s lucrative (for him) intervention: it’s not a ‘legal opinion’ in any meaningful sense & it would not have been commissioned at all if Johnson wasn’t certain he could rely on the Daily Mail to embellish, inflate & misrepresent it”. And his conclusion was especially severe.

“A corrupt Prime Minister, in cahoots with a vile propagandist, has spent huge amounts of public cash on a glorified press release designed to help him evade parliamentary scrutiny. Client journalists & morally bankrupt politicians plan to nod it through. They must be called out”. It would be yet more useful if the BBC were to do just that, rather than legitimising the whole charade.

Parliament decides on contempt of Parliament. Not the Daily Mail. That is all.

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Sun Civil Service Smear RUMBLED

Exclusive to the Murdoch Sun this morning, not that the rest of our free and fearless press wouldn’t touch the alleged story with a bargepole, you understand, is a blatant smearing of the Civil Service. “Exclusive: Beyond A Joke … Cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine … civil servants enjoy boozy jolly on PM’s plane … SERIOUS BAD ALTITUDE” screams the headline.

The name on the print by-line is that of Amir Razavi, but the online version reveals the additional presence of the odious flaannelled fool Master Harry Cole, the pretend journalist who has for some reason been appointed as the paper’s political editor. Cole is a leading exponent of the school of hackery that shows outstanding proficiency in talking well, but lying badly.

Here’s the claim: “The sightseeing flight for a dozen Foreign Office officials was last night branded ‘shameful’ amid the crippling cost of living crisis … The pen-pushers were given the red carpet treatment as they boarded the PM’s official plane - complete with a well-stocked booze trolley - for a jaunt costing around £50,000”. There was more smearing to follow.

“The Airbus, expected to take the new PM to Balmoral to be sworn in by the Queen next Tuesday, took off from Stansted before roaring north to the Lake District and back again … During the 700-mile, 91-minute flight, the group of civil servants were served a fancy meal with a selection of alcoholic drinks”. That’s pretty damning. Or is it? Let’s see the evidence. Or lack of it.

“The Foreign Office confirmed there was booze on board, but refused to say if any was consumed”. NO EVIDENCE. Nothing about the alleged “fancy meal”. NO EVIDENCE to back up the “giggling” claim. NO EVIDENCE to back up the “sightseeing” claim. But we are told “insiders admitted the inclusion of the giggling Foreign Office team meant that it was effectively a ‘jolly’”.

Insiders? Are they in the room with Master Cole right now? Did he see them in the mirror? Once again, NO EVIDENCE. Oh hang on a minute, what’s this? “Another astonished critic said of Wednesday afternoon’s jaunt: ‘It was clearly some kind of out-of-office fun day … While the average Brit is struggling to get by and get a plane, train or even drive anywhere, these civil servants go for a nice little trip on a stunning ministerial jet. It’s all right for some, isn’t it?’”

Which is more invention. Cobbled together by Master Cole and his pals. It once again provides NO EVIDENCE. As for the obscenely overpaid Sun hacks caring about “the average Brit”, yes, well. But we do get a comment from “John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance”. Who is always somehow absent when it’s alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson wasting the money. His opinion is not worth Jack Shit.

Isn’t there anything to stand up this smear job? “The group of 12 men and women looked like they were heading for a carefree day at the races (no citation) when they arrived to a VIP-style welcome (no citation) at Stansted in Essex. Some started taking selfies (no citation) as they trod the red carpet laid out for them, and it is believed the photographs continued (no citation) once they had boarded the Airbus A321 at 12.26pm”. Nope, NO EVIDENCE.

Try again. “The Foreign Office mandarins (pejorative smear) will have enjoyed its cream leather seats with faux wood panelling, luxury crystal glasses and fine bone china crockery as well as wifi”. No citation, NO EVIDENCE. But there is A Source. “A source said it would have cost around £50,000”. No citation. Just invention. Predictable invention.

After all, Master Cole’s first Sun front page splash back in 2015 was a complete pack of lies. And readers are eventually told what the trip was really about. “Flight data shows the plane’s last trip was on July 21, from Darlington to Stansted. The Government said last night it had to be taken out by Sunday as it must be flown within 45 days”. There was more.

“A government source said: ‘A number of officials joined the flight to make sure that, following a recent reconfiguration of the aircraft, it would still meet ministerial requirements … In order to comply with Airbus and aviation industry rules the aircraft was legally bound to operate a maintenance flight before September 4 or face ­significant additional storage costs”.

Bozo and his chosen successor are not flying to Scotland to see Brenda until the 6th. The Civil Servants were on board to make sure the booze, plates and glasses were all present and correct beforehand. The evidence-free claims that this was some sort of jolly are just another crude red-top smear.

Who leaked this, in order to demonise the Civil Service and deflect from Bozo’s uselessness? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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Shamima Begum And Britain’s Shame

Three teenage girls left Britain in 2015 to join ISIS, or whatever it was called that week. One of them, Shamima Begum, was just 15 when she left the UK. When she revealed her wish to return home, then Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her UK citizenship, rendering her stateless, in what appeared to be a routine breach of international law.

Shamima Begum - as she was then

The BBC reported at the time that “Government sources said it was possible to strip the 19-year-old of British nationality as she was eligible for citizenship of another country”. However, “Ms Begum is believed to be of Bangladeshi heritage but when asked by the BBC, she said she did not have a Bangladesh passport and had never been to the country”.

The thought entered that, had Ms Begum not been one of those Scary Muslims™, the Tories would not have been so eager to remove her citizenship. Indeed, their pals in our free and fearless press would have ensured no such removal took place. It was yet another example of how Islamophobia has, as Sayeeda Warsi put it, passed the dinner party test.

But all of that pales into insignificance when put alongside the latest revelations concerning Ms Begum’s departure from the UK and her subsequent journey to the Middle East: now, the BBC reports that “Shamima Begum, who fled the UK and joined the Islamic State group, was smuggled into Syria by an intelligence agent for Canada … Files seen by the BBC show he claimed to have shared Ms Begum's passport details with Canada, and smuggled other Britons to fight for IS”. There is more.

“At the main Istanbul bus station, the girls met Mohammed Al Rasheed, who would facilitate their journey to IS-controlled Syria. A senior intelligence officer, at an agency which is part of the global coalition against IS, has confirmed to the BBC that Rasheed was providing information to Canadian intelligence while smuggling people to IS”. And yet more.

“The BBC has obtained a dossier … that contains information gathered by law enforcement and intelligence, as well as material recovered from his hard drives, which provide extraordinary detail about how he operated. He told authorities that he had gathered information on the people he helped into Syria because he was passing it to the Canadian embassy in Jordan”.

What the Beeb is not telling, but the Guardian certainly is, is that the Metropolitan Police knew what was going on. As Battersea bedroom dweller Paul Watson likes to tell his followers, let that sink in.

Dan Sabbagh has noted “A new book says Met police knew she was helped to join IS by a Canadian spy, reinforcing concerns she was [a] victim of trafficking”. The book, The Secret History of the Five Eyes, is out this week. It “reveals that Canadian intelligence officers went shortly after to the British police to admit their connection to Rashed, boosting the argument that the teenager from Bethnal Green and her two friends were in fact trafficked”.

That would be shortly after their security agencies’ asset facilitated Ms Begum’s travel to IS-occupied Syria. The problem she and her lawyers face is, as Sabbagh reminds us, MI5’s assessment concluded that “public sentiment is overwhelmingly hostile” to her, adding “In other words, the argument against Begum was not legal but political”.

Even though our own security agencies knew what was going on, but did not intervene, and, indeed, effectively covered it up. Because, as the Tweeter known as Otto English put it, “Shamima Begum was 15 when she was groomed, trafficked and "married". If she was a white girl the very tossers who want her to remain stateless and bullied would be rallying to her defence”. What you will not see on GB News or TalkTV.

As the BBC report says, “Ms Begum's lawyers are challenging the removal of her citizenship, arguing she was a trafficking victim”. That challenge now looks yet more justified, even though, predictably, “Canada and the UK declined to comment on security issues”. And once the right-wing press starts up, the Tories will genuflect in the general direction of the Gammonati.

Shamima Begum should have her British citizenship restored. That is all.

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Meghan Speaks - HOW DARE SHE

The Sussexes are engaged in legal action against the publishers of both the Murdoch Sun, and the Mail titles, something that both have managed not to tell their readers today. What they have told is that Megs has given an interview to a magazine called The Cut, which they have decided is A Very Bad Thing Indeed. And purely by coincidence, so have their pundits.

Also, as the Mail carries a column by the deeply unpleasant Dan Wootton, his other employer, Gammon Broadcasting News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), has also passed severely adverse comment on the interview, as has former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, so TalkTV also hates her. Percy is clearly still sore that Megs blanked him. Her judgment is clearly sound.

But one thing is clear: Morgan’s obsession with Megs has spread to the rest of the Sun and Mail crew, and even to the Daily Brexit, still called the Express. And even in the midst of a looming cost of living crisis - maybe as a deflection from it - both the former titles have made the interview their front page lead. But they still don’t mention the lawsuits. Let’s start with the Mail.

“NOW MEGHAN DROPS HER ‘TRUTH BOMBS’ …New salvo of attacks in 6,400 word interview … Claims she and Harry upset hierarchy ‘just by existing’ … Appears to say Prince ‘lost father’ over Megxit”. How about the Sun version? “Royal Rift Bombshell … Meg’s new claim ‘saddens Charles’ … Queen snubbed on latest UK visit … HARRY: I LOST MY DAD”.

Mail merely smears, Sun lies as well, film at 11. Worse, though, is the unedifying scramble of bottom feeding press creeps, oops, sorry, Royal correspondents, to gain attention by grovelingly toeing the line, slagging off the Duchess while pretending they possess an authority they do not.

Dan Wootton took the biscuit in no style at all with “Prince Harry’s relatives must now stage an intervention because her new interview makes it clear that Meghan Markle appears to have no grip on reality and is on a mission to take down the Royal Family, no matter the cost”. But no-one in The Firm gives a flying foxtrot what he thinks. Or what Piers Morgan thinks. Talking of which, he “today slammed Meghan Markle as ‘shameless and shameful’”.

Splash a bit of that Dark Obsession on, eh? But there was no shortage of creeps out there, as witness Richard Palmer: “There are some jaw-dropping moments in this interview, suggesting tone-deaf Harry and Meghan have learnt no lessons”. He’s “Royal correspondent” of the Express. But he wasn’t toeing the mental health smear line, unlike Matt Wilkinson.

“Have re-read this Meghan Markle interview many, many times today. We are surely at the stage when a grown-up needs to ask the couple who, if anyone, is advising them? Because this is becoming irreversibly embarrassing for them both and the Royal Family”. He’s at the Murdoch Sun.

Richard Eden, meanwhile, is at the Mail: “It should be pointed out that the magazine to which Meghan granted her jaw-dropping interview, The Cut, has been responsible for spreading scurrilous rumours about Prince William in the past”. Guilt by association smear? Check! Oh, and he’s not finished. “It's important that the misleading claims made by Meghan in this interview are exposed”. Otherwise the Vagina Monologue won’t be happy.

Likewise with the Mail’s “Royal editor” Rebecca English, sneering “Well, I’ve read Meghan’s extraordinary new interview. And I’ve penned some thoughts in tomorrow’s Daily Mail … Bizarre, often unintentionally hilarious, but Meghan’s warblings also have an unmistakable undertone of cool menace”. THREATS! THREATS! Against our beloved monarchy!! How DARE she?!?!?

But no-one really cares what she and her fellow pundits think. It’s one long circle jerk, as The DM Reporter illustrated in a summary of GB News’ coverage: “Man that hates Meghan Markle interviews woman that hates Meghan Markle on channel that hates Meghan Markle about how much they hate Meghan Markle and is reported by newspaper that hates Meghan Markle for comments from people that hate Meghan Markle”.

As one Tweeter pointed out “Meghan Markle should not be on any front page over an interview when parts of the country smell like sewage, everyone is struggling to stay afloat, and the government is completely absent. Any paper that prioritises freaking out about her over that isn't a real newspaper”. But she is suing the Mail. That’s how the press responds.

And if the Sussexes are of so little relevance, why is our free and fearless press losing its collective shit over her giving an interview to a magazine many of their readers will never have heard of? Are they so desperate to avoid the real issues du jour while flogging more copies?

You might wish to ask that question. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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Truss Acronyms Haven’t Got A Scooby

As it becomes clear that the membership of the Tory party will mostly not vote for a leadership candidate who is not white, so the prospect of Liz Truss as our next Prime Minister must be faced. And the omens are not good: today’s headlines suggest she thinks that a cut in VAT will provide the required help for those facing a steepling rise in their energy bills come October.

Why she should form such a belief is easily explained by the news that she is, more or less, in hock to three acronyms, none of which is going to provide the answers to a looming economic crisis which in turn has the silver lining of the Tories being cleared out of office for a generation, once the electorate realises that they’ve been taken for marks by a band of clueless con artists.

The revelation of the acronyms came from an unlikely source: Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham, formerly teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, and now for some reason at Bloomberg, brought forth what he might have thought was great news, and for those out there on the right unable to inhabit the real world, it probably was. But not elsewhere.

“[A] Truss backer said three acronyms would be fundamental to her administration: CTF, IEA and ERG”. CTF is Crosby Textor Fullbrook, domain of strategist Lynton Crosby, who helped Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to be imposed on the unfortunate people of London. IEA is the Astroturf lobby group exposed as paid lobbyists for Big Tobacco. And ERG is the wacko Europhobic Tory fringe that is slowly destroying the wider party.

Crosby and his gang are good at attacking their clients’ opponents, but after years of Tory cluelessness, a country that has seen very little invested in most towns and cities since 2010, and the growing realisation that “Getting Brexit Done” has harmed the UK to the extent of making the country an international laughing stock, voters may no longer be prepared to listen.

By the time the next General Election comes round, an opposition offering their particular version of FDR’s New Deal, free of confected culture wars, picking fights with neighbouring countries, and lousy trade deals that have screwed over our farmers, but with a commitment to listen, and to help the 99%, will be difficult to demonise. They will also need to promote Ms Truss.

And whether it is Keir Starmer, or any other Labour leader, the constant spectacle of seeing a Prime Minister worked over at PMQs to the point of weekly humiliation will be there in the mind of swing voters. Sneering at human rights and going WOKE WOKE WOKE isn’t going to work.

Then there is the economic cluelessness that emanates from the IEA. For them, the market will provide: as they were taught by the likes of Milton Friedman, if there is not a market in any part of the economy, a market should be made, which will yield the optimum outcome. It isn’t doing across the energy and utility sectors, and it won’t. And the IEA will then be out of ideas.

All that they will be able to urge will be cuts: they want to cancel HS2, as they want to cancel any prospect of Crossrail 2 being built. All they can offer is a pie in the sky reheating of the discredited idea of turning railways into roads. The IEA way of satisfying demand for more freight paths on the West Coast Main Line is to increase the lorry weight limit and dump it all on the existing motorway network. Their answer to transport problems: MORE ROADS!

And then we come to the ERG, a party within a party, eating away at the Tory monolith from inside, under the leadership of Mark François (note cedilla under the c). Cooperate with the EU? TRAITORS! Das ist Streng Verboten! The idea of the Tories as a paternalistic broad church, a party that can take a pragmatic view and do what is best for Britain, is for them long gone.

Under the less than benign influence of the ERG, the Tories are rapidly becoming a UK version of the US Republican Party: cultists, driving out those of less than desirable purity, intolerant of cooperation, intolerant of opposition, intolerant of inconvenient rules and indeed laws - backed up by a media always prepared to argue that this show of intolerance is somehow righteous.

Behold the alleged leading lights of the Truss premiership: propagandists who won’t be able to gaslight the people when the shit really hits the fan, an economically illiterate lobby group which doesn’t have the solutions to the onrushing problems, and a Europhobic cult that has nothing to offer except more flag-waving, hatred of The Other, and maybe a little ritual incantation.

You thought Bozo was the worst PM ever? Liz wants you to hold her beer.

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GB News Platforms Holocaust Denier

It had to happen: Gammon Broadcasting News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) finally went, of its own volition, so far down the rabbit hole that there was a later move to pretend that it hadn’t really happened. But it had: the broadcaster had given a platform to a known conspiracy theorist and, worse, Holocaust denier, someone who was too wacko even for other wackos.

Peter Imanuelsen. Not Swedish. Or Credible

How so? Well, the individual concerned, Peter Imanuelsen, had, in his previously established persona of Peter Sweden, made a number of appearances with Battersea bedroom dweller Paul Watson, formerly of InfoWars, where he had claimed knowledge of what all those Scary Muslims™ were up to in Sweden. But then a problem entered.

Imanuelsen was far from London, but yet further from Sweden: he lived in the North Yorkshire town of Northallerton. Worst of all, he had made a number of most unfortunate comments about the Holocaust, the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, and Jews in general. The charge sheet was so long that pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins distanced herself from him.

Too wacko for Hatey Klopkins, but quite acceptable as a guest for GB News presenter Neil Oliver, whose team either failed spectacularly to do their due diligence on Imanuelsen, didn’t bother, or didn’t care. Because Imanuelsen’s recent history was well-known: Zelo Street called out his congenital dishonesty and covered his not being in Sweden more than five years ago.

Worse still, someone who had talked favourably of Hitler, wheeled out a series of anti-Semitic tropes, and denied the Holocaust had been invited on to Oliver’s show to talk about … the decline in birth rates. A subject on which, as with so much else, he talked well, but lied badly. “Political commentator Peter Imanuelsen speaks to Neil Oliver about whether we're facing a population collapse” told the GB News Twitter feed. And then the house fell in.

Christian Christensen mused “So, GB News decides to interview a guy who in 2016 tweeted that the Holocaust was a ‘lie to further the agenda of NWO’ and that concentration camps had ‘swimming pools, cinema, theatre’”. GB News has now deleted that Tweet. But it’s too little, too late. Imanuelsen is seriously wacko. He was pushing anti-vax stories before the pandemic.

Another less than savoury aspect of Imanuelsen’s character was noted by Tom Scott: “Peter Imanuelsen, aka Peter Sweden, is a conspiracy theorist & holocaust denier who's called for LGBT people to be sent to camps. GB News knew this when it invited him. This is the channel that Liz Truss thinks better than the BBC. Mainstreaming fascism”. Looks that way, doesn’t it?

The Tweeter known as Otto English could not believe that GB News had gone so far down the rabbit hole. “Disturbed to see this guy pop up on GB News talking about ‘declining birthrates’. Did you know who you were booking?” He also pointedly tagged Neil Oliver, whose credibility has been in freefall, and whose reputation just experienced a non-opening parachute.

Because Oliver’s discussion was not about birth rates alone: as the Tweeter known as SnigsKitchen observed,”Nice people they have on GB News. Nothing to worry about. Just Neil Oliver talking to the far right, Holocaust denying Peter Sweden, about the birth decline conspiracy theory”. What kind of conspiracy theory that might have been was not long in being revealed.

Richard Bartholomew gave a little detail: “On [GB News] Peter Sweden alleged a big drop in fertility over the past year in the UK, and Neil Oliver suggested Covid vaccination could be the cause. This fits with Oliver's role alongside James Melville as a trustee of John Bowe's failed prophecy copium ‘Covid injury’ charity”. Imanuelsen has previous on alleging vaccine harm.

And just in case anyone thought that wasn’t where Oliver was really at, John Bye had a little reality to share with his followers. “GB News have actually deleted the video of Neil Oliver talking about depopulation with Holocaust denier Peter Sweden. But they're still promoting his latest monologue, in which he claims Covid and Ukraine are all part of a plot by the elite to give us ‘smaller, colder lives’”. I can almost hear the late Tommy Cooper.

“Rabbit hole - GB News … GB News - Rabbit Hole”. But no laughter. Busted.

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Emily Maitlis - Now The Pushback

What former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis said in her MacTaggart Lecture in Edinburgh earlier this week should not have surprised any Beeb watchers, nor anyone familiar with the modus operandi of the Tories and their hangers-on. But for the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, her calling out political interference was little short of treasonous.

Those who covered the phone hacking saga may remember that former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan had spat “Judas” at Nick Davies, for blowing the whistle on this and other less than totally legal methods of news gathering. The Guardian had been ostracised for running his articles; it is still not totally forgiven by those out there on the right.

So it should have been no surprise when the tsunami of sneering dismissal struck: typical was the irredeemably batshit Allison Pearson, telling readers of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph that “Emily Maitlis is the Meghan Markle of journalism”. Think of a right wing media hate figure, invent otherwise spurious comparison, engage Phil Space mode. Result!

That Ms Maitlis had transgressed by making a better-late-than-never statement of the bleeding obvious was underscored by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog howling “Emily Ignored Labour Party Agents On BBC Board”, without considering whether any of those cited interfered in the way Robbie Gibb has been accused of doing.

The Fawkes flounce came after Staines’ new tame gofer, sorry, “senior reporter”, sensitive soul Christian Calgie, had sniped “I see Emily Maitlis is accusing the BBC of bending to the whim of No.10 over her Newsnight Cummings rant, despite the BBC themselves later finding it in breach of their own impartiality rules. We knew she was left-wing but she's going properly FBPE right now”. “Left-wing” and "FBPE" not evidenced, merely invented.

Also strong on both invention and denouncement of this newly-discovered anti-party element was the deeply unpleasant Dan Wootton, now shooting off his North and South at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”): “All Emily Maitlis has proven is that she was never fit to broadcast at an impartial BBC. Pushing an alternate reality where the Brexit-hating/Boris-despising/lockdown-loving Corporation is some sort of Tory party propaganda machine is risible. She’ll fit in at LBC’s echo chamber”.

“Brexit hating”? The Beeb is often too scared to even mention the word, thanks to its desire to appease the Tories. “Boris despising”? Alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has had the easiest of rides from the Corporation. As for “Lockdown loving”, that would be the same BBC that has been “Both Sides-ing” so much. Wootton is just an unprincipled liar.

But the Pièce de Résistance has to be the projectile vomiting to order of soundbites, right-wing talking points and stinking dishonestly served up by Mick Hume of Spiked (so called because it should have been long ago) and published by the Daily Mail, titled “Why the only voice that Emily Maitlis wants you to hear is her own: The ex-Newsnight presenter's attack on 'both-sideism' at the BBC is typical of those who despise true democracy”.

Freedom of speech despises true democracy! Ignorance is strength! War is peace! But do go on. “Maitlis's deranged [abuse] sermon revealed her to be the embodiment of all that is worst about the smug, self-righteous BBC [she’s not at the BBC], a broadcaster which has abandoned any notion of objective reporting in favour of partisan tub-thumping [no citation]”. There was more.

“Worse, it confirmed how the elitist outlook she personifies poses a threat to both media freedom and democracy, the pillars of modern liberal Britain”. Paid propagandist for the real media elite says someone else is the elite. Gratuitous attack on someone in the media exercising their freedom of speech, who is shouted down as a threat to media freedom.

As to calling a speech to an audience mainly of her peers “a threat … to democracy”, that is complete bullshit. But Hume has given the game away: as it was with Nick Davies and the Guardian over phone hacking, so it must be for Emily Maitlis over Tory interference at the BBC. Those not keeping their heads down and obediently following the status quo must be denounced.

Why does the right-leaning media establishment need to do this? Ah well. Hume lets slip that one too: “BBC Two's Newsnight, which Maitlis fronted, and Radio 4's Today programme were in the front line of attempts to incite a coup against Boris ever since he won an overwhelming majority at the General Election”. Because they’re frightened to the point of paranoia, that’s why.

Meanwhile, a winter of fuel poverty awaits many. But not the right wing media.

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Robbie Gibb - SACK HIM NOW

It was more than a year ago that Zelo Street noted the propensity of BBC non-executive board member Robbie Gibb to interfere in the Corporation’s recruitment process, effectively on behalf of the Tory Party, in an attempt to head off the appointment of Jess Brammar, someone who was considered insufficiently establishment and right-wing. The conclusion was stark.

Robbie Gibb in his natural habitat

The Beeb should have no truck with Gibb’s presence; he should be sacked from the board and not allowed to darken the Corporation’s corridors any longer. Now has come confirmation that Gibb’s interference in BBC business was not limited to personnel matters, with the implied conclusion that he has been influencing news coverage to make it more acceptable to the Tories.

This revelation of what was already widely suspected came during this year’s MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, given by now former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis. Moving right along from the obvious criticism that her intervention would have been significantly braver had she still been at the Beeb, her comments were nonetheless damning.

As the Guardian has reported, “Reflecting on her time at the BBC, Maitlis said the corporation often slipped into a ‘both-sides-ism’ approach to impartiality that gave a platform to individuals that did not deserve airtime. She recalled how during the 2016 EU referendum the BBC would create a false equivalence by putting one pro-Brexit economist on air to debate with one anti-Brexit economist, even though the overwhelming majority of economists felt Brexit was a bad idea”. See also under climate change.

But it was when discussing the carpeting she received for righty calling out former chief Downing Street polecat Dominic Cummings that she made her accusation against Gibb: “Put this in the context of the BBC Board, where another active agent of the Conservative party - former Downing Street spin doctor, and former adviser to BBC rival GB News - now sits, acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality”. And that is a serious problem for the BBC.

Gibb’s idea of impartiality looks like another way of saying “what Gibb finds acceptable”, what might accord with his opinion. And opinion does not necessarily equal fact. The “both sides” obsession used during the Covid pandemic has merely confused viewers and given an opening to conspiracy pushers and other no-marks who should never have been platformed.

Emily Maitlis - better late than never

The BBC was clearly unhappy about reporting Ms Maitlis’ comments, but could not pretend that the lecture hadn’t happened. What to do? Simples. The first attempt at covering the story airbrushed Gibb from the frame. Adita Chakrabortty noted “The BBC website's report on [Emily Maitlis’] speech completely omits any mention of Robbie Gibb. As if the Corporation is seeking to confirm her argument about its censorship”. Whoops giveaway!

The story was later amended, but the internet never forgets, and the original was there for all to see. So how would the right leaning part of our free and fearless press react to the revelations, and left leaning pundits like Owen Jones observing “it's just very unfortunate that those of us who said the BBC's political coverage was rigged in favour of the Tories were long treated as wild conspiracy theorists”. We did not have to wait long to find out.

The odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, still pretending to be a real journalist at the Murdoch Sun, sneered “Funny how there were no posh telly crowd speeches decrying the fact the entire BBC strategy was for many years set by a Gordon Brown-era Labour Cabinet Minister who sat on this hallowed BBC Board”. So deflecting and lying - and no sign of a denial.

But what was way more revealing than Master Cole’s whinge was the array of front pages offered up by today’s papers. The Guardian, alone among them, mentions the story. The Mirror, campaigning for a freeze in energy price increases, had good reason to devote more space to that story. The others, more prosaically, merely had good reason to keep quiet.

And that is because most of them have been fully invested in the premiership of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, which has included bullying the Beeb into submission. They are part of the misinformation machine that brought us the act of national self-harm that is Brexit, and the continuing efforts to deflect from an increasingly grim reality.

Perhaps the real world should be allowed back in. And that process can be shown to have begun with one act - the sacking of Robbie Gibb.

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Tories Poison Scots Debate

The poisonous and intolerant nature of today’s Tory party was laid bare during the failed attacks on Labour leader Keir Starmer over a post-campaign gathering that did not break Covid rules: City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy has told in a Guardian article looking at events that included press intrusion and doorstepping how the county’s Tory MPs joined in with the nastiness.

Craig Hoy MSP - ready to take responsibility ...

As she says, trust and respect has broken down and it is not going to be restored any time soon. The vicious partisanship of the Tories, especially when defending alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson - the Starmer attacks were an attempt to create an equivalence between the Labour leader and Bozo’s Downing Street lawbreaking - was unforgivable.

So it should come as no surprise that where the Tories are not in power, the viciousness gets dialled up just that little bit further. Which brings us to the devolved administration in Scotland, where the SNP is now in alliance with the Green Party. But in the City of Edinburgh, the SNP and Greens do not command a majority on the council, and so are not in power.

That distinction falls to Scottish Labour, which runs the council with the support of Scots Tories - and the Lib Dems, an arrangement that would be unthinkable south of the border. This unwieldy convocation has found itself in the hot seat at the most unfortunate of times: refuse collection has been hit by another of those strikes. So the Tories have gone to work - blaming the SNP.

And it’s not just the SNP who are getting it in the neck: as so often, the Tory attack is not merely poisonous and intolerant, it is highly personal. This is exemplified by Scots Tory chairman Craig Hoy sneering “Nicola Sturgeon is spending millions on fake foreign embassies But, in Edinburgh, she’s failing to pay properly to collect the bins. They say a picture tells a thousand words, but five words say it all First Minister: Focus on the day job”.

That’s right, the Tories are partly responsible for the increasingly visible mess on the streets of the Scottish capital, but, as south of the border, it’s all someone else’s fault. Who? You guessed it: “The SNP has slashed council budgets for years. And now councils can’t even afford to pay the bin-men. The rubbish piling high in Edinburgh is down to Nicola Sturgeon”'

... for blaming someone else

There was more: seeing a Union flag flying, he declared “Thanks [sic] goodness that something is looking respectable in Edinburgh today. It’s time the SNP realised there’s so much more to Scotland than their council cuts, perpetual grievance and completely incompetent management of our economy and public services”. Management of economy and services?

Wouldn’t that he his party that is mostly responsible for that? Shouldn’t he think about winding his neck in just a little and take a little responsibility for the bin strike? Would he care to support a tax rise to ease the budget constraints about which he so volubly complains? Is his party willing to back a council tax hike in Edinburgh? As if. He’s just whining for the sake of it.

So the political climate north of the border resembles its counterpart to the south: the Tories, intolerant, vicious, hyper-partisan and utterly poisonous, congenitally unable to take responsibility for anything, waging personal campaigns against opposition leaders, “lefty lawyers”, anyone and everyone in the EU, asylum seekers, trade unionists, and Scotland’s First Minister.

Why should this matter? Ah well: what Craig Hoy, and so many other Tories, are indulging in does not stop with them: as can be seen with the social media armies of “Back Boris”, “Never Labour”, “Love Europe, Hate The EU” and the loose convocation of variously jolly Brexiteers, the example set by the Tories is then taken up, and amplified, by their followers.

Thus the debate is poisoned. Which, no doubt, is also someone else’s fault.

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