Labour GP Pledge – Telegraph Panics

As if to confirm its status as house journal of the Tory Party, the Maily Telegraph is today on guard to rubbish any proposal coming from any other party, and especially Labour. So when Mil The Younger announced that patients should be able to see a GP within 48 hours, a move that could prove popular, there had to be a swift and decisive rebuttal, however desperate.

And so it came to pass: “Labour 48-hour GP plan 'would cost 30 times more' than promised ... Labour say plan for 48-hour access would cost £100 million, but doctors say true cost is £3 billion”. As Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, note those quotation marks to show the part the Tel couldn’t stand up. And two, we need to ask just how many doctors have made this assertion.

So how many doctors? Well, only one doctor, actually: despite Matthew Holehouse telling “Ed Miliband’s promise to give all patients a ‘same-day consultation’ and a guarantee of an early GP appointment was questioned this morning after the Royal College of GPs said the policy would cost £3 billion to implement”, readers should read a little further down his copy.

There, they will find the real story: “‘It is not anywhere near enough to give any sort of guarantee,’ said Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners ... Providing a ‘proper general practice service’ would mean increasing the GPs' share of the NHS budget from 8 per cent to 11 per cent, at a cost of £3 billion, said Dr Baker”. And there’s something else the Tel isn’t, er, telling.

Maureen Baker has been promoting stories of breakdown in the GP service for a while now – nothing wrong with that, as that’s her job – but, had the Tel been straight with its readers, it would have told them that, as well as stressing that this was one person’s opinion, before telling that “Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said he did not accept the figures and said Labour’s plans are ‘clear and costed’”.

Instead, the real purpose of the article is then made clear: “Labour was dealt a blow last night when two opinion polls showed the party is now trailing the Tories. According to polling by Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory deputy chairman, the Tories are on 34 per cent and Labour are on 32 per cent”. This has been selectively edited to ignore Sunday’s Opinium poll for the Observer.

That is because it recorded a Labour lead of 4%. Yes, the Tel, with only a year to go before a General Election whose date has already been set in stone, is quick to tell readers to “look over there” and that Labour is both frit and finished, while trying not to tell those same readers that it’s not quite as simple as that. But it does make a pleasant change from accusations of “class war”.

Former paper of record falls even further from grace. And that’s not good enough.

HS2 – Green Party Research Fail

“HS2 is a disastrous white elephant” declares Green Party Transport Spokesperson Rupert Read today, selling the pass before he even gets past the title: something that hasn’t even seen start of construction cannot yet be so judged. The standard of his argument does not improve: at no point does he even begin to address the problem which has led to HS2 – network capacity.

High Speed Rail. But not in the UK

Moreover, Read relies on the fraudulently inflated estimates of the IEA for his figures, which must be a first: Greens relying on right-wingers who couldn’t give a flying foxtrot about, well, Greens. Zelo Street has already dealt with Richard Wellings’ deeply flawed analysis (see HERE and HERE). The estimated cost, I would remind Read, is just under £43 billion, including a 50% contingency.

Read tells that HS2 will be “a train service for the rich”, thus also chiming the propaganda of the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance, another right-leaning Astroturf lobby group who don’t give a fig about Greens. And look: “Phase 1 taken alone is estimated to return only £1.40 on every £1, whereas a 2012 DfT report suggests expansion of the West Coast main line would return £6.06”.

Expansion how, exactly? And where is the reference to this mythical report? And then – oh dear: “HS2 is intended as purely a passenger service, it would not carry freight. Any benefits accrued from getting vehicles off the road, including the reduction of negative externalities from carbon emissions, are thus seriously diminished”. CAPACITY IS FREED UP ON EXISTING LINES FOR FREIGHT.

So it can be seen that this is not a serious analysis, as is confirmed by “commuter trains leaving Euston for the North are currently mostly empty”. Commuter trains, those run by London Midland, leave Euston at peak times with STANDING ROOM ONLY, and precious little of that. Try again: “It is only the expected volume of commuters to London that will make the service economically viable”.

Please, Greens, address the question - this question

Commuter services will continue to be run, as now, on existing lines. HS2 will take longer distance services off those lines. Once again – fortunately I never tire of wheeling this out – I refer Read to the Rail Freight Group prediction for 2030, showing excess of demand over capacity for freight paths. But let’s cut to the main event, and ask how Read and his fellow Greens plan to address the issue.

“The simple truth is that we will not improve the North with an infrastructure project focused on London, but by improving connectivity within the North of England itself”. HAVEN’T YOU HEARD OF THE NORTHERN HUB PROJECT? “Completion of the East-West link ... linking Oxford and Cambridge”. ALREADY BEING PLANNED. How can a party be taken seriously when its members can’t bother researching first?

I thought the right-wingers were bad enough. The Green Party is matching them.

Toby Young Deflecting Again

Yesterday, the loathsome Toby Young returned to the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs to once again attack anyone not totally supportive of his hero Michael “Oiky” Gove. And, once again, there was a good reason for the attack: this may look on the surface to be a counter to yesterday’s news of more budget overshoot for his beloved Free Schools programme, but there is another agenda at work.

Sorry Tobes, more questions I'm afraid

As so often when Tobes sounds off at the Tel, at least part of the rationale has to do with deflecting attention away from problems with Free Schools in general, or one Free School in particular. While he accuses Corporal Clegg of ratting on “Oiky” – probably wrong, as the most likely culprit is David Laws – the troubles of his very own domain, the West London Free School (WLFS) continue.

Following all the recent staff changes, which culminated in the abrupt departure of headmaster Sam Naismith at the start of this month, Sally Coates, formerly head at Burlington Danes Academy in Shepherd’s Bush, has appeared at WLFS. What is not known is at whose prompting: it has been suggested to me that the DfE made the decision to get someone in who knew what they were doing.

Tobes has told “Dame Sally Coates has very kindly agreed to keep on eye on the school this term and help us recruit a new head ... It's not a formal role. Rather, she's acting as a mentor and adviser to the acting head and the senior leadership team. So far she's been brilliant and everyone at the school is very impressed ... With Dame Sally's help I'm confident we'll find an excellent new head”.

Apparently, Tobes may have been able to choose who was brought in, but not that someone had to be. That someone from outside the school has to be brought in does not reflect well on what had gone before. And the obvious question that Sally Coates’ “informal appointment” begs is this: how much time is she having to put in at WLFS, and who is footing the bill for her services?

And on the wider question of Free Schools generally, why does Tobes think it’s OK that, by his own admission, 30% of them are being set up where there is no need for the places they provide? Where is his citation for the claim that “the construction costs of free schools are 40 per cent lower than the cost of setting up council-run schools under the last government”?

Why can he not address the mildly inconvenient fact that the Free Schools programme was originally budgeted at £450 million, went a whole £1 billion over budget, and now appears to be going a further £800 million beyond The Number That “Oiky” First Thought Of? The only conclusion that can be reached is that Tobes’ latest rant is another smokescreen to deflect from failings at WLFS.

What those failings are will be found out, whether Tobes wishes it or not.

UKIP Twitter Dirty Tricks Exposed

Some remarkably unpleasant behaviour is presently being exhibited by the more zealous followers of Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his fellow saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP. The blogger who posted the “Ten Great Reasons to Vote UKIP” found himself briefly the target of a Police investigation, backed up by a threatening Twitter message from a party supporter who knew the cops were visiting.

More worryingly, there have been concerted efforts to get critics of UKIP suspended from Twitter. This has been covered by A Liberal Life, but the thought occurred that Twitter does not just suspend users on the say-so of a number of frothers and ranters. So how do the UKIP faithful manage to get their way and burnish their libertarian credentials – by circumscribing free speech?

An account that has blocked me speaks ...

Ah well. Here the use of Twitter’s blocking facility enters. The use of this feature to dissuade those who respond merely for trolling is well known, but, it seems, its use as a means to get others suspended may not be. Added to this is the deliberate, and temporary, unblocking which allows the provocateur to tempt the target into replying. I will explain how this works.

... with the clear intention of provoking a response

After I had passed adverse comment on the UKIP supporters getting themselves in a stew over Charlie Bloom’s appearance in the audience of last Thursday’s Question Time, one UKIP supporter who had previously blocked me responded. He had to unblock my account to do this, so it was not an accidental act. Having passed comment, he then blocked me and waited for a response.

Voice of libertarian tolerance speaks

Sadly for the provocateur, response there was none, as I was wise to this tactic. Had I replied, he and his pals would have then been able to complain that I was mentioning an account that had blocked me – which is a potential suspension offence. That is what the UKIP gang mean when they talk about “block and report”: provoke an exchange, block the other party, then report them.

And encourages others to join in

Or, in my case, unblock the target, provoke an exchange, and continue as before. This extends to pursuing anyone who inconveniences the UKIP mob if they start another account, and, as can be seen with the response to Charlie Bloom, using the tactic to retaliate against anyone who has had the effrontery to criticise their beloved leader – with the clear intention of having them silenced.

Then goes after a little retribution

That this is jaw-dropping hypocrisy of the lowest kind clearly does not occur to such people: followers of a supposedly libertarian party who want to stamp out dissent by all means at their disposal. Sadly for them, this tactic is inevitably self-defeating, and, as knowledge spreads – don’t mention the accounts and check to see if they have blocked you before responding – they will not succeed.

Some UKIP fans may not like it when others speak freely. Tough. Deal with it.

UKIP And Eurovision – A Comedy Genre

“Pint for the first journalist to ask Farage’s views on Conchita” prodded Mark Ferguson after Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst (geddit?!?) won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. The alter ego of Thomas Neuwirth might not have impressed Mr Thirsty, who had already passed severely adverse comment on the contest, as well as displaying the obligatory UKIP ignorance.

Squeaky Eurovision finger up the bum time

What did he think of Eurovision? “I absolutely hate it” he replied, saying that there was a “level of prejudice” against British singers. This “shows how hard it will be for the UK to secure a good deal renegotiating its relationship with the EU”. Nige doesn’t understand that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which includes Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Israel, is not the same thing as the EU.

Was Nige going to watch this year’s contest? “Probably not, if I'm absolutely honest, but I gather that the British entry has got a slightly higher chance than usual, is that right?” Did he know who was representing the UK? “The awful thing is, you've got me there, I don't ... Is Terry Wogan still doing it? He was great, wasn't he? He still is great”. Sir Terence handed over to Graham Norton six years ago.

Farage’s combination of ignorance and prejudice was meat and drink to anyone wanting to have a laugh at his expense, which means rather a lot of people. Will Black suggested the photo caption “Nigel Farage telling his German wife that they will not be watching the Eurovision Song contest”. Any more in the same vein?

As if you need to ask: Peter Smith suggested “UKIP are making the most of this year’s Eurovision. They reckon all the songs next year will be sung in Romanian” to which another Tweeter added “And they will all be on sale here at the same time ... flooding the market stealing all our top tens”.

Meanwhile, Rachel was happy at the prospect of the Right being less than totally happy about the identity of the winner: “Conchita Wurst annoying UKIP, BNP, Putin and Ukrainian fascists with one tacky song. Marvellous”. But even she might not have realised just how annoyed one UKIP supporter would get.

Tom Wilson looked as if he could not believe the response of one Brooke Loveridge: “Are you having a laugh. A bloke dressed as a woman with a bearded [sic]. I can’t even look at the freak. This is what euro vision [sic] song contest had to offer. Should be shut down and taken off air [libertarian tolerance alert]. FREAK FREAK FREAK thank god UK came in 17th VOTE UKIP GET OUT OF EUROPE IF THIS IS WHAT YOU GET”. So that’s another idiot who can’t tell their EU from their EBU.

Yes, there are UKIP supporters seeing demons even in Austrian drag artists. But they’re not paranoid, so no-one’s coming to get them. Yet.

Hitchens Rail Network Own Goal

There is one drawback in going off on a rant about the state of Britain’s railways, and that is that one needs to have some knowledge of the subject. Otherwise, one gets called out by rotten nerdy types such as myself, and this is the fate of Mail On Sunday rantmeister Peter Hitchens, whose spleen-venting exercise in today’s paper is so ill-informed as to damage his credibility.

Who let facts in here? AAARGHH!

“Bring back British Rail! Privatisation was an act of political madness and a huge con that left us with delays, antique trains and a vast bill - and now even Labour knows its time” reads the less than grammatically sound headline, as readers are told “Like comprehensive schools, EU membership, windmill electricity, equality and diversity and multiculturalism, privatisation was imposed on us against our will”.

Then he starts to go wrong: a still from A Hard Day’s Night is captioned “Ticket to ride [wrong film, by the way]: The Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, when trains were efficient and even glamorous”. No, Hitch, they were appallingly dirty and unreliable, timekeeping was often impressionistic, steam traction was getting tired, and new diesels suffered, shall we say, significant teething troubles.

The sell-offs, he asserts, “finished off most of what was left of our train manufacture”. So what is Bombardier doing at Derby, then? And what’s this? “Punctuality has improved because the timetables were padded to avoid penalties from the ‘Passenger’s Charter’”. The “passenger’s charter” that pre-dated the sell-offs, perchance? Basic research missing there.

“The trains take just as long if not longer”, he tells. Really? London to Crewe used be 1 hour 50 minutes at best, now it’s 1 hour 30 minutes. But, as the man said, there’s more: “The trains I ride daily are 1970s antiques that ought to be in the National Railway Museum at York”. Stop right there. Where does Hitchens live? Oxford is the generally accepted answer to that one.

That station is served by Cross Country (new post sell-off fleet) and First Great Western (local trains built by BR in the early 90s). FGW’s longer distance services use InterCity 125s which do indeed date back to the 1970s, but both power heads and passenger coaches have been thoroughly refurbished. The only hint at their age visible to the passenger is the slam doors.

Then comes the piece de resistance: train operators “are being subsidised by you and me, thanks to artificially low track charges levied by Network Rail”. No, the subsidy is because the overall cost of operation exceeds what is recouped in fares. If Network Rail increased its track access charges (note correct usage), then the operators might need yet more subsidy.

Next time you hear Hitchens sound off, remember how shoddy his research is.

Gove Gets Polecatted By Lib Dems

The waste of public money otherwise known as the Free Schools programme is back in the news this weekend, and to no surprise that news focuses on the throwing of yet more taxpayer funds at Michael “Oiky” Gove’s pet project. This time, though, the leaks coming out of Whitehall are not from Gove’s retinue of polecats, but are in opposition to them. And the numbers do not look good.

Yes, "Oiky", you're wasting our money

As this blog has previously pointed out, the Free Schools programme was given a budget of around £450 million, which, in a time of supposed austerity, is bad enough for all those schools that have to cut back to make room for the incomers. But, far worse, that budget has already overshot by around £1 billion. Today’s news is that Gove is apparently chucking another £400 million at them.

And the language coming from allegedly senior Lib Dem sources (D. Laws (no relation)) is pretty forthright: “Michael Gove is so ideologically obsessed with his free schools experiment that he's willing to see children struggle to get suitable school places ... It is nothing short of lunacy to slash the amount of money available for new school places to lavish on free schools”. Can Laws be behind this?

Bad publicity - can it get any worse?

You betcha, says Sarah: “Michael Gove was warned by the schools minister David Laws that this was a bad idea but the zealot pressed on anyway ... Michael Gove is so dogmatic about free schools he essentially places no spending restrictions on them at all. The free schools budget is out of control and the Secretary of State would rather sink another £800m into the black hole, rather than rein in spending”.

So now it isn’t £400 million, but twice that amount: half diverted from “basic need” provision – that means a basic need for funding school places in local authority-run schools – and half from departmental underspend. The question begs itself: is this £800 million part of the previously identified £1 billion overspend, or is it, as seems more likely, in addition to it? If the latter, things really are out of control.

Yes, it certainly can get worse - a lot worse

Indeed, “Oiky’s” own spokesman has not denied the story, coming up with this magnificent slice of flannelspeak: “A spokesman for Gove did not deny that the Basic Need budget had been raided, but said that the free schools budget was ‘demand-led’”. Yes, the likes of the loathsome Toby Young fetch up and “demand” more dosh – say, for a £9.25 million building – and they get bunged it.

And it looks rather like the extra money is on top of existing overspends: “Ministers have earmarked £1.5bn for the free schools project by March 2015 – and £1.1bn has already been spent. An £800m deficit would be huge for a government trying to rein in spending”. So Gove’s flagship programme has gone from £450 million, to £1.5 billion, and now £2.3 billion. Small wonder the Lib Dems are kicking off.

This gives every appearance of being a very bad deal for taxpayers – yes, us.

Top Six – May 4

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 correspondence to attend to later. So there.

6 Boris Lord Of The Rings Fail London’s occasional Mayor devoted his Monday column to a lame attack on Mil The Younger, demonstrating along the way that he hadn’t bothered to do any research beforehand. And then the anti-Semitic overtones of the piece were pointed out.

5 Toby Young’s £9 Million School Building The loathsome Tobes’ West London Free School was discovered to have shelled out £9.25 million on an office block, to house only part of the school. And that’s our money that’s being spent.

4 Food Islamophobia Takes Hold The scare over Halal meat was rather obviously not about animal welfare. And the stress on Islam rather than Judaism – both require particular and similar methods of slaughter – tells you all you need to know. It was, once again, about Scary Muslims.

3 UKIP In Charlie Bloom Meltdown Nigel “Thirsty” Farage was nailed by an audience member on last Thursday’s Question Time. So that audience member was then subjected to a barrage of abuse by UKIP’s paranoid fringe.

2 Max Clifford – Max Dacre Pundit Grovel There was no getting out of it – the Daily Mail wanted to blame anyone else for Max Clifford getting away with it, but they were just as prepared as the rest to accommodate him.

1 Toby Young’s School In Meltdown The loathsome Tobes’ West London Free School has lost several staff members. Now it has lost a headmaster in mid-term. And there is a lack of openness about what is going on.

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

UKIP In Charlie Bloom Meltdown

You may not have heard of Charlie Bloom. He’s from the Southampton area. He doesn’t belong to a political party. He worked hard for over 45 years and is now enjoying his retirement. And last Thursday he was in the audience for BBC Question Time. Here, he demonstrated the ability to spot a spiv at fifty paces.

And another squeaky finger up the bum time

He told Nigel “Thirsty” Farage “I'm old enough to have read about McCarthyism and I'm old enough to have read the Rivers of Blood speech. I'm also aware of what happens in elections where a climate of fear is caused amongst the electorate by the charismatic, the bombastic and, to me, the very dangerous. This has driven Europe to war in the past ... I have no time for you sir, none”. It was the one moment when Farage was on the ropes and wobbling.

This intervention provoked a veritable tsunami of reaction from anguished UKIP devotees. The combination of paranoia, abuse, ignorance and other forms of bigotry was remarkable in its vehemence, as witness “‘Shouty man’ on BBC Question Time [Charlie Bloom] was planted by the Lib Dems as revenge for Clegg’s annihilation by Nigel Farage” from an appropriately-named specimen called UKIPhobia.

Quite apart from the impossibility of any political party planting a member in the Question Time audience, this showed a determination not to engage with Bloom, or accept his objection to Mr Thirsty, but to play the man before the ball. And someone called David Jones did just that: “oh dear we have a Labour voter on our hands what a shock”. So a Labour and Lib Dem supporter at the same time. Or maybe not.

The queue of Kippers wanting to discredit Bloom, rather than debate with him, was seemingly endless. And it included Marty Caine, who has passed before my inspection before: “It is called [BBC Question Time] because you are supposed to ask questions not verbally abuse someone because the [Lib Dems] are failing”. So that’s another who thinks taking issue with Farage makes you a Lib Dem.

Perhaps someone out there in Kipper land could manage a different form of abuse? You betcha, says Sarah: “You are utterly retarded. You think you're a communist street urchin in 1940s Stalingrad” moaned Nationalist_UK. Zelo Street regulars may recognise the kind of language used by James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, who likes derivations of the word “retard”. He’s in UKIP too.

As, it seems, is someone calling themselves “Dirty Politics”,  who widened the abuse to include Bloom’s family: “What a nasty lefty homophobic bigot you are planted by the BBC, with an equally disgusting daughter who has horrendous views”. Yes, the party of Roger Helmer calls “homophobic bigot” on others. And now it’s the BBC’s fault, and not the Lib Dems or Labour.

But don’t worry Kippers, you’re not paranoid, as they’re not coming to get you. Yet.

Trojan Horse? What Trojan Horse?

This blog has observed with interest the series of allegations made in the pages of the Telegraph by Andrew “transcription error” Gilligan about a supposed “Trojan Horse” plot to take over and then “Islamise” schools in Birmingham – and allegedly elsewhere, notably Bradford. It has also been observed that Gilligan’s predictions have not yet, in many cases, come to pass.

Too ashamed to write the latest piece?

Those who have observed Gilligan and the Tel’s obsession with Scary Muslims will not be surprised about this: after all, The Great Man has for some time been churning out knocking copy about the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and elected Mayor Lutfur Rahman, but Rahman is still there, and about to contest another election. And no evidence of improper conduct has yet been found.

So it has not been a total surprise to see the Telegraph asserting this morning that “Teachers and governors in Birmingham have been told to expect a ‘firestorm’ when Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, publishes the findings of its investigations into the alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ plot”, only to find that (a) Gilligan is absent from the field of play, and (b) the headline is not supported by the rest of the article.

Edward Malnick’s piece informs readers “BBC Radio 4's Today programme reported that senior officials at Birmingham City Council suggested a report by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, will focus on claims about the governance and leadership at the schools”. What happened to those allegations about the curricula being tinkered with? And the assertions made about some of the teachers?

And then comes “However teachers and governors are said to have been told at a meeting this week that the officials had seen no evidence of the alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ plot” – despite “a series of exposés by The Telegraph which disclosed how [the] alleged plot had put schools under pressure illegally to segregate classrooms and change teaching to reflect radical Islamic beliefs”.

Remember what was actually found: “There was gender segregation in some classes at Park View Academy and Golden Hillock. Some classes observed had boys sitting at the front of the class and girls around the edges. There were also lessons where boys and girls sat at the same table but on opposite sides. We also observed lessons where boys and girls were mixed”.

And this is what the Tel is still saying: “An inspection report by the Department for Education, leaked to The Telegraph, found that girls at Park View school were made to sit at the back of the class”. This, and Gilligan’s previous allegations, are not supported by a reality check. Now it seems that the plot is not a plot after all. Anyone might conclude that significant exaggeration has taken place here.

This may have adversely affected children’s education. That’s not good enough.

Littlejohn Reinvents The Past

Today, the Daily Mail brings deeply unsettling news for its devoted readers: starting next week, the paper will serialise the supposedly Very Wonderful memoirs of their talentless and unfunny churnalist Richard Littlejohn. The modestly-titled “Littlejohn’s Lost World” tells of a time when everyone worked hard and wanted to get on, there were none of those immigrants, and no elf’n’safety.

History, guv? Make it up, nobody'll know, innit?!?

Ah, how wonderful that must have been – not. Fortunately, being of A Certain Age, I am able to subject Dicky Windbag’s hot air to the harsh reality of factual analysis. So let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start. “The Mail's incomparable columnist, born before welfare dependence, immigration and elf'n'safety asks: 'What would my old Dad make of the country we've become?'” he asks.

Well, in Dick’s case, what he has become is a peddler of rank dishonesty: the Welfare State pre-dates his birth, as does significant immigration. Or did he miss events like the arrival at Tilbury of the Empire Windrush? He does get one thing right, though: rationing was still in force when he was born. But it ended before Winshton retired as PM and Anthony Eden won the 1955 General Election.

“In those days, most babies were born at home, not in hospital” he says, from his own particular Sample Of One. Well, Dicky Boy, my Sample Of One from later in the same year somewhere near Leeds says otherwise. “I was born into a lost world. It wasn’t just another century, it was another country”. Wrong. It was the same country as today, but we have in the meantime enjoyed something called progress.

What Littlejohn fails to tell readers about the wonderful fifties is that life expectancy was poor – heart disease killed many before they got the chance to retire, lung cancer and other respiratory ailments took more, and tuberculosis was rampant. He (and I) were the fortunate ones. And don’t get me started on the filthy air in cities and towns – and the illnesses that caused in its turn.

Dick tells that “no one suffered from now-fashionable food allergies”. Yes they did – only back then, they fell ill or just dropped dead. “Holidays meant a trip to Southend in a Ford Anglia” he says, which meant his family were not as ordinary as he would like to pretend: very few could afford a car. And where would you prefer to take a holiday – Essex or Andalucia? Seriously?

If I were given a choice of the 50s or the here and now, it would be a no-brainer. The world today has its faults, but has changed vastly – and for the better. This is my time, thanks. The 50s are mere memory. “Critics of my column in the Daily Mail probably won’t be surprised to discover that I’m descended from a family of London cabbies” says Dick. Meaning a bigoted and dishonest gobshite.

And an appallingly selective and unreliable witness to the past. One more for the bin.

Dan Hodges Crosses The Floor

The sequence of events is all too familiar: the party member claims that the leadership need to listen – generally to Himself Personally Now – and the criticism is muted, constructive, and reasoned. But nobody listens. So the criticism becomes more harsh. Then the party member leaves his party, but still protests a lingering loyalty. And then he starts to cross the floor.

And remember which way he voted back then

So it has been with Dan Hodges, formerly the Colonel Nicholson of the Labour Party, who didn’t get a party leader that was acceptable to him, and so became increasingly embittered, until he tore up his membership card and walked out. Now he has admitted that “Nick Clegg has taken a stand for Europe and against Ukip – so he's got my vote”. The excuses are as paper-thin as ever.

“My starting point was 'What’s the best way to take a stand against Ukip? Initially, that had me leaning towards Labour. Labour are the party best placed to stop Ukip winning outright'”. So what’s the problem? “But I’m not voting Labour in these elections. Not after last night”. Dan has been affronted by a Labour PPB. He loved kicking other parties on their behalf before. But not now.

Then he tells “In any case, voting Labour isn’t the way to stand up to Ukip because Labour hasn’t been prepared to stand up to Ukip”. Where has he been recently, or did nobody tell him about Mil The Younger doing exactly that recently on The Andy Marr Show (tm), when confronted by Nigel “Thirsty” Farage? He missed it.

Instead, he drones on “Ever since Miliband was elected, his supporters have been telling me what a brave and principled leader their man is. So where’s this brave and principled leader been while Ukip have been running round telling everyone to be afraid of foreign families moving in next door, demanding Lenny Henry goes back ‘to a black country’ and selecting a rape apologist as their candidate in Newark ... Miliband was too busy banging on about rent controls”.

See above – which I doubt was an isolated occurrence. And Hodges’ floor-crossing may have been worse: “I was also tempted to vote Tory ... Cameron and his party have studiously avoided joining Ukip in the anti-immigration gutter”. And Labour have not? Or is this just a string of false equivalences? Dan claims he is still intending to vote Labour next year. But don’t you bet on it.

Some drift left as they get older. Others remain where they were as the centre drifts one way or the other. But most of those who cross the floor do so from left to right, and we are seeing the first signs of Dan Hodges following where so many have gone in the past. He normalises his drift by blaming Miliband, whoever made the most recent PPB, and anyone else who doesn’t want to listen to him.

But the journey is down to one person – himself. And it’s never his fault.

Toby Young – More Questions To Answer

Sensitive soul that he is, the loathsome Toby Young has been in touch to take issue with my latest observations about goings-on at the West London Free School (WLFS), of which he is CEO. He has also found time to comment adversely upon a recent piece in the Standard on WLFS’ expenditure of £9.25 million of taxpayers’ money on an office building in Hammersmith.

Don't start the vino just yet, Tobes

Sadly for Tobes, these interventions only serve to prompt more questions, to which I suspect he may be reluctant to provide answers. Let us turn first to that building on Bridge Avenue, which, it has been estimated, will provide a playground space of 40cm by 40cm per pupil. And it won’t be able to accommodate all the cycles ridden by those who have been estimated to use that transport mode.

Tobes told the Standard that WLFS “has three schools in Hammersmith – a secondary and two primaries. We were asked to step up the primaries by the local authority because of the acute shortage of primary school places in the area thanks to the last government's short-sighted cuts”. That’s fascinating – suddenly, local authorities have no say in providing places – when the Tories are in charge.

He went on “Overall, the cost of setting up the three schools in our multi-academy trust will be far lower than the amount of money the last government would have spent under its ludicrously inefficient Building Schools for the Future programme to create three new schools. The £9.25m figure you mention is less than a third of the average cost of a new BSF school”. And the bullshit detector sounded.

As another commenter on the article has pointed out, “That £9.25 m for the office block works out to be £6200 a square metre. In comparison, BSF designed and put up new schools for £1600 a metre for a building of a comparable size”. Given that there is more work to do to make Bridge Avenue fit for purpose, it will, if that estimate is correct, cost four times as much as BSF, not “less than a third”.

So it appears that Tobes’ trousers are well alight. And then we come to the recent staff problems, which not only included losing a second headmaster, but also the Senior Tutor of Year 7, who appears not to have yet been replaced. What happened to Mrs Jo Fernando? She appeared to be one of the few teachers with significant experience, having previously put in six years at Mossbourne Academy.

And why were so many of the staff hauled in by Tobes and Co for an extended chat recently? Why are there so many hockey players among the staff – including those whose roles have no apparent sporting connection, including the Data Manager? And what happens when what looks like an enthusiastic but inexperienced looking crew has to deal with a rather bigger school?

In the meantime, investigations continue. All information received in confidence.

Mail Muslim Attack Continues

“Our shoppers don't care if meat is halal, claim supermarkets: Retailers face backlash after saying it is 'unnecessary' to label meats” howls the Daily Mail today at the realisation that their legendarily foul mouthed editor does not have it in his power to overhaul supermarket supply chains overnight. But the realisation that this exercise is a thinly veiled attack on Islam is gaining ground, too.

What the f***'s wrong with kicking Muslims, c***?!? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

The tone is incandescent: “Supermarkets were facing a backlash last night after claiming it was ‘unnecessary’ to spell out on labels whether meat comes from animals killed by religious slaughter ... But retailers claimed that shoppers do not care – and even argued that there is not enough room on packs for new labels”. The backlash always comes “last night” in tabloid land, doesn’t it?

So who is backing the Mail’s crusade? As if one needs to ask: “The Conservative MP Philip Davies, who is leading calls for a new labelling law, said: ‘There is overwhelming public support for this change. People should be able to make an informed choice about what they are buying’ ... Mr Davies has the support of a large number of Tory MPs”. So that’s a straight f*** right off, then.

How many is this “large number”? Is it large as in a lot, or merely large as in font? And what is this “overwhelming public support” of which Davies speaks? Has he polled his Shipley constituents? But what’s the gripe here? “Both halal and kosher slaughter involve a religious ritual in which the throat is cut. But some animals are not stunned beforehand, leaving them in pain”.

Very good, Dacre doggies, and now riddle me this: that line comes just after this one “All the major supermarkets are selling New Zealand lamb killed according to halal ritual without providing labels”. The clear inference is that there is something inhumane about the way that New Zealand lamb is slaughtered. But what readers are not told is that all New Zealand lamb is pre-stunned.

That means, let us not drive this one around the houses for too long, we are not talking about animal welfare here. And this conclusion has also been reached by Cristina Odone over at Telegraph blogs. Ms Odone’s view is significant because she is an adherent of the Church of Rome. As a Roman Catholic, she will know all about prejudice displayed towards religious minorities in Britain.

As she says, “Animal rights easily become a proxy for Islam-bashing and anti-Semitism ...  It's an ancient tradition, rising back to the Middle Ages, when bigots liked to say that Jews ritually slaughtered Christian babies”. And as I pointed out yesterday, not even the Mail would allow itself to replace “Muslim” with “Jewish” and hope to get away with it. It’s Islamophobia, plain and simple.

Next thing we’ll be told is that children can “catch Islam” from Halal chicken.

Tony Gallagher – Amoral Face Of The Press

As if to underscore that the primary motivation for setting up the so-called Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), named because it is anything but independent, recent Daily Mail recruit Tony Gallagher, self-styled hard man of the press and shouting champion supreme, has been demonstrating to the world just how little he and his new bosses care about the public.

Tony Gallagher at the Leveson Inquiry

Gallagher has rejoined the Mail after being unceremoniously binned from the editor’s chair at the Maily Telegraph, where he had overseen a move downmarket which has resulted in the title’s status as a paper of record being lost for good, along with the standards of its journalism. Instead, the Tel has resorted to nudge-nudgery and channelling a number of sources out there on the right.

Recently, it shamelessly shilled for the spooks after the Snowden revelations about the machinations of the NSA and GCHQ, giving a platform to the likes of Alex Carlile to smear the deeply subversive Guardian and the journalists who have just secured the first Pulitzer Prize for public service for a title whose base is outside the USA. The Tel may make money, but as authoritative journalism, it is shot.

What Tony Gallagher thinks about ordinary people

This should be borne in mind when inspecting the Twitter outburst earlier today by The Great Man after he had been prodded on the subject of press regulation: after his appearance on BBC’s Daily Politics, he told Peter Kirkham “you don’t get to set the standards Peter. You choose whether to buy the paper – or not”. Thus the uncaring arrogance of Grubstreet’s finest.

That says “we mark our own homework”. It says “we decide which complaints we accept”. It says “we don’t give a crap – sue us if you think you’re hard (and rich) enough”. It says “so long as we sell the papers and make a profit, we don’t care zip what you think”. It says “we don’t care who gets shat on”.

That is the reaction of someone who is hell-bent on ignoring the Leveson Inquiry and its recommendations, and would rather the cross-party Royal Charter went away. It is a sure sign that, when the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre retires, or is caused to retire, the Daily Mail will continue to be as unprincipled, bullying, judgmental, dishonest, venal, spiteful, vindictive and moralistic as before. It speaks to a culture devoid of ethics, standards or indeed morals.

You think I exaggerate? Remember what Private Eye told about him: “When Tony Gallagher raised his fist to a female journalist in 2007 and threatened to ‘smear you all over that wall’ unless she wrote a story he was demanding, she was quietly paid off to the tune of £100,000 to avoid any scandal”. Thus the public face of not just the Daily Mail, but indeed the largest part of the Fourth Estate.

Gallagher doesn’t care what the little people think. And that’s not good enough.

Food Islamophobia Takes Hold

Following yesterday’s front page splash by Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, which was neither exclusive, nor revealing a secret, the Scary Muslims Food Frightener has today migrated to the front page of the Daily Mail, where the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre tells that “Millions Are Eating Halal Food Without Knowing It”.

The routinely scary sub-headings are all too predictable: “Supermarkets and restaurants sell halal to customers to save money ... They do it so the meat can be eaten by Muslims and non-Muslims ... More than 70% of all New Zealand lamb in supermarkets is halal ... Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose and M&S all sell it”. As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point.

Then comes “It also emerged that all chicken served by Pizza Express is halal – something made clear only on the company's website”. No, it was known about two years ago – and the information is there for anyone who is concerned. But why should there be such interest in animal welfare? What goes on inside abattoirs has in the past been something one doesn’t talk about.

And, while we’re at it, provided the animal is stunned – 90% plus of halal-slaughtered animals are pre-stunned – why the fuss? As the British Retail Consortium rep told the Mail, “As the overwhelming majority of meat sold in UK supermarkets is own brand and from animals that have been stunned prior to slaughter we do not see the requirement to separately label meat based on the method of slaughter”. Quite so.

Why the fuss is explained later on, as readers are told of “A stealthy takeover of Britain's supermarket shelves”, before being introduced to a Halal butcher in a suburb of Birmingham, where animals are not pre-stunned before slaughter. The clear suggestion is that this is what is being served up by Pizza Express, while the reality is that it is not (see RSPCA factsheet on this HERE). And why Halal?

Why so? Those believing, for whatever reason, that this is all about exposing an attempt to force ritually killed food on those who don’t want it – and there is a magnificently batshit example by Brendan O’Neill at the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs right now – need subject the narrative to just one test. Take out “Halal”, and instead insert “Kosher”, which also involves ritual slaughter.

And remove any reference to “Muslim”, in favour of “Jewish”. How would “A stealthy takeover of Britain’s supermarket shelves” play if the target was Jewish? Not even the Daily Mail would go anywhere near it. And that, folks, is why the title of this post includes the word “Islamophobia”. That was the Sun’s game yesterday. It is the Daily Mail’s game today. It is frightening the readers dressed up as animal welfare.

It is the demonising of one religious group for profit. And that’s not good enough.

Toby Young’s Lost Headmasters

I have a confession to make: yesterday’s post, considering the reasons for the West London Free School (WLFS) acquiring an £9.25 million office block, missed one fact. This was not a case of instead of the council-supplied Palingswick House, but in addition to it, as Tom at Boris Watch has pointed out in a post which should be required reading for all studying the machinations of the loathsome Toby Young.

Tobes considers his next glass, er, sorry, move

Moreover, the Cambridge House site currently occupied by the WLFS will have to be retained to house the associated primary school. The capital outlay alone looks set to exceed £20 million. And then there is the question of the suddenly departed Sam Naismith, meaning that WLFS is currently without a head teacher, and will soon be on its third head in three years.

The full circumstances of Naismith’s departure are still, it would seem, subject to an increasingly desperate attempt by Tobes to keep a lid on the whole affair, and one part of it I need more time to stand up, but the word that comes all too readily to my informants – in the cases both of Naismith and his predecessor Thomas Packer – begins with N. That’s N as in Nepotism.

It’s suggested that the key failing with both men was not down to Tobes and the manner in which, as CEO, he manages WLFS, but with themselves. Packer hired a family member as staff. Both departed at the same time – after the end of the 2012-3 school year. Naismith also appears to have hired a family member as staff: thus the presence of a “Miss H Naismith”, who is “subject leader of Girls’ PE and games”.

But Naismith also appointed one Sam Druce, who is not a qualified teacher, although of course Tobes doesn’t consider that pesky “union approved slip of paper” to be necessary. While Druce has some pupil contact – sport once again – his main role is as “PA to the Headmaster”. Yes, as Boris Watch noted, no doubt with eyebrows raised, he is 24 and claims to have been given control of the school’s budget.

My information is that Druce comes into the “friends” part of “family and friends” – the suggestion is that he’s a pal of Naismith. So look out for him moving on before long. As to Miss H Naismith, Tobes asserts that she is not related. But, you may ask, what was the school’s management doing while the appointment of the departed head’s family and friends was taking place?

That, folks, is the $64,000 question. Packer and Naismith may have acted in a less than totally sensible manner, but only because they could. It is down to the CEO of WLFS – that would be you, Tobes – to make sure everything is above board. That also means bearing in mind that it’s our money that is being spent on this enterprise. And WLFS is swallowing rather a lot of it right now.

Meanwhile, my investigations continue. All information gratefully received.

Jo Rowling Triumphs Over Daily Mail

And so it came to pass that the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre and his obedient hackery at the Daily Mail finally caved in and waved the white flag in the general direction of Jo Rowling, about whom they had published a flagrantly libellous article alleging that she had knowingly misrepresented her relationship with fellow churchgoers in an article on the Gingerbread website.

Author holds copy of book (WARNING: this image may cause offence to Daily Mail editors)

As Roy Greenslade has noted over at the deeply subversive Guardian, “The article, published on 27 September 2013, suggested she had falsely accused churchgoers of stigmatising her because she was a single mother. It was headlined ‘How JK's sob story about her single mother past surprised and confused the church members who cared for her’”. It was not the only Mail attack on her.

As I noted a year earlier, Ms Rowling’s book The Casual Vacancy was given the treatment to order by the deeply unpleasant Jan Moir, of Stephen Gately hatchet job infamy. The following day, an article titled “Hypocrisy and the ruthless PR sorcery behind J K Rowling’s invasion of her own privacy” was published, being the Vagina Monologue’s mean-spirited revenge for not giving his paper an interview.

Worse, she had given interviews to “favoured newspapers and broadcasters — namely, the Left-leaning Guardian and the BBC”. So it is not difficult to see that the Mail has been ratcheting up the unpleasantness towards the author for some time. And the reason that the paper went after her was pour encourager les autres – Ms Rowling had appeared before the Leveson Inquiry.

During her testimony before Lord Justice Leveson, she had passed adverse comment on the behaviour of the press, and specifically the tabloid part of it. Her continuing hostility towards such bad behaviour, while easily understood by the general public, meant that Dacre’s boiling anger had to be directed at her, especially as she was not the Daily Mail’s kind of person.

Why so? The Vagina Monologue does not approve of single parents, all the moreso if they openly disapprove of his gofers’ methods. And Ms Rowling has also signed the Hacked Off “Leveson Declaration”. So, despite admitting libel back in January, the Mail dragged its feet as long as it could, even disputing her right to make a statement about the case in court (they lost that one, too).

So today there has been a “clarification” on Page 2. But that’s prominent, isn’t it? You jest. Sun staff will tell you there’s a good reason Page 3 is on Page 3: the eye wanders to the right-hand side of a double page spread, and most readers will miss the item, especially as it’s at the foot of the page. This is what is meant by “burying corrections”. Dacre doesn’t want to world to know that he lost this one.

Jo Rowling had the determination and money to take on the bully. Well done her.

PMQs – Itch-A-Sketch 14

And so we arrive at the weekly face off between Young Dave and Mil The Elder, plus the usual prodding of the PM from the opposition benches, and a few softball grovels from the Tories. What may be on the menu today? Don’t be at all surprised if words like “Pfizer” and “AstraZeneca” get mentioned. So here we go, eyes down and all that.

Long Term Economic Plan. Long Term Economic Plan. Long Term Economic Plan. The Tory back bench record’s stuck. The grovelling questions that come from false aspiration and a little arm-twisting by the Whips’ office are a teensy bit obvious.

Something else that is a teensy bit obvious is that Cameron looks hesitant and distracted. He’s fine on the combative stuff, with the Government benches baying in support, but something is not right. Is he worried about something? Is he unwell? Every so often, Dave seems to trip up over his narrative.

But on to the main event: Miliband splits his attack into rent controls, on which Cameron, to be as consistent as ever, avoids such tiresome things as answering the question.

And then there is, to no surprise at all, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Would Dave use public interest powers, yes or no? Dave was getting stuck in, doing the right thing, backing British jobs. Look at all those car manufacturers!

So he wasn’t answering that question, either.

What was happening was that Speaker Bercow was once again stamping his authority on proceedings. Extra time was played, as indicated when he once again told the House “the question will be heard, and then the answer will be heard, however long it takes”

And just to emphasise that the Speaker is in charge, Cameron got slapped down towards the end of proceedings. Dave might not like that. His pals in the press will like it even less. But the Commons is not the Prime Minister’s plaything.

In the meantime, can’t the Tories get themselves a snappier strapline than “Long Term Economic Plan”? Grating, much?

Oh, and for anyone wanting to see what use it was, once again I suggest they look at the evening’s TV news bulletins: Miliband crafted his interventions to achieve maximum effect when all is stripped down to soundbites. Too many press pundits still have difficulty understanding that.

Super Soaraway Halal Hypocrisy

One subject always good for tabloid outrage is Scary Muslims. Followers of The Prophet are by definition frightening to hacks and pundits: they don’t venture to the Rub-A-Dub and get Elephant’s Trunk and Mozart, the men often wear beards, women often wear headscarves, they pray more than once a day, and of course there is the ritual slaughter of animals for consumption as food.

Yes, your papers, ya bladdy drongo

Strangely, nobody was fussed about something similar being part of Jewish food law: the manner of slaughter is common to both Kosher and Halal food. But as it is practiced by Scary Muslims, suddenly animal welfare is a grave concern, even when it is known that stunning takes place before slitting of the throat – the same stunning that is deemed sufficient for non-Halal slaughter.

But frightening the readers about Scary Muslims sells a few more papers, so today the Murdoch Sun was at it again: “Halal Secret Of Pizza Express” screamed the headline. The well-known chain used Halal chicken! It’s those Scary Muslims again! And it’s been kept secret! Well, actually, no it hasn’t: The Pizza Express Twitter feed was telling that the chain used Halal chicken TWO YEARS AGO.

And both Guardian and Independent ran stories relaying this information LAST YEAR. So the Sun story is not an exclusive, it isn’t a secret, and the only investigative journalism required to confirm the story is to go to the Pizza Express Q&A, where it can also be seen that the chain’s chicken also meets the “5 freedoms on the farm” initiative, backed by the RSPCA.

So far, so cheap and nasty, and so predictable, but there are also rank double standards at work here. The Sun is only running a two-year-old non story for one reason – to stoke prejudice and bigotry. But the same paper is not averse to calling out others for, er, stoking prejudice and bigotry, as could be seen when they laid into UKIP MEP Roger Helmer (yes, the one I discussed yesterday) recently.

Commenting on Helmer’s comparison of disliking certain types of tea to disliking certain sexual orientations, the editorial thundered “Here’s the difference, Mr Helmer: cups of Earl Grey don’t get beaten to death when politicians give morons the idea that homophobia is OK”. Yet it is OK for the Sun to give morons the idea that Scary Muslims are messing with what gets served at Pizza Express.

It is also OK for the Sun to tell readers that “Pizza Express is using only Halal chicken – without telling customers”, when the chain had the information in its Q&A nearly TWO YEARS AGO. Why would they make the claim, other than to provoke a backlash against not only Pizza Express, but also anyone daring to be a follower of The Prophet with malice aforethought?

The Murdoch press: bringing hypocrisy to you for over 40 not very fun filled years.