Don’t Menshn Nick Davies

Nick Davies, who brought us Flat Earth News, the go-to book on the workings of the Fourth Estate, has recently brought out Hack Attack, subtitled “How the truth caught up with Rupert Murdoch”. From this, we can easily deduce that the book concentrates mainly on phone hacking and other less than savoury practices within the Murdoch empire. This Davies does.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

He also notes that the now defunct Screws was not the only title where phone hacking was going on, and names the Mirror titles as also enjoying the benefits of this dubious practice. But, as Hack Attack is now to be made into a film, at the instigation of George Clooney, the press blowback against Davies has begun. Zelo Street has already covered the lame attack by Stephen Glover in the Mail.

And now, responding to Her Master’s Voice, has come Louise Mensch to remind everyone why her no longer being an MP is A Good Thing. “Trinity Mirror admits to systematic phone hacking? I must have missed all their chapters in the fearless [Nick Davies] hacking book” she trilled. “Hack Attack names the Mirror’s private investigators, describes hacking and blagging at Mirror papers” replied Davies.

Yes, he covered that, although, by necessity, most of the book is about the Murdoch press. She was not happy. “Why did you entirely omit the car crash hearing of Myler and Crone before the select committee?” she demanded. Again, Davies had to refresh her memory: “Hack Attack also includes committee finding that Myler and Crone lied”. Mensch 0, Davies 2. Game over.

But Mensch connoisseurs know that this can never be the case, and back she came: “It wholly omits the session in which their testimony about what they told James Murdoch was ripped apart ... what is amusing, if a little sad, is that you do not even have a pretence to objectivity. Simply pretended it never happened”. That last sentence is, to no surprise, totally untrue.

Davies left her with one telling comment: “You’ve fired two shots at me today. Both wrong. Your own objectivity is what’s missing”. And that last sentence is totally correct: objectivity and Louise Mensch do not sit well together. But she couldn’t accept that, and so carried on wibbling: “Your book has no mention of systematic Mirror hacking nor of the Myler/Crone Murdoch session. Dire propaganda”.

If you believe that, you’ll believe anything. The Murdoch Times observed “Yes, Nick, you should be writing books with Louise Mensch in mind as an objective reader”, while Andy Cavster observed “Also there is no dashing hero, no wizards and not a mention of teenage vampires ... what was he thinking?”  But she who deliberately smeared Piers Morgan twice under Parliamentary privilege was by now silent.

Obedient Murdoch toady ends up flat on face. No change there, then.

Fake Sheikh – The Crown Gives Up

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. So said Winshton, as the Second World War turned in the Allies’ favour. A similar sentiment could be expressed after the latest setback for long trusted Murdoch favourite Mazher Mahmood, aka the Fake Sheikh, after the latest prop holding up his credibility was kicked away earlier.

Time was when Maz got his stings in the papers, his targets nicked, and a conviction at the end of it all. Rupe must have loved the extra sales for the Screws, and more recently the Sunday Sun. Then came the first stage of the Fake Sheikh’s downfall, as witnesses were exposed as unreliable, typified by the Victoria Beckham “kidnapping” that never was: the case was thrown out.

But it was this year when the wheels really started to come off his wagon, after Judge Alistair McCreath decided Mahmood had lied to him in order to manipulate the evidence in the Tulisa Contostavlos drugs case. So not only were witnesses being picked off, judges were wise to him. A Police investigation was launched, with the prospect of Mahmood being charged a distinct possibility.

Could it get yet worse? You betcha, says Sarah: in yet another reversal of fortune, the latest Fake Sheikh case has been abandoned, this time before it even came to trial. As Press Gazette has noted, “Leon ‘Starino’ Anderson ... was arrested after The Sun ran an article claiming that he sold £300 worth of cocaine and MDMA ... [he] was due to stand trial for supplying drugs”.

And there’s more: “His alleged co-conspirator, Ashley Gordon, 21, was charged with two counts of possessing just over one gramme of cocaine and one gramme of MDMA.But the case collapsed at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court before Judge Alistair McCreath, who also threw out the case against Contostavlos, after prosecutors said Mahmood was not reliable”.

The prosecution spelled out why: “the position is that Mazher Mahmood gave evidence on two occasions in that [Contostavlos] case which tended to contradict itself ... the position is that the Crown can no longer rely on Mr Mahmood as a witness of truth in this case, and for that reason, I offer no evidence against Mr Gordon on behalf of the Crown”. In other words, Mahmood is likely to lie under oath.

All of that suggests that there is no point bringing forward any more of Mazher Mahmood’s stings, as they invariably rely in part on his evidence, and he’s effectively been called a liar. On top of that are all those past cases where those targeted have made accusations of foul play. The Fake Sheikh can look forward to rather closer attention from the Pollice – and Murdoch to yet more reputational damage.

As Rupe’s pal Maggie once said, “just rejoice at that news”.

Dan Hodges Reaches Peak Whingeing

[Update at end of post]

Among the right-wing carping at Mil The Younger’s conference speech yesterday, that generated by those at the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs scored exceptionally high marks in the stampy tantrum stakes. Stephen Bush called it “funereal”, permanently glum Janet Daley said it was “pretty dismal”, Tim Stanley shouted “resign”, and James Kirkup declared it to have been “flat”.

Hodges supporting the Tories. No change there

Then came the Tel’s blues artiste Whingeing Dan Hodges, who has suffered for his art, and so now it’s your turn. “He had no interest in reaching out beyond his delegates. Instead he delivered a speech designed to move his party painlessly back into its comfort zone” carped the pundit who sulked out of Labour, crossed the floor, embraced Lynton Crosby and backed Bozza.

Sadly, this latest Hodges whingefest was a deliberate hatchet job, and cobbled together without research: where he lets the cat out of the bag is in slagging off Miliband’s talk of Englishness, which “evolved into a roll call of socialist martyrs. The marchers of Cable Street. The unions at Dagenham ... He seemed to be implying the only true Englishman are those carrying Labour Party membership cards”.

And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, whenever you look at accounts of the Dagenham machinists’ strike of 1968, there is no mention of the Labour Party except the intervention of then Employment Secretary Barbara Castle. Hodges cannot get his head round the idea that Trade Union membership might not mean they were Labour members, or even supporters.

Then we come to the Cable Street riots of 1936. These were joined not by the Labour Party, but the Independent Labour Party, which at the time had dis-affiliated from the mainstream party. Moreover, the leader of the anti-fascist forces ranged against Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts was Phil Piratin, a Communist, who was later elected Communist MP for Mile End.

This clear lack of accuracy just underscores that Hodges is not interested in the facts, but kicking Miliband, which has been his obsession more or less since the Labour leadership election. The reality – that, as Mike Smithson of Political Betting has observed, all Miliband’s proposals from that speech enjoy a plurality, if not a majority, of public support – can go hang.

Hodges could do worse than listen to Peter Oborne, who observed “It got panned by political commentators on social media. There is, however, no connection between the response of the chattering classes in London to Mr Miliband's speech and how it will be received in the country at large. Many of his proposals will be greeted with acclaim”. The voters, Dan, live in the real world, not your world.

He might as well join the Tories. He’s already voting for them, after all.

[UPDATE 1830 hours: following Hodges' latest bout of carping, which carried on his usual theme about Labour losing next year's General Election, Mike Smithson of Political Betting suggested he might like to increase the amount of his bet - currently standing at £100 - that the Tories would be the largest party afterwards.

After all, if Hodges is so sure, he might be expected to jump at the chance. Sadly, no man is of perfect courage, and he chickened out. That, folks, shows you the substance of his whinges at Miliband]

Dave Lee Travis – Press Hypocrisy

[Update at end of post]

What a difference eight months makes: in February, when former BBC DJ Dave Lee Travis, charged under his real name, David Griffin, was cleared on twelve charges of sexual assault, the press knew who was to blame: “No halt on the celebrity 'witch-hunt': Scotland Yard will continue Operation Yewtree despite storm of criticism after Dave Lee Travis is cleared of sex crimes” told the Mail.

The Telegraph was similarly unimpressed: “As Dave Lee Travis is cleared, are we seeing justice or a witch-hunt? Jimmy Savile’s legacy of sexual abuse has created a crisis for the police and Crown Prosecution Service”. Yes, the dastardly CPS was the one wot done it. The Tel reminded readers “The previous week it had been Bill Roache, the Coronation Street stalwart”. He got off too.

The Mail made sure readers did not forget about “last year’s failed prosecutions of Coronation Street actors Michael Le Vell and Andrew Lancel” while the Tel asked “Is there a pattern? Has the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) overplayed its hand in an attempt to atone for past failures to nail Savile?” The failures to “nail” Savile, let us not forget, included the collective cowardice of the press.

The Tel put the CPS in the dock: “Cries of 'witch-hunt' have accompanied every acquittal. Even more worrying for the CPS is that they are overseeing a conveyor belt of high-profile alleged offenders arrested by Yewtree and either facing prosecution or currently on bail ... They include Rolf Harris and Max Clifford, the publicist”. But then, Harris and Clifford both got guilty.

And so, yesterday, did DLT, at which point the Mail about turned and forgot its campaign against the CPS. “Dave Lee Travis was facing jail last night after he was convicted of using his ‘Demi-god’ status to molest a young researcher at the BBC. The ‘sleazy’ DJ thought he had a ‘perfect right’ to grope the young woman – who is now a successful TV personality in her own right”.

The Telegraph did likewise: “BBC faces accusations that rumours about Dave Lee Travis's behaviour were ignored ... Dave Lee Travis faces a possible jail sentence after being convicted of Operation Yewtree offence, but questions remain about why the BBC did not act to stop him sooner”. The front page spelled it out: “BBC in dock again over sex case”. And they worked Savile into the picture.

Yes, at first it was poor innocent DLT getting the flak for Savile, but now readers are told that they were all the same, and that the BBC is the one wot done it. And, to add insult to injury, the Mail says it was Travis “who previously branded the case a celebrity witch hunt”. Thus the Fourth Estate avoids criticism of its previous attacks on the CPS, knowing he’s guilty anyway.

As Operation Yewtree continues, there will be more to come. No change there, then.

[UPDATE 1545 hours: As Unity at Ministry of Truth has pointed out, the show that DLT was appearing on at the time he committed the assault for which he got guilty yesterday was produced in Manchester by Granada, which is emphatically not the BBC.

That papers like the Mail and Telegraph choose not to reveal this information, while kicking the Corporation, tells you all you need to know about their agenda]

Guido Fawked – Brown Was In New York

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog were disappointed when the Yes campaign fell short in the Scottish independence referendum: this meant that they had no excuse for kicking Pa Broon, and the “Jonah Curse” meme could not be wheeled out. But then the Labour Party conference came along, and Brown was not there.

That meant the excitement among the Fawkes folks reached a veritable fever pitch: they could kick Mil The Younger and “Auguste” Balls as well. And so it came to pass, as readers were invited to watch “Sons of Brown Blank Forgotten Gordon”. Balls had not phoned his old boss! Maybe Miliband had not phoned him either? What the heck, make the assumption and put the boot in!

Such was the gleeful mood at the domain of The Great Guido that one teensy detail was left behind: a little something called research, that invocation of the mystic art known as “five minutes’ Googling”. So the Fawkes rabble signed off their snarky essay with “The poor old Prime Mentalist is nowhere to be seen in Manchester”, without thinking that there might be a good reason why.

So where is Gordon Brown?

And guess what – there was indeed a good reason why. Gordon Brown is not only an MP, he is also the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for education, a post to which he was appointed in July 2012. Perhaps Staines and his pals were otherwise engaged when the announcement was made (Zelo Street was indeed handing him his arse on a plate at the time – see HERE and HERE).

Brown’s role as a UN Special Envoy involves his attendance at events such as the one yesterday at New York University, part of the Up For School series which is promoting getting all the world’s children into school. He was joined on stage by Ban Ki-moon and Graça Machel among others. Along with wife Sarah, he also attended the New York Peoples Climate March event.

Oh look - a few minutes' research!

All of which illustrates that Pa Broon is a busier fellow than The Great Guido wants to give him credit for – and why he was not at the Labour conference. Far from being “blanked” or otherwise unwanted, Brown is in great demand, unlike Staines, whose principal demand comes from those running the nearest Rub-A-Dub, who profit from his becoming Elephant’s Trunk And Mozart.

So that’s another lame attack fallen flat on its arse. Another fine mess, once again.

Save The Planet – Burn Fossil Fuel

While the Labour faithful are anticipating today’s keynote speech by Mil The Younger, Young Dave has piled off to New York, where he is to address a United Nations (UN) summit on tackling global warming. This phenomenon is agreed by the vast majority of climate scientists to be a direct result of increased carbon emissions, which in turn follow from the burning of fossil fuels.

So what will Cameron be telling the long-suffering Ban Ki-moon and his fellow delegates? Perversely, and most likely with a straight face, Dave will be jolly well telling all these foreign chappies that we in the UK will be tackling global warming by, er, creating a shed load more of it. You read that right: as the Tory Party’s house journal, the Maily Telegraph has told, he wants to exploit shale gas reserves.

He’s even brought along his latest bullshit soundbite, as the Tel tells: “Shale gas can be part of the solution to tackling climate change and must not be restricted by ‘green tape’”. Yes, we must save the planet by disturbing its surface and then burning the end product. This is so Orwellian, it could have come straight out of the Ministry of Truth in 1984. The Tel, it goes without saying, is all in favour.

What the paper also fails to question is that Cameron is lumping together fracking for shale gas with nuclear power, asserting that countries “should also be free to pursue technologies such as shale gas, which is extracted by fracking, and nuclear power without restriction”, which is plain daft. Whatever the longer-term problems with decommissioning, nuclear emits zero carbon during generation.

And the scheme for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset has now received the seal of approval from the European Commission – the level of perceived subsidy had been a source of concern because of EU state aid rules – so new nuclear capacity will go ahead regardless of what happens with shale gas. The connection of the two by Cameron is disingenuous.

Meanwhile, 10 Downing Street is maintaining the Orwell-speak: “We’ve got further to go in terms of explaining how tackling climate change isn’t simply a green policy, it’s a growth policy. If you’re going to get the world’s biggest economies to stick to the 2C target, you’ve got to be serious about cutting green tape and creating green jobs”. This is also, by definition, doublespeak.

“Green tape” was preventing exploitation of shale gas, which is definitely not green. But it was now getting in the way of creating green jobs, which means the Government is facing both ways. And the fig-leaf being deployed to justify fracking is that shale gas will reduce the use of coal, not that Dave is about to give us anything like an assurance on that. The whole thing makes zero sense.

Still, it’s only meant to get Dave through another seven months. Mustn’t grumble.

English Question – Oborne On The Money

What did I tell you? On Sunday, and again yesterday, Zelo Street told readers that the much-hyped “English Votes for English Laws” story that has been gratefully recycled by the right-leaning part of the press was an exercise in the most cynical and shameless politicking by the Tories, as a way of deflecting attention from their having to be pulled out of the mire by Labour over Scotland’s devolution vote.

I say, you there, Security chappie! Eject that ghastly oik Oborne, will you? And before he asks one of his pesky questions!

That the move had not been thought through by either those feeding it to the press, or those writing it up, was in the realm of the bleeding obvious, as Jack of Kent pointed out (see my post yesterday). Parliament could not be supreme and sovereign, and at the same time a little bit less than that if the MPs sitting there were representing Scottish, or Welsh, seats.

That this was a cheap and cynical slice of opportunism has now been confirmed by the Telegraph’s Peter Oborne, who is, for the Tories, the worst kind of critic: someone of generally Conservative, but clear, thought, and with a tendency to call out bullshit rather than remain meekly on-message. Oborne has rightly identified “a sordid plot to stitch up the Labour Party”.

“The story is damaging for the Prime Minister because it undermines the idea that he is a British patriot who supports the union, and makes him look instead like a worthless political schemer”, observes Oborne. He goes on “I don’t know whether Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s Director of Communications, was the ... source. But I am afraid he must be held responsible for putting the story in the press”.

Why Young Dave and his pal Gideon George Oliver Osborne, heir to the seventeenth Baronet, would do this is clear. “As one Downing Street source says: ‘It appeals to the Chancellor on every level’”. And, at a stroke, it cleans from Cameron the taint of his having to be saved by Pa Broon, whom he so clearly detests. Oborne has bad news for Oliver: “[his] plan has backfired”. Why so?

“There is indeed a case for reshaping the way that England is governed along the lines Osborne and Cameron decided over their Downing Street supper. But it is important it is not done as part of some squalid, partisan, political calculation. Messing around with the Constitution needs time and consideration, with all parties (including Labour) very much involved. Ed Miliband is absolutely right about this”.

Cameron is said to have entertained a number of his MPs at Chequers recently, the motivation being to frame the “English Votes for English Laws” legislation. It won’t work. He doesn’t command a Parliamentary majority, and in the meantime the holes in his argument will open up and the whole thing fall apart. Cameron and Osborne have pulled a populist fast one once too often.

Peter Oborne is on the money once more. Pity many other pundits aren’t.

Everyday Labour Conference Sexism

Party conferences give the press an excellent opportunity to actually do some real reporting. Sadly, very little of this takes place: instead, the hacks and pundits tend to project what they think will attract or repel their readers (depending on the political stance of the paper concerned) onto the participants. Additionally, the Labour conference allows antediluvian right-wingers to show they’re past their sell-by date.

What's f***ing wrong with leering at a few girlies, c***?!? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

This is typified by a combination of patronising, leering objectification and sexist behaviour directed towards all women who have the audacity to voice views that may be interpreted as being to the left of those that the press have decided they should hold. It is then backed up by those of the premature dinosaur tendency, such as the odious Quentin Letts (let’s not).

So today’s speech by Gloria de Piero, who speaks on equality for Labour, was not only fraudulently misrepresented (monitoring staff backgrounds translated as “She aims to cut the number of privately educated people in public sector”, for instance), but used as an excuse to publish several photos of her, discuss her clothes, and insist on calling someone who is 41 years old “Miss”.

What message is being sent to readers? Is there a reasoned and thoughtful analysis of Ms de Piero’s speech? As if you need to ask: the most important thing as far as the Mail is concerned is to tell “Showstopper: In a sleeveless two-tone shift dress and strappy wedge heels former GMTV presenter Gloria De Piero gesticulated passionately during her speech to the Labour party conference in Manchester”.

So she was On Telly once. So was Esther McVey, and in a rare case of equal treatment, that’s one particular Tory MP who will probably get the same kind of crap next week in Birmingham. Elsewhere, the appalling Letts has decided to patronise Justine Thornton, because she is married to Mil The Younger: “Justine gazed at her beau, fragrant...but baffled”. Yes, she’s just the little woman, eh Quent?

And there was more: “Glam Angela Eagle, shadow leader of the Commons, rose to her hams and said that the Coalition Government was ‘hell bent on dismantling all of the NHS bit by bit’. I don’t suppose even Sister Eagle believes that for a minute. It was crazed, desperate exaggeration, the sort of thing you expect from student Trots, not from a senior MP who hopes to be in the Cabinet in eight months”

Quent believes that only feminists refer to women as women (rather than “ladies”, his preferred 1970s style), and to finish, he too had a kick at Ms de Piero: “Frontbencher Gloria De Piero was aghast that more MPs had not been manual workers. Her own former occupation: Breakfast TV cutie”. Tomorrow: Littlejohn will describe them all as “dopey birds” and claim he’s only saying what his readers are thinking.

Objectification, sexism, misogyny – yes, it’s all happening in the Daily Mail.

Hilary Mantel Thatcher Blowback

Author Hilary Mantel has won the Man Booker prize twice. She has been made a Dame for services to literature. And she has recently become a favourite target for that part of the press that likes to go into why-oh-why mode as a means of frightening readers (who will generally be upstanding, hard-working and conservative) and thereby boosting sales.

The event that set this process in train was a lecture given at the British Museum, where Ms Mantel talked of how the press gave a particular impression of the Duchess of Cambridge. The conclusion – urging that they shouldn’t be so beastly to Kate – underscored this. But, for the Daily Mail, this was a heaven-sent opportunity to paint the author as a part of the “out of touch metropolitan elite” (tm).

So what Ms Mantel had attributed to the press treatment of the Duchess was asserted to be her own view. Twitter was trawled extensively to find those of like mind. Young Dave allowed himself to be outraged, along with those all-important Daily Mail Readers with whom the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre enjoys his daily “conversation”. It set the template for the future.

And so it came to pass: Ms Mantel has penned a collection of short stories, one of which is an alternative reading of recent history called The Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983. It is clearly a work of fiction. Yet the Mail, once again, has exploded in faux outrage, lining up The Usual Suspects to heap condemnation on Ms Mantel – and, of course, the Guardian for publishing it.

The line-up of critics is as predictable as it is laughable: Tim Bell, attempting to occupy the moral high ground despite being caught openly, er, stimulating himself by hand in full view of passers-by, wants the Police to waste their time doing some kind of investigation. Tory MP Conor Burns, a professional nonentity who once met Mrs T, wibbled about “the disordered psyche of some on the left”.

Yes, you don’t like what they say, they must be part of “the left”. Another Tory back bencher destined to remain one, Nadine Dorries, worried that “It is about a character whose demise is so recent”. And the Mail ordered Stephen “Miserable Git” Glover to suggest that Ms Mantel is trying to legitimise assassination of political leaders that “the left” do not like, which she is not.

Glover also dishonestly suggests that “the left” would be in uproar if this kind of thing had been written about the likes of Michael Foot and Tony Benn. He forgets the outpouring of right-wing hatred and bile that accompanied Foot’s death, and was then replicated when Benn passed, which is interesting, because much of the nastiness was in the same paper for which he is now writing.

Meanwhile, Hilary Mantel has done nothing wrong. Read her short story HERE.

English Votes For Clueless Pundits

If anyone needed a demonstration of the way in which factual and rational discussion is shamelessly replaced by partisan politics in the right-leaning part of the Fourth Estate, the frankly pathetic attempts by some pundits to frame the “English Home Rule” question will satisfy their curiosity. To pontificate in the press, one need not know anything about what is involved. All that is needed is rabid bluster.

Hey - that looks like a policy over there!

“Ed refuses to back English home rule 13 times!” howls the Mail. The Telegraph asserts “Miliband cornered over home rule”, while the Murdoch Times claims “Cameron wants vote on English home rule”. This is frightfully good stuff chaps, but when is someone going to define “English home rule” when we are part of something called the United Kingdom?

Perhaps they mean a devolution of powers in line with what has been transferred, and promised, to Scotland? But some of those powers (not all, though) have also been transferred to the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff. So what’s with the emphasis on Scottish MPs? And some powers, for instance, have been devolved to City Hall in London. Do London MPs get shut out, too?

Even the narrative is inept: the Mail talks of “David Cameron’s proposal for ‘home rule’ for England”, and the Telegraph “plans set out by the Prime Minister for ‘home rule’ in England”. THERE ARE NO PLANS OR PROPOSALS. As a result, no decision has been taken on what powers will be devolved where. “English home rule” exists at present only as a device for Cameron to gain political advantage.

You think I jest? Consider what legal commentator Jack of Kent has had to say on the affair: “Enjoying watching those who support ‘supremacy of Parliament’ now trying to limit powers of some MPs with ‘English votes for English laws’ ... It appears Parliament is ‘sovereign’ and ‘supreme’ unless you are a Scottish MP, when somehow it isn’t ... Good constitutional logic there”.

He went on “Either Parliament is ‘supreme’ or it is not; and, if it is, Scottish MPs can vote on what they want just like English and Welsh MPs can ... Parliamentary supremacy must mean all MPs are equal. But ‘English votes for English laws’ means some MPs will be more equal than others”. In other words, Cameron’s supposed proposals are going nowhere. They are just a way of kicking Labour.

The way in which the right-wing press is misleading its readers – probably because its hacks and pundits can’t grasp the issues themselves – is as shameless as it is deliberate. And why this should be is clear: Labour saved Cameron’s skin on the Scotland vote, and the idea that Miliband could gain popularity and inch closer to 10 Downing Street as a result is scaring the press shitless.

So expect more of this crashingly inept punditry for the next eight months.

Football Racism – Sadly Still Alive

[Update at end of post]

We are told that the days when black players were subjected to the taunt of “monkey”, and “fans” did monkey impressions and threw bananas at them, are in the past, or at least confined to Italy. Here in England, we have accepted teams that reflect a multiracial and multicultural background, and can be assured that all that gratuitous racism is a thing of the past.

Well, have I got news for you: when Mario Balotelli, formerly of Inter Milan, Man City, A C Milan and now at Liverpool, took to Twitter to show his amusement at Man United’s defeat at Leicester this afternoon, all hell broke loose and the striker was subjected to a veritable tsunami of racist bile. There was screen after screen of it: one did not have to go looking very far.

Just filtering the abuse on the word “monkey” produced hundreds of Tweets. Many were grammatically and linguistically inept; this did not stop some using terms such as “retard” in addition. There were banana and jungle references.

Also in abundance were variants on the N-word, along with MF and “bitch”. The more creative abusers included banana graphics. Occasionally there was a reply pointing out the racism. This did not stem the tide.

Along the way, derogatory references to Balotelli’s family history were posted. Others made references to hygiene. The player was accused of being a Scouser (er, no) and there were generous applications of the F-word.

One “fan” considered that it was not Balotelli’s business to pass an opinion, while another worked the word “dog” into a Tweet. Another gave the impression they used to watch Love Thy Neighbour. The obligatory Napoli reference was included.

On and on flowed the tide of, one has to say it, filth. This included references to sexual violence and a variety of body parts and extremities. As Retweets of Balotelli’s brief Tweet piled up, so did the abuse.

And what came clear was that none of those dispensing the abuse seemed in the least bit concerned. Now, no-one wants to see social media censored, but this is verging on the totally inexcusable. It’s blindingly obvious that racism in and around football has not been stamped out – it’s just been driven out of the grounds, and away from the buses, coaches and trains, into peoples’ homes.

What Mario Balotelli was subjected to was bang out of order. Full stop, end of story.

[UPDATE 2040 hours: the Echo has reported that Merseyside Police have begun an investigation into the slew of abusive Twitter comments directed at Mario Balotelli.

As a result, I have contacted them and made available the Twitter extracts used on this blog post. There is no place for this kind of behaviour, not just in and around football, but anywhere. Full stop, end of story]

English Home Rule – Hello Lynton

The leaders of the largest Parliamentary parties invested significant credibility in their “vow” to the Scottish people: there would be more powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament in the event of a No vote. Now they have to deliver, and one of them has a problem: Young Dave has many unhappy back-benchers to placate, and he needs to counter the impression that Labour pulled him out of a hole.

So it should surprise no-one to see the right-leaning part of the Fourth Estate banging on about “home rule for England”, that MPs representing Scottish constituencies can be easily prevented from voting on purely English issues, and that all of this is “fair”. This looks to have the paw prints of somebody’s crudely populist Aussie spinner all over it, and it’s going to unravel in short order.

More powers for Scotland will indeed create an imbalance with the rest of the UK. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the idea that devolution for England can be tied to the same timescale as the already tight one for Scotland is absurd: it falls apart on the very first point, which is to ask to whom those powers will be devolved. There isn’t a mechanism for doing that.

Now look at the reality: for Scotland, and indeed, with very little change, for Wales, there is already a body in place to take on those powers, and a process in place for their transfer. For England, not only is there no process in place, there is no body, and no agreement as to what form the body or bodies should take, or what parts of the country they should represent.

What are we talking here? Regions? Cities? City regions (like Merseyside and Greater Manchester – in other words, the areas covered by the metropolitan counties whose authorities were abolished by Mrs T, partly because they all returned Labour majority administrations)? Is Cameron suggesting this conversation can be had, a result agreed, and bodies set up, in the next few weeks?

Is he buggery. To devolve powers in England to the same timetable as that which will be required to fulfil the promise – yes, promise – made to the Scots is not even remotely feasible, except in the minds of press owners, editors and pundits who are either sympathetic to the Tories, who just go with the herd, or who are generally so credulous as not to subject this drivel to a basic reality check.

What we have here is opportunist spin, nothing more. Someone behind the scenes is deploying his dog-whistle, and that someone is not Cameron, and nor is it any other member of his Cabinet. This particular stick of rock appears to have Lynton Crosby running through it. It is cheap, it is crass, it is pointless, and to call it unhelpful in the extreme would be to exercise just a little too much restraint.

“English Home Rule”? That’s what the papers print when the Tories don’t have any.

Christopher Booker Is Unwell

When it comes to the debate on Europe, one constant is the stance taken by Christopher Booker. Whatever comes out of the EU is A Very Bad Thing, is to be vigorously opposed, and is proof of whatever doom-laden prediction he made all those years ago when Sailor Heath was Prime Minister. We can, he has made no secret in telling, do fine without the EU.

Can this be the same man?

Indeed, he has told repeatedly (see HERE and HERE) how the UK can enjoy just as much influence outside the EU, his contention usually being spun around membership of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). Thus he has given the Eurosceptics a touchstone: not for nothing does James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole refer to him as “The mighty Booker”.

But now, the mighty rock that was Booker appears to be cracking, although this will, as with all extreme weather events, have nothing at all to do with climate change, honestly. The Great Man has not only begun to agree with what the EU is doing, he is also pouring scorn on the Eurosceptics’ supposedly solid case for life outside the club, comparing them unfavourably with Alex Salmond.

“I’m afraid all that hyper-ventilating about how Brussels is trying to save the planet by ‘banning’ our vacuum cleaners misses the point ... In fact, there is no ‘ban’ on powerful vacuums ... What Brussels is doing, under its Ecodesign Directive 2009/125, is to encourage manufacturers to develop appliances that require less electricity to produce a much more efficient performance” he asserted.

Yes, while the Daily Mail was encouraging its readers to buy up stocks of otherwise unwanted vacuum cleaners, Booker was supportive of the new rules. OK, he did have a get-out clause: “Brussels is following moves in the US to reduce electricity demand by switching to appliances that are much more efficient”. But he was supporting the new standards. And, as the man said, there’s more.

The Yes campaign failed to carry the Scottish referendum because they “so obviously didn’t have a plausible ‘exit plan’ to convince voters that an independent Scotland could prosper ... But we can see exactly the same fatal flaw in all those who clamour for Britain to leave the EU”. Wait, what?

He meant it: “A properly worked out case to show how Britain could indeed thrive outside the EU (and still have full access to its single market) has no more been put by the Eurosceptics than Mr Salmond could explain how Scotland might happily survive outside the UK”. The greatest Eurosceptic pundit of all says that his own side doesn’t have a plan. He even calls much of their literature “half-baked”.

Christopher Booker must be unwell – or someone has provided him with a serious dose of reality therapy. What will Del Boy think? Will he think? Probably not.

Top Six – September 21

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 outdoor stuff to do later. So there.

6 Guido Fawked – Brown Speech Ignored The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble said not a word about Pa Broon’s intervention in the Scottish independence debate. And they would only have done so had the Yes campaign won.

5 Scotland – NHS Sting In The Tail Alex Salmond and his pals – plus most of the press – were left flat-footed as the BBC had news of an impending NHS funding shortfall in Scotland leaked to them.

4 Dan Hodges Confuses Himself As the No campaign, backed by Mil The Younger, prevailed in Scotland, Hodges tried to explain why this was yet another of his imaginary Disaster For Flailing Miliband moments.

3 Yes It’s No The No campaign carried the Scottish referendum vote, and straight away an ungrateful David Cameron misjudged the mood by not thanking Pa Broon for saving his bacon.

2 Fake Sheikh – The Net Closes Another Mazher Mahmood related trial collapses, another chipping away at the myth. The Fake Sheikh’s past may be about to catch up with him.

1 Don’t Menshn The Scottish U-Turn She supported the Yes campaign, but then Creepy Uncle Rupe wavered. So Louise Mensch supported the No campaign instead. And remember, someone allowed her to become an MP.

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

Delingpole – He Knows All About Wind

Over at the batshit collective that is Breitbart London, James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole is stuck for rotten greenies to censure, so much so that he has been forced to dig out an opinion piece from Mexico and then claim that what happens in that country applies equally all over the world. Del Boy starts with his sights set low, and soon hits bedrock.

"Gay marriage" ... "Global warming" ... "Eco crucifixes" ... "Red meat conservatism" ... "Blatant invention" ... "Desperate click-bait"

“A Mexican ecologist has blown the whistle on the corruption, lies and incompetence of the wind industry - and on the massive environmental damage it causes in the name of saving the planet” tells Del, citing “Patricia Mora, a research professor in coastal ecology and fisheries science at the National Institute of Technology in Mexico” (you can read the actual interview HERE).

She talks of “absolute corruption”, and of environmental impact assessments being distorted, made up, or otherwise fiddled, but it is also clear that much of this is down to Ms Mora’s opinion: the effect of sound waves from wind turbines, on which she says there is “abundant” information, is often exaggerated. Delingpole knows all about that – he is one of the most able exaggerators.

And corruption in Mexico is part of the way of life there: “corruption pervades nearly all levels of Mexico's government and society, according to the US Department of State. It is also important for companies to note that the degrees and types of corruption that companies encounter in Mexico vary significantly between the federal, state and municipal levels”. There’s more.

“Organised crime continues to be a very problematic factor for doing business in Mexico and imposes large costs on businesses. Collusion between public officials and drug criminals is not uncommon in the country, and officials have been found accepting bribes from drug cartels in return for information”. Nobody wanting to retain their credibility will pretend that the same happens in this country.

So what does Del Boy do? As if you need to ask: “Though Professor Mora is talking specifically about Mexico, what she says applies equally well to supposedly more transparent democracies such as Britain, Australia, the US, Canada and Denmark. The wind industry is necessarily one of the most corrupt enterprises on earth ... Without crony capitalism, the wind industry simply would not exist”.

And now he’s got the air quotes ready, so ends with a sneering flourish: “As I can personally testify from a decade spent covering this scandal, there are few forms of life on the planet lower than those parasites who make their fortune out of bird-chomping, bat-slicing eco-crucifixes”. Yes Del, as opposed to those who make their fortune out of inventing mainly untrue stories about them.

This is blatant false equivalence. So pretty mild stuff for the Breitbart bigots, then.

Tim Montgomerie – Ungrateful Clown

There is no finer example of grovelling as a means of career advancement than the rise of the serially clueless Tim Montgomerie, formerly of Conservative Home, through the ranks at the allegedly upmarket Times, which, since Creepy Uncle Rupe got his hands on it all those years ago, has ceased to be a paper of record. To this can now be added a streak of ungratefulness.

Monty made his name in both the right and wrong ways when he told, in a piece for Comment Is Free, that “Rupert Murdoch has been an overwhelming force for good in this country's life and politics”, which was bullshit, but at least it was career-enhancing bullshit: before long, Monty had been plucked from ConHome and made Comment Editor of the Times.

In the same piece, he opined that Phonehackgate was “a desperate attempt by Labour to get revenge for the ousting of Damian McBride who, while working in Downing Street, conspired to circulate false smears against Conservative politicians. The Labour machine's attempt to drag others into the gutter with Team Brown is as ugly as it is transparent”. This was bullshit, full stop.

But the Guardian willingly and tolerantly gave Monty a platform for his opinion pieces (see also HERE, HERE and HERE), contrary to the right-wing meme that holds, generally, that the paper is a hotbed of rotten lefties. This, though, counted for nothing as Montgomerie, now raised to the giddy heights of leader writer, put the boot into Alan Rusbridger and his team over today’s paper.

“Ladies and Gentlemen – Today’s Guardian” he told. With a short story by Hilary Mantel (that means someone who is fair game for a kicking, as pioneered by the Mail) about someone assassinating Mrs T. An alternate reality for recent history, and remember, someone did try to kill her. But all context is forgotten: this is a mission to get payback on the paper that did for the Screws (allegedly).

“[I] don’t want [the] publication banned but it’s my free speech to point out the hate and obsession” he told in explanation. It’s fiction, Monty, nothing more. But he was off in full Murdoch-grovel mode: “Further to previous Tweet, Mantel’s words about Mrs Thatcher so full of hate. Really disappointed Guardian chose to promote it in way it did”. He truly hates the gratuitous kicking he’s dishing out.

In any case, undecided people, it’s about “taste”, and not, as might be thought by some, that Monty wouldn’t have said boo if the subject had been a Labour politician. It’s fiction, and from an award-winning author. But that does not get in the way of Monty hearing His Master’s Voice and laying into the paper that gave him a platform when he was rather less well known.

What profit a pundit that he gain the Rupegeld, and lose his soul?