Breitbart Bullshit Bubble Bursts

There is no finer example of the Alt-Right’s attempt to carve out its own alternative reality than the convocation of the terminally batshit otherwise known as Breitbart, which in the UK means the presence of such luminaries as Raheem “call me Ray” Kassam and of course James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole. Climate change? Not happening. Terror? All down to Scary Muslims (tm).

Along with this comes fawning support of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, and the likes of Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, plus the sneering, triumphalist dismissal of anyone and everyone of differing view. So it was that Breitbart told last year “Left-Wing New Media Bubble Bursting”. The prime target was BuzzFeed News, but “From Gawker to Salon to the Huffington Post, they all seem to be in trouble”. Sad!

But Breitbart was successful: “Breitbart News smashed company traffic records in July, generating 192 million pageviews, 31 million unique visitors, and 89 million sessions. Last month’s metrics pushed the conservative news giant to over one billion pageviews so far in 2016–a 28% jump in 30 days from last month’s previous record high … A core driver of Breitbart’s growth remains its commitment to delivering content in myriad formats that give news consumers what they want, when they want, and how they want” they claimed.

By last month, Breitbart was even attacking Facebook: “In a post on Medium, Tribune deputy editor Kurt Gessler revealed that the paper had seen a rapid decline in its median Facebook organic post reach after November, with the number of articles being read by fewer than 10,000 readers ‘skyrocketing’ according to Gessler’s analysis of the data”.

But at the end of last year, as Zelo Street noted at the time, advertisers were signalling their distaste at the incessant outpouring of hatred coming out of Breitbart, and by mid-February, a thousand ad deals had upped sticks and left. Towards the end of the month, that figure had increased to 1,250. And now traffic is deserting Breitbart in droves.

As Vanity Fair has told, “As of May 26, 2017, according to alexa.com - the same web-ranking analytics company that Breitbart drew its numbers from in January - Fox News is the 64th most-trafficked site in the country. Huffington Post is at 60. Buzzfeed is at 50. The Washington Post, on the strength of a series of eye-popping scoops, is at 41 … Breitbart is in 281st place”. It had been ranked as high as 29th place.

What happened? Simples. When the Trump presidency began to hit trouble, Breitbart tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. The same problem hit Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), which has lost viewers: people know that Trump is in the mire, so if they aren’t going to get the story from Fox, they’ll switch to CNN or MSNBC.

And the Breitbart campaign to get readers to boycott companies that won’t advertise with them? That’s been a failure, too. With this level of success, Breitbart will be heading for the obscurity it so richly deserves. Hopefully that will include the demise of Delingpole and Kassam. It couldn’t happen to two more deserving useful idiots.

Corbyn On Terror - Press Out Of Touch

The speech given yesterday morning by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, where he linked the UK’s adventures abroad - mainly Iraq, but also bombing in Libya and Syria - to the heightened risk of home-grown terrorism, has predictably set the Tories off on the mother of all displays of righteousness. How dare this ghastly socialist chappie tell us that it’s all our fault? Except he didn’t say that, and the public sees it differently.

What the Tories have clearly decided to do in response to Corbyn’s speech is to tell anyone who will listen what they say he said, even though it may not actually bear any relation to the Labour leader’s words or meaning. So the increasingly downmarket and desperate Telegraph has told readers “Corbyn is making excuses for terror attacks, says May … Furious PM accuses Labour leader of justifying atrocities by linking them to British foreign policy”. He didn’t say that, either. But you get the drift.

This line of instant condemnation had clearly been handed down from on high, and had some unintentionally hilarious results, such as Michael Fallon being quoted a speech by Channel 4 News host Krishnan Guru-Murthy which the Tories’ dead cat deployer in chief instantly denounced, before being informed it had been made by Boris Johnson.

More reliably for the Tories, the Mail has also weighed in against Jezza, claiming “Theresa May lashed out at Jeremy Corbyn tonight for making 'excuses' for terrorists after he linked UK foreign policy to the Manchester bombing … The Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of saying terror attacks are 'our own fault' and condemned him for delivering the controversial speech just four days after the atrocity”.

But when she says “There can be no excuse for terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester”, Corbyn would most likely agree with her, indeed, he was careful to stress “The blame is with the terrorists”. He also said “But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working”.

And there was bad news for the Tories and their cheerleaders: they are significantly out of touch with public opinion on this issue. YouGov yesterday asked this question: “In a speech today, Jeremy Corbyn will address ‘the connections between wars our Government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home’. Do you believe that wars that the UK has supported or fought are or are not in part responsible for terror attacks against the UK?”

The response was to show 53% of those expressing an opinion agreed that those wars had, at least in part, been responsible for terror attacks against the UK, with 24% disagreeing. 23% of respondents did not express an opinion either way.

So by a majority of more than two to one, the public appears to side with Corbyn, not Theresa May. And then doubling down by saying Jezza said something he didn’t will only increase voter distrust and cynicism - but only towards the Tories.

The imperial progress of the great Empress Theresa isn’t going too well. I wonder why.

Uber London On The Way Out

Where London leads on the game-changing public transport decisions, the rest of the UK invariably takes note and ultimately follows suit. It was the decision by the newly-formed London Transport in the 1930s to abandon tramways that sealed the fate of big city tram operations after World War 2. Many cities replaced trams with trolleybuses; when London threw in the towel there in the early 1960s, that was the end for that technology, too.

These major precedents may not yet be weighing on the mind of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his fellow modern-day transportation robber barons, but the decision this week by Transport for London not to wave through a renewal of Uber’s five-year operator’s license really does mean that the tide may have finally turned. The new Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has not been afraid to make the tough decisions which his predecessor ducked.

Under the occasional presence of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, wasteful vanity projects such as the Cable Car, all those buses that are not Routemasters, and of course the Garden Bridge, were waved through. Not any more: Khan has effectively killed off the Garden Bridge fiasco, and now Uber has been given a renewal of its license - but only for four months. And it may not be renewed beyond that point.

While TfL has told “Uber London Limited has been granted a four-month private hire operator licence. This will allow us to conclude our consideration of a five-year licence”, the Guardian noted “Another factor in TfL’s deliberations is its consultation into private hire vehicles. The proposals could see the licence fees for Uber and other large private hire operators rise dramatically, from about £3,000 over a five-year period to more than £2m”.

This would be peanuts for Uber, which has a war chest measured in the billions of dollars, but their operations are losing money at a worrying rate. If they have to devote more resources to ensuring the health and safety of drivers and riders, and also treat their drivers like employees, those losses could multiply.

On top of that, many Uber drivers are not even managing to bring in the minimum wage, often meaning this apparently private enterprise is being subsidised indirectly by the state through tax credits and other benefits. That is not good enough.

Worse, Uber’s weasel words - “Millions of Londoners rely on Uber to get a reliable ride at the touch of a button and thousands of licensed drivers make money through our app. We look forward to continuing to help keep London moving” - are jaw-dropping dishonesty. The over-supply of private hire vehicles within the capital, which is mainly down to Uber, is clogging up already congested roads and slowing traffic to a crawl.

Uber never was about technology. It was about driving out established taxi and private hire providers and replacing them with a monopoly that can then be used to screw over the travelling public. As such, it belongs in the same place as all the other unsuccessful such attempts - in the dustbin of history. TfL may just have helped it on its way.

Uber’s media cheerleaders have fallen silent. And as losses mount, regulators and Governments are finally acting. The brief age of Uber was for a time, but not for all time.

Tommy Robinson Escapes Jail

For those at Rebel Media, which isn’t a far-right media outlet, honestly, the succession of alleged exposés led by former EDL head man Tommy Robinson and featuring his pet creep Caolan Robertson came to a shuddering halt outside Canterbury Crown Court recently when Robinson and his pal turned up seeking to put some of their polite questions to four men standing trial for the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl.

Tommy Robinson ...

These, Robinson had already concluded, were “Muslim Paedos”. The repeated assertion - Robertson also made the claim - that the four were already guilty was in retrospect not a wise move. It may have been a contributory factor in Robinson being subsequently arrested in a dawn raid at his home in the Luton area, taken to Kent, and then bailed on charges of contempt of court. Robinson returned to court on Monday.

This time the former EDL man had donned a suit and tie, and there had been plenty of advance publicity suggesting he was the victim in all of this. A photo showing him “behind bars”, and with the caption “SAVE TOMMY”, had been widely distributed. The thought that it would have been easier for him and his side-kick to learn the basics of the contempt law, and then abide by its provisions, was not allowed to enter.

Now, thanks to the people at Kent Live, we know what happened on Monday afternoon, when Caolan Robertson made great play of his pal Tommy being freed after his court appearance and going home to his family. The reality is that he had pleaded guilty to contempt of court charges - he had little option, given he was caught in the act trying to film within a court building, in violation of signage telling him it was forbidden.

As Kent Live explains, “He was looking to photograph or confront the defendants who included a juvenile which is against the Contempt of Court Act of 1925 - which makes it illegal to photograph witnesses, defendants or jurors within the court precincts”.

... and friends (Caolan Robertson at centre right)

And his excuse? You’ll love this: “Robinson claimed he had only been working for an internet TV company for six weeks and hadn't been taught media law”. A big boy did it and ran away. He could have been arguing in his spare time.

Judge Heather Norton was unimpressed: “Your intention beyond any doubt was to film the defendants but you were not able to do so … This was a deliberate action on your part … Your intention was to seek out the defendants. It is abundantly clear you were on a mission to film the defendants.This is not about free speech or freedom of the press, legitimate journalism or political correctness”. And it got worse - a lot worse.

“This is about justice. It is about being innocent until proven guilty … I find clear evidence of contempt. I take a dim view of your actions. If you commit further offences this sentence will be activated”. That sentence was three months in jail, suspended for 18 months.

His lawyer claimed the Scary Muslims (tm) were out to get him: “He is a marked man. This is not fanciful. He will be put in jeopardy if he goes to prison. Today could be a life changing event”. Well, there’s a straightforward remedy for that.

And that’s to stay the right side of the law. Like most of the rest of us do.

New Corbyn Terror Smear BUSTED

As hostilities resume in the General Election campaign, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has wisely decided to take the initiative on a subject which might just be at the top of many floating voters’ agendas: keeping people and communities safe and secure in the face of a variety of threats, especially that posed by terrorists. Needless to say, this has resulted in Tories and their cheerleaders tutting and sneering. But Jezza does have a point.

Here’s what he said: “An informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people. That fights rather than fuels terrorism … many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed out the connections between wars that we have been involved in, or supported, or fought, in other countries and terrorism here at home”.

There was more. “That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and implacably held to account for their actions … The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security … We must be brave enough to admit the 'war on terror' is simply not working”. He also said “Do not doubt my determination to take whatever action is necessary to keep our country safe”.

So far, so reasonable, but for those out there on the right, Corbyn had to be rubbished before voters started to get ideas about voting Labour. So overnight, the Murdoch Sun lifted a previously paywalled Times article from Iain Martin which trowelled on the scorn: “Almost without fail, Corbyn has expressed support for this country’s enemies, opposed British military deployments overseas or sided with assorted fringe elements who say we deserve what we get … The man is by no reasonable ­definition a patriot”.

Martin claims - wrongly - that Corbyn supported the IRA, then tells anyone still reading “Jeremy Corbyn must not become Prime Minister … He is a risk to national ­security”. I have no doubt Martin was well paid for this formulaic abuse. And abuse is all it is.

Name calling is not going to cut it with the electorate, and nor is claiming that Theresa May, who showed every sign of falling apart over the Tories’s social care plans, is a “steady leader in a crisis”. Others on the right fare little better, notably the loathsome Toby Young, who is also alert to Jezza’s latest move. He has responded via Twitter.

“Twitter 77 years ago: Lord Haw-Haw is right you know. If we hadn't declared war on Germany they wouldn't be bombing us. We'd all be safer”. Where does one start? One, had we not declared war on Germany, it is more than possible they would not have bombed us. Two, which part of the world had Britain just invaded and destabilised prior to World War 2 kicking off? There wasn’t one.

And three, Tobes, remember what Eliza Manningham Buller said about the Iraq war: “Whatever the merits of putting an end to Saddam Hussein, the war was also a distraction from the pursuit of al-Qaeda. It increased the terrorist threat . . . [and] spurred some British Muslims to turn to terror”. I’ll take the word of a former MI5 head over Captain Bellend.

Jeremy Corbyn has cut through with the public. That the Tories and their pals are hurling abuse first, and debating second, tells you who is scared. No surprise there, then.

Katie Hopkins SACKED By LBC

She was “only telling it like it is”. It was all about free speech. People had a right to say the unsayable. All those who passed adverse comment were little more than armchair censors. To exclude these views was no more than political correctness gone mad. This was not a sign of division and hate, but the healthy result of a free society. It was all about challenging accepted norms and speaking up for the underdog.

Viewers may want to look away now

But in the case of pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins, there was, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks. Ms Hopkins may be revered by those out on the far right, where paranoia is never far below the surface whenever anyone so much as mentions the Scary Muslims (tm), but her loudly paraded ignorance and bigotry is little short of hate speech and incitement.

So it was the day after the Manchester bombing, when Hatey Katie took to Twitter to tell the world that she was right, and everyone who disagreed with her, er, wasn’t: “Politicians. Do not insult us with your platitudes. Do not tell us we stand shoulder to shoulder. The dead never carry on as normal”. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was ridiculed.

“Disgusting. Business as usual. Tell that to the mother of the child felled by nails and bolts” she scolded. And then she not only veered towards the decency line, but drove very directly straight across it: “22 dead. Number Rising. Schofield. Don’t you even dare. Do not be part of the problem. We need a final solution”. One could almost imagine her as a female Dr Strangelove, holding down that twitchy right arm.

It was clear that Ms Hopkins knew she had messed up when she changed the offending words to “We need a true solution” and then tried to explain it away as a “typo”. From that point on, she was in deep trouble. The fateful Twitter excursion was reported to the Police. Yet more people complained to broadcaster LBC, where she had been inexplicably given a weekly show. And it was the latter complaints that have now yielded results.

LBC have this morning told “LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately”. No show next Sunday, no more shows, and most importantly for someone with a six-figure legal bill hanging over her head, no more money.

Others in the media have not exactly been rushing to her defence: Rupert Myers Tweeted “Katie Hopkins is no longer a broadcaster for @LBC - well done @global”. Myers, who features in GQ and the Telegraph, is not exactly a raving lefty. Giles Dilnot, formerly of the BBC’s Daily and Sunday Politics, summed up the Hopkins problem: “It was so transparently calculated to keep a gravy train going. Outrage artifice, cash contrarianism …. gimme gimme TV I'll say ANYTHING”. So she did. And this is where it led.

Katie Hopkins was too much even for the Murdoch Sun. Now she has proved too much for LBC. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that she will prove intellectually incapable of taking that on board sufficiently to ever mount a comeback.

The age of Katie Hopkins was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.

UKIP Farce Endangers Tories

The dwindling and increasingly desperate convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers otherwise known as UKIP proved their genteel sensibility over the Manchester bombing by being the first political party to resume campaigning yesterday, when comedy party leader Paul Nuttall, aka the Bad Bootle Meff, stood before the press - and some of his more vocal supporters - to remind the world that Kippers were toughest on Scary Muslims (tm).

As ITV News observed, UKIP “has put public safety and immigration issues back to the top of the political agenda … The main focus of the manifesto launch was security and the threat from radical Islam … Paul Nuttall promised an extra 20,000 troops and 20,000 extra police”. He also claimed that the manifesto had gone to press before the Manchester attack. It certainly plays on voters’ security fears.

After Nuttall “said he favoured a ‘far more muscular approach to social integration’, wants to ban the burka and said he made no apology for repeating his claim that radical Islam was ‘a cancer that needs to be cut out’”, he had more pearls of wisdom to dispense. “‘It is not good enough to light candles and proclaim that extremists will not beat us,’ he insisted … ‘Action is required on multiple fronts’”.

And with that, he and manifesto author Suzanne Evans tried to play down the suggestion that they were somehow blaming Theresa May for security failings which may have made the Manchester bomber’s task easier, while making it clear that they really did blame Theresa May for what happened in Manchester - well, perhaps.

The questionably argued presentation then descended beneath farce as the assembled media representatives pitched their questions. Nuttall and Ms Evans were more than happy to field them - the problem was that the UKIP supporters in the room did not approve of anyone suggesting that their manifesto, and their great leader, were anything less than Very Wonderful. The heckling spilled over into direct abuse.

So that might have been that, except that later in the day the first post-Manchester poll, a YouGov one for the Murdoch Times, showed that the Tories’ lead had come down to a mere five points. Their vote share was now 43%, with Labour up to 38%. That would translate into an overall majority for The Blue Team of just five seats - in other words, if accurate, the Tories would actually lose ground compared to two years ago.

Why should UKIP have any influence on voters after such a farcical manifesto launch? Simples. The Tories’ numbers have been reckoned to have been swelled by voters deserting the Kippers. If enough of those voters now conclude that Theresa May isn’t as serious as Nuttall and his pals about security - with their promise of more Police and troops - then they might think about moving back to UKIP.

That means the Tories and their press pals could end up fighting a war on two fronts - continuing the barrage against Jeremy Corbyn on the one hand, while having to fend off UKIP on the other. Politics, as ever, remains excellent spectator sport.

Katie Hopkins Manchester Smear BUSTED

As the Manchester bombing was claimed by ISIS, or whatever they’re called this week, there was the inevitable parade of Islamophobia masquerading as Proper Journalism  following on behind. The Scary Muslims (tm) done it! So, with the predictability of night following day, there had to be an intervention from pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins, who at least attempted to be cordial this time. Perhaps her clock had stopped.

Viewers may want to look away now

Ms Hopkins contacted Ben de Pear of Channel 4 News after seeing an item on Wednesday’s edition from the vigil in Manchester. There was a live debate featuring people from the city’s part of the Libyan diaspora, which appeared to displease her.

Her email asked “Can you help me understand three points for a column I am writing … why did you allow the interview with the Libyan community - including a woman with a T shirt featuring weapons, and a man who was a proponent of sharia - on Channel 4 News when the country has been hit by tragedy … do you regret your editorial judgment on this … and if not, why have [you] deleted the link to the clip. Was this a response to the content or complaints”. Questions mark absence courtesy of Dan Hodges there.

So there you have it - interviewing anyone with Libyan heritage when one of their number was the suicide bomber should bar them from being interviewed. Hatey Katie is always good for a bit of collective punishment and guilt assumption.

But it was over the woman and her “guns” T-shirt that Ms Hopkins came badly unstuck. As Channel 4 News said in reply to her, “On Wednesday Channel 4 News broadcast this live debate at a vigil for the Manchester bombing victims. When it was brought to our attention that the woman being interviewed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy was wearing a gun-themed T-shirt, we removed the online versions to investigate”.

Then came Katie’s bad news. “We are now satisfied that the intention of that image is to subvert weaponry and is an anti-violence protest T-shirt … The image was made famous in 2013 when the singer Jennifer Hudson was pictured wearing a very similar design, which spelled out the word ‘love’ in guns and other weapons. She told fans ‘It’s time to turn all of that into this LOVE’”. Not a good assumption, Katie.

The statement also noted “members of the local Muslim community gave their reactions to the bombing … several spoke of their devastation and also took the chance to speak out against extremism … It is now available to view online”.

Strangely enough, there has not yet been a response from Hatey Katie. How she will spin the Channel 4 News item to show that the rotten MSM is in league with the Scary Muslims (tm) who are all hell-bent on feeding us Falafel and stopping right-thinking Brits from venturing down the Rub-A-Dub so they can become Elephants Trunk and Mozart will no doubt be a joy to behold. But her suggestion of improper behaviour is totally wrong.

Still, she needs to keep those trashy Mail Online columns, and appearances on Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), after that libel loss earlier this year. So there will be more of this playing to the Muslim bashing gallery. What a waste of time and money.

Mail’s Sick Bomb Death Intrusion

After the Manchester bombing, with the sad inevitability of night following day, has come the continuing spectre of press intrusion, the grotesque invasion into the privacy of grieving families, relatives and friends by the Fourth Estate, newly emboldened in their plumbing of even greater depths by the knowledge that they have Theresa May in their pocket and can carry on behaving as they like.

Who f***ing says we're intrusive, c***? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

And at the head of those intruding on families’ grief have been the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker at the Mail titles, and most notoriously Mail Online, who want Facebook subjected to the harshest of sanctions, while protesting long and loud that they are part of our free and fearless press, and can please themselves.

The moment of truth for all those who thought press intrusion was just a ruse cooked up by the folks at Hacked Off came just before 1025 hours today when the Daily Mail Twitter feed  told its followers “First aider reveals eight-year-old terror victim cried out for her mother in her final moments … SAFFIE’S FINAL MOMENTS”. The reaction was immediate.

“You utter slime bags give proper decent journalists a bad name. Congratulations on plumbing new depths … Disgusting … not OK to publish this information … Delete this … You have no shame? No dignity? The question is rhetorical … Piss poor journalism and you know it is, this has to be deleted … shame on you”.

There was more, and remember, these are people who consciously follow the Mail’s Twitter account. “Of course she cried out for her mother - she was 8, terrified and dying … Imagine the grief for her family … The Daily Mail are disgusting … Shame on you, you sick, sick people … Have some decency and respect … Somebody’s dying words should be private … You are a repulsive disgrace … why would you even print this”.

The condemnation was unceasing: “How low can you sink? Shame on you … This is disgraceful … Take this down … Do we need to know this? This was an 8 year old kid. For goodness sake, remove this story … This is not news, this is the opposite of journalism … Please take this down. Show some respect for the child and consideration for her friends and family. Journalism at its worst”. There was much more in this vein.

The Mail did, eventually, take the Tweet down. But the story is still up - this typed at 1200 hours today - at Mail Online. One wonders if the first responder whose testimony the Mail has used actually knew who he was talking to, and to what use it would be put. But once again, as has been warned so many times in the past, by press campaigners and groups like Hacked Off, the press behaves like this - because they can.

Unless the family of this unfortunate little girl complain to sham press regulator IPSO, the Mail will not even bother to apologise. Even then, because they took the Tweet down, there will most likely not even be a rap on the knuckles. And this is the kind of behaviour that Theresa May and her party is happy to see continue.

This is the kind of Strength and Stability voters are being sold - the kind that screws over the little people in order to score more sales and clicks. You have been warned.

Sun IRA Witness IS PROVEN LIAR

In among the mayhem of Monday night’s bombing in Manchester, and the immediate change of focus away from the General Election campaign, the Sun’s Tuesday morning splash, another crude attempt to try and associate Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with the Provisional IRA, has momentarily faded from view. The Murdoch goons will not mind that at all. Because it was a story built on a very shaky foundation.

The shakiness was provided by the Sun’s star witness, Sean O’Callaghan, who claimed “JOHN McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn were treasured by the IRA as unambiguous supporters of the armed struggle … I know this to be true from my own experience … That support, in their case, ticked every box … Useful idiots, agents of influence and fellow travellers”. Just what the Sun and their Tory pals would have wished for.

But here a problem enters: Sean O’Callaghan is what might be termed an unreliable witness. Those less charitably disposed towards him might dispense with the niceties and call him a liar. Take the aftermath of the Omagh bombing: O’Callaghan was to have given evidence at the subsequent civil action. Mr Justice Morgan decided against allowing this: O’Callaghan, he told, was a “practised deceiver”. And there is more - much more.

Anthony Mcintyre, a former IRA volunteer turned journalist, had this to say in 2014: “Bluntly put, Sean O'Callaghan is not a credible source. Indeed, I would require substantial independent corroboration before I would accept any of his claims about the PIRA. I say this not only because his most outlandish allegations are implausible per se, but because Sean O'Callaghan is - by his own admission - an accomplished liar who has often lied to the Gardaí, the RUC, and the media”. And there was more still.

Back in 1997 in an Irish Times article, titled “Murderer served IRA and Garda but mostly himself”, Vincent Browne discussed the violent murder of one John Corcoran, noting “The killing was acknowledged by the IRA to have been perpetrated by one of its members”. The IRA “alleged that he was scheming with a named Cork Garda detective to trap members of the organisation in a bogus robbery”.

Tom Newton Dunn - the real useful idiot

Who was that killer? “The IRA murderer was none other than Sean O'Callaghan. That awful murder was done precisely at the time that O'Callaghan now claims he was acting as an agent of the Irish Government seeking to sabotage ‘violent and criminal plans’”. Implausibly, he claimed to be an informer, but murdered Corcoran … for informing.

There were other singularly creative claims: “He said he … told his handlers that he'd aborted a plan to kill Prince Charles and Princess Diana at a charity event they were attending in 1983”. But the same Belfast Telegraph article notes “A number of O'Callaghan's claims have been ridiculed by republicans, who say he's a fantasist”.

Sean O’Callaghan cannot be trusted any further than he could be usefully chucked. All of the information in this post is readily available, and had the Sun’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn, whose name appeared on the byline of the Tuesday morning splash, bothered to do his research, he could easily have found it out.

But that is not the point: Newton Dunn had his orders, and they were to smear Corbyn. That smear was backed up by a proven liar. He knew that. I’ll just leave that one there.

Piers Morgan Whistleblowing Hypocrisy

Piers Morgan is not happy. He wants the world to know that he is not happy. And what makes him not happy right now is that word all fans of 60s cult TV series The Prisoner will know well: information. Yes, Piers Morgan wants … information. He’s not going to get it, but believes that, by hook or by crook, he will.

Morgan is also angry. And I mean, he’s angry. Boiling angry. He is also totally devoid of self-awareness, and so has attacked Lily Allen for “attention seeking”. Yes, the clown who gets himself a table at Chiltern Firehouse just so he can shoot his gob off to all the other diners about how famous he is is calling “attention seeking” on others.

Morgan’s lack of self-awareness has also extended to claiming that Charlotte Church is “virtue signalling”. No TV host is more virtuous than Piers. Allegedly. But it is in the aftermath of the Manchester bombing that he has really wound himself up. Building on his claim “Muslims can do a lot more to help police & Mi5 root out radicalised members of their communities” (did he bother asking if they already did?), he has demanded action.

“There must be more Muslims can do as a community to spot these killers in their midst before they commit carnage … I want more Muslims to do more to help us all get rid of these medieval ISIS monsters” he claims, before having a rare moment of honesty: “No young impressionable Muslim is going to give a stuff what I, a middle class, middle aged white guy, has to say about their religion”. Nobody else does, either.

But do go on. “It’s time for Muslim community leaders to dramatically step up the war on these twisted, deviant minds abusing their religion … And it’s time for non-violent Muslims everywhere to step up their efforts to identify, isolate, expose, and name and shame those who are trying to drag Islam into a gutter of sickening unrelenting terror”.

Did we all get that? Right. Now, I have just the one problem with this, and that is that Piers Morgan is right now standing in the draughtiest of glasshouses. So is any other member of the Press Establishment. Because the idea of informing on others in their community is something that for Old Media types like Piers Morgan is Streng Verboten.

And before anyone says “phone hacking”, it’s not just about phone hacking. The press, and by that I include the Daily Mirror when Morgan edited it, was also doing illegal blagging, hiring Private Investigators, having targets tailed and otherwise snooped on, having their bins rifled through, trying to find out bank and NHS records, who targets met, who they shagged, and most likely the shop where they bought the equipment.

Then when it came to … information, they would not breathe a word of it to anyone else. Not a soul. The culture of press Omertà ensured nobody else would get to know who they used to get the illegally obtained information, how much they paid, who the targets were, or indeed what laws were being broken. When Nick Davies blew the whistle on phone hacking, it was Piers Morgan who spat “Judas” at him the next time they met.

Piers Morgan is the worst possible example of someone playing the “Do as I say, not as I do” card. You Muslim chappies out there - go inform the nice Police people, d’you hear? But don’t expect Piers and his pals to expose all the illegal behaviour that forms the stinking underbelly of the profession that made him famous. Pass the sick bag.

Manchester Police And Tory Cuts

The Murdoch goons at the Sun have been once again giving their readers more of those below-the-radar messages that tell them they should put their crosses in the Tories’ box come the General Election. This takes the form of “only talking about the Government’s response to what happened in Manchester, honestly”.

“THERESA May has chaired another COBRA meeting this morning after raising the terror threat level to critical as the Army hits the street to help out following the horrific Manchester bombing … It comes amid fears another attack could be imminent … The army are set to stand guard outside Buckingham Palace, Westminster and Downing Street. Some have already been sent to Parliament today”. There was more.

“After meeting with security chiefs last night the Prime Minister said Britain will never be defeated by terrorism … She once again praised the response to Monday night's brutal slaying at Manchester Arena”. Very good. Well, one way to ensure there is a security presence, a prompt response and therefore a good chance any future attack is nipped in the bud would be to have a decent Police presence on the ground.

And there, the Sun and other Tory-supporting papers are silent. Why this might be is not hard to figure out, as the example of Manchester shows. Fortunately, we have the Manchester Evening News reports, which are untainted by Murdoch, Dacre, Barclay Brothers or Desmond spin. And the headlines make grim reading.

“GMP facing more savage cuts which could halve number of police officers in ten years … The MEN has learned that senior officers may have to slash another £157m from the force’s annual budget by 2019 - potentially cutting hundreds of policing posts” reported the paper in September 2015. The next month, worried readers were told “New GMP chief says cuts mean officers can't be expected to rush to all burglaries … The next Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, who starts next week, said people would be better off changing locks before police arrive”. And it got worse.

April 2016 brought the news that “Police patrols so stretched there are two hours every afternoon where officers 'struggle to attend any job’ … The impact of cuts emerged at an inquest into the death of a missing mum”. And only last month the headline was “'Neighbourhood policing could be wiped out completely if more cuts are forced' warns police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd … That’s the startling view of out-going police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd, who finishes his near five-year tenure on May 7”.

Who might be imposing these cuts? That would be as a result of central Government policy. The Tories and their press cheerleaders want the public to think that Theresa May would keep cities like Manchester safe, but the reality is very different. And what is on offer from the parties in the run-up to the General Election?

Labour is proposing the addition of 10,000 more Police officers, noting that since 2010, there has been a reduction in their ranks of twice that number. The Tories, on the other hand, have refused to rule out further cuts. So who is really going to keep our cities and communities safe? You figure it out. I’ll just leave that one there.

Manchester Attack - Mail Blames Corbyn

Campaigning for next month’s General Election may have been suspended by political parties in the aftermath of Monday night’s bombing outside the Manchester Arena, when 22 people lost their lives and 64 were injured, with 20 of those now in critical care, but the cheerleaders of the Tory Party, those who want to maintain the imperial progress of the Empress Theresa back into Downing Street, are still hard at work.

What's so f***ing wrong with using terror attacks to scare my readers into voting Tory, c***? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

Hence today’s characteristically intemperate rant from Daily Mail Comment, the authentic voice of the Vagina Monologue, which relays the thoughts of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre to his adoring readership. And the message that readers are instructed to take away with them is that they should vote Tory on June the 8th, because the attack is all the fault of other parties, and especially Labour.

You think I jest? Here are the relevant passages. “It was 15 years ago when a leading politician said of another mass killing: ‘These events are a terrible reminder that freedom demands eternal vigilance. And for too long we have not been vigilant … We have harboured those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us’ … The speaker was Margaret Thatcher and the events she referred to were the attacks of 9/11”. And what message were Mail readers to take from this?

“Her words are even truer today, after Western politicians’ reckless interventions in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere have inflamed Islamist fanaticism. But how much longer must we agonise before acting on them?” Acting on them. And who will do this acting?

“The fact is that more than 3,000 jihadis are based in the UK, with hundreds more returning from Syria or sending their wives and families home. Yet thanks to the wretched Nick Clegg’s hand-wringing over civil liberties, a mere seven are subject to terrorism prevention orders”. Don’t vote Lib Dem, because it’s partly their fault.

“As for our would-be prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn - who has joined demonstrations to support IRA murderers and shared platforms with Middle Eastern fanatics - he likes to speak in abstractions about terrorism. He should ask the families of those maimed and killed in Manchester what it actually means”. And it’s definitely his fault.

So there can be only one conclusion for the Mail: “How many more atrocities must we suffer before we routinely tag suspects and stop putting their human rights above our safety? How many more returning jihadis and their brainwashed wives must we welcome home to walk our streets freely?” Who will bravely step forward to make Muslims second class citizens and take us down the slippery slope to authoritarianism?

There was only one politician in that short list who did not face the Dacre scorn, and to no surprise at all, it was Mrs T. Her successor is Theresa May. And there can be no doubt that the Mail wants its readers to avoid the Lib Dems and Labour. Only the Empress Theresa can do away with those namby-pamby human rights. Only she is brave enough not to “talk in abstractions about terrorism”. Only she will do the bidding of the press barons.

The Mail all but says Clegg enabled Manchester, and Corbyn did the deed. That is how desperate the press is to get the Tories back into power.