Ryanair - Just Don’t Say MAX

One subject that has faded from view over time, and which has the potential to affect many Brits going off on their hols this Summer, is the saga of the Boeing 737 MAX, the aircraft type that was grounded worldwide after two of them performed what is euphemistically termed a controlled flight into terrain, though it was not those on the flight deck exercising the control.

Now redeeming itself with an airline near you

Now, 346 deaths, Boeing and the FAA having done the walk of shame for their failings, and a redesign so that the 737 MAX’s Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (or MCAS) can’t routinely stuff an aircraft into the ground later, the plane is in service worldwide - including with budget carrier Ryanair. So how are they selling the MAX to their punters?

That thought entered last Friday after passengers for the 1710 flight from Manchester to Lisbon had been allowed out of their Terminal 3 gate to line up by the aircraft. So there I was, standing by the port side engine, and thinking that the intake was not only larger than on an 800 series 737, but circular, unlike the flat-bottomed nacelle to give the CFM56 enough ground clearance.

It was mounted higher than on the 800 series, and cantilevered further forward too. Hmmm, I thought, this is a MAX, isn’t it? Then another difference, the usual 13 steps up from tarmac to cabin using the aircraft’s internal stairs was now 14 steps. Snazzy rotating overhead luggage bins too, a feature borrowed from the DreamLiner. Let’s look at the safety card.

With Ryanair, the flight safety card, rather like the carrier itself, is right in your face. And it has to tell you what type of aircraft it is. So how do they avoid the moment when one half of the passengers starts up with the bad taste air crash jokes, thus ensuring they spend the flight scaring the shit out of the other half of the passengers? Simples. They don’t mention the M-Word.

“Boeing 737-8200”, it says. And, technically, this is correct. Michael O’Leary and his pals get around introducing the 737 MAX to their route network by not saying the dreaded word. They have figured - correctly - that the vast majority of their punters won’t immediately Google “Boeing 737-8200” as soon as they see the safety card. They’re not interested. Out of sight, out of mind.

Only two previous crashes, don't worry about it

Most passengers might notice the new luggage bins, but not realise what that means. They won’t find the very different engine note during the take-off run - more of a whistle than a drone - to be anything exceptional. Which means that whoever at Ryanair decided not to use the M-Word made the correct call. The plane did the job, the flight was uneventful. Fair play to them.

After all, the 180 or so passengers had other priorities: whether the authorities in Lisbon would allow UK passport holders to use their E-Gates (they did), getting through Terminal 1 arrivals (lots of walking), figuring out the ticket machines at the Metro station, getting downtown, finding hotels and AirBnBs, and venturing out for late food and drinks across the great city.

Those with longer memories might recall that the Airbus A320 family - the 737’s greatest rival - began its service life with some unwelcome headline bad publicity after an Air France crew managed to drop one of the aircraft in a wooded area near Mulhouse-Habsheim airport during an air show. Why I won’t go near Air France, take 94. The planes have done better since then.

The point is straightforward: modern air travel is safe, as safe as decades of learning the lessons can make it. Cars, vans and lorries crash, the mess is swept up, the road is mended and hosed down, and all continues rather as before. A passenger aircraft crashes, the investigators arrive and carry on working until they figure out what happened. Then come the actions.

Perhaps whole fleets of planes are grounded. Corrective action is implemented. Procedures for maintenance, preparation, training and control are updated. Yes, with the 737 MAX, Boeing and the FAA loused up big time, but again, the lessons were ultimately learned - so much so that most of those on flight FR2252 last Friday wouldn’t have noticed much had changed.

Why trains and planes are safer than you think. Whoever the carrier.

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When The Grovelling Stops

The brief period of euphoria is about to come to an end: for all Britons, Royalist, Republican and in such matters agnostic, the routine drudgery of everyday life is about to return. As Winshton put it after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, “we may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts that lie ahead”.

Toils and efforts, indeed: Charles the Third has received his Coronation, at significant cost to the taxpayer, in a country where there are now more than 2,000 food banks. He, his family, and senior politicians have overseen lavish feasts, yet food poverty is real and spreading. For him, the world is excellent. For millions of citizens, it is bad, and becoming rather worse.

Small wonder that our free and fearless press continues to demand that its readers keep looking over there: last night’s Coronation concert is today’s front page lead for most of them, with the Prince of Wales widely quoted telling Brian “Pa, we are all so proud of you”, and “Granny would be proud”, while not mentioning The Firm’s treatment of his own late mother.

It is partly for that reason that those same papers churn out an incessant tide of knocking copy, almost all of it bad faith, bottom feeding yellow journalism, aimed at Will’s brother, the Duke of Sussex, and wife Meghan. Haz has rocked the boat, has never forgotten Diana, and never will. He is in the process of suing the arse off the Mail and Sun. Hence the hostile copy.

But the feel good factor brought on by the Coronation is about to prove no more than fleeting. Those pundits using the Royals to tell others what they should be doing, how they should act, and in what manner they should deport themselves are, equally, about to realise the limits of their authority. Britons will realise there are haves and have nots. And that most are have nots.

They will begin to look around their corner of King Charles’ realm, seeing the cracked pavements, the littered parks and greens, the boarded-up shops, the closed banks, the empty town centres of an evening, the increasingly deserted bus stations, the closed pubs, cafés and restaurants, and the long trudge or obligatory drive to the supermarket, and realise they’ve been had.

Thus will the fawning, grovelling and faithful experience the end of euphoria and the return of reality. They were told things would improve, especially with the departure of the UK from the European Union. The reverse is proving true: Brexit has brought soaring costs, especially of food and drink, while the rest of the EU continues to do better than us. We were conned.

That realisation is beginning to dawn: support for rejoining the EU has now climbed beyond 60% in a recent opinion poll. Those politicians who continue to deny this, refuse to consider moving closer to the European mainstream, are out of touch with the people they claim to represent. And that, to its continuing shame, includes the Labour Party.

Increasingly authoritarian laws, exemplified by “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, which brings us ever closer to “looking at me in a funny way”, and its implementation on the streets of London last weekend with the lifting of peaceful protesters and even a group of volunteers working with vulnerable people around Westminster, will ultimately provoke a backlash.

Here, too, the politicians are out of touch: not just the Tories who brought us this legal equivalent of state intolerance, but a Labour opposition that dare not say boo for fear of antagonising an equally intolerant press establishment. No erosion of human rights is too much for them: they therefore appear allied with the Tories. They think this will gain them power. They’re having a laugh.

Will this increasingly grim status quo endure? Only until someone, somewhere, charts a way out of the decline, cutting through the fog of media falsehood and misinformation, providing leadership rather than abject subservience to an establishment, too many of whom, especially in the media part of it, treat this as a kind of game. For the have nots, it is anything but.

Labour appears not to have taken on board Galbraith’s definition of leadership: “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership”. Living standards. The NHS. A decent environment. And not authoritarianism.

Nor has the party taken on board Galbraith’s corollary: “A leader can compromise, get the best deal he can. Politics is the art of the possible. But he cannot be thought to evade”. Keir Starmer and his faithful lieutenants have been evading big time. Last week’s local election results were better for the Lib Dems, and especially the Greens, than The Red Team.

As the Coronation vanishes from view, so politicians must respond as the people rediscover reality. Who will lead? And if no-one will, what then?

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Met Police Out Of Control AGAIN

While crowds of cheering Royalists descended on central London for the Coronation celebrations, the Metropolitan Police gave everyone a warning that they had started down the slippery slope into authoritarianism and intolerance, as well as trying to justify their heavy handed ineptitude by changing their story in the retelling, or as most people call it, lying.

Where the made up propaganda went ...

Republic, the group opposed to the continuation of the current situation where our head of state is part of an hereditary monarchy, had met with the Met’s representatives earlier in the week, ensuring that they were open about their intentions to protest peacefully. When the day came, the Met arrested them anyway. That much was bad, but then news came of worse.

Almost as a footnote to their report on Coronation Day arrests, the BBC told that “Concerns about the police's approach to the Coronation were also raised by Westminster City Council's cabinet member for communities and public protection over reports that volunteers with its Night Star programme had been arrested while handing out rape alarms”. Do go on.

“Councillor Aicha Less said the authority was ‘working with the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened’ and was ‘in touch with our volunteers to ensure they are receiving the support they need’”. But we already know what happened. The Met fouled up. They arrested three volunteers whose presence they should already have known about.

Mic Wright - who, to his great credit, went to central London in an effort to have the Met release some of those who had posed no threat at all and had just been nicked for the hell of it - told “The Met arrested members of the City of Westminster’s Night Safety team. They are volunteers. They were pulled last night at 2am and have been held for 14 hours. One of them came out of the station in tears. Police didn’t apologise”. What was going on?

Simples. The Met’s Territorial Support Group, successors to the routinely violent and occasionally murderous Special Patrol Group of days gone by, lifted the three, apparently without checking with local cops who would have told them that this was a genuine group of volunteers that they knew.

The Night Safety team look out for vulnerable women: as part of this work, they hand out rape alarms. But in the Met’s retelling, “We received intelligence that indicated people were planning to throw rape alarms to disrupt the Coronation procession - with concern from the military that this would scare their horses”. This was bullshit. And was soon deleted.

... and, predictably, whence it came

But where did this fanciful story originate? Ah well. To no surprise at all, it emanated from the Northcliffe House bunker in late April. “Extremists' vile plot to spook King's horses with rape alarms: Fears protesters planning to sabotage Charles' Coronation could cause 'serious injuries or even deaths', ex-Grenadier Guard warns” was the headline. And there was more.

“Militant protesters are plotting to sabotage the Coronation by throwing rape alarms at horses in the procession, senior security sources have told The Mail on Sunday … Concerns have been raised at the highest level of Government that the stunt could lead to serious injuries or even deaths if spooked horses bolt into the crowds lining the route”. Meaning what?

Meaning they approached Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for a comment and he didn’t see them coming. But do go on. “The rape alarm plan has caused particular concern among officials because of the unpredictability of the horses’ reaction … Security sources did not specify which group or groups were behind the plan”. Looks like that put the TSG on a hair trigger.

And once again no-one has stopped and thought: the horses used for the parade have been trained not to bolt or rear at loud noises. Like sirens sounding, fireworks - even rape alarms. The MoS isn’t concerned with such detail: it just wants to frighten its readers and make sure all who read its propaganda know that arresting anyone the Met fancies is no big problem.

The MoS also told readers “Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley has vowed to clamp down on protesters who try to disrupt the event. ‘We will do everything we can to make the Coronation the special moment it ought to be,’ he told the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee in January”. Now he faces a greater challenge: owning up and saying sorry.

As Louise Raw, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, put it, “You had the TACTICAL SUPPORT GROUP- who caused the death of Ian Tomlinson and (as the SPG) Blair Peach - arrest young CHARITY WORKERS. One was apparently left bruised. My god lads, you’ve had your shiny new Judge Dread powers for THREE DAYS, and already f***** it!”. Another thought entered.

The Police force that harboured Wayne Couzens, now serving a whole life sentence for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, confiscating rape alarms looks shocking bad. Because it is shockingly bad.

Is the Met beyond reform? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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Sue Gray And Tory Lying

Ever since former career Civil Servant Sue Gray resigned her Cabinet Office position and reportedly accepted an offer from Labour leader Keir Starmer to become his chief of staff, there have been howls of protest from those out on the right, claiming that she had broken the rules in allegedly talking to Team Starmer while still in the Civil Service. Some of which came badly unstuck.

He couldn't pony up any evidence ...

Typical of these was an intervention on the BBC World at One programme by (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries who, as the Guardian later reported, “had suggested that the report by the former civil servant on lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during Johnson’s premiership was discredited after her decision to become chief of staff for the Labour leader, Keir Starmer”.

Worse, “She described the ex-mandarin as a ‘personal friend of Keir Starmer, someone who has been in discussion over who knows what period of time … about taking the role as his chief of staff, with the primary objective of taking down the Tory government’ … The former cabinet minister went on to allege that there may have been political motivations in the findings Gray reached over the lockdown investigation”. But this was mainly total crap.

So crap, in fact, that after “Starmer clarified in an interview with LBC that Gray was ‘not a friend’ and is ‘not in the same social circles’ as him”, the Beeb had to apologise for failing to challenge Ms Dorries’ allegations, admitting “there should have been more challenge”. Like calling her out for lying.

... nor could they ...

Yet still the briefings came, telling that Ms Gray had somehow breached the Civil Service Code. The Murdoch Sun was especially scathing: “SIR Keir Starmer's 'Mr Rules' rep took a hammer blow last night after Sue Gray refused to say when she started secret talks with Labour … The former Cabinet Office enforcer sparked fury yesterday as she stone-walled a Whitehall probe into her dramatic departure from Government earlier”.

There was more. “Government insiders accused her of breaking the civil service code on multiple occasions. Deputy PM Oliver Dowden pointed out she should have stuck to strict rules around conducting ‘political activity’ and for failing to declare the talks with senior ministers”. And not just the Sun.

The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph told readers “Sue Gray held Partygate role during secret talks with Keir Starmer … Civil Servant whose report prompted Boris Johnson’s downfall [no it didn’t] was still working for ethics team while in discussions with Labour leader”. Except that this was caveated with “a report is set to reveal”. There was more.

... and nor could they ...

“A report by the Cabinet Office is on Tuesday expected to find that she entered negotiations with Labour while she was working with the department’s Propriety and Ethics Team (PET). At the time the team was advising MPs on the privileges committee investigating Boris Johnson, which Tory sources said on Monday presented a conflict of interest”.

“Tory sources said”. And in a further bout of nudge-nudgery, we are told “The Telegraph has been told of growing concern within Government that [Starmer] may have been holding secret talks with other top civil servants”. Then the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog joined in the falsehood-fest in no style at all this morning.

“Rule-Breaking Sue Gray Stonewalled Government Inquiry … SHADY GRAY STAYS SILENT” we hear, before another caveat: “Despite prior briefing that the update would outline the findings of the Cabinet Office’s review into her departure - including the conclusion that she broke the ministerial code - the statement made no such allegation”. And why might that be, O Great Guido?

... which leads to the inevitable conclusion

Let’s see what light the FT has shone on proceedings, shall we? “Alex Thomas, at the Institute for Government think-tank, told the Financial Times that ministers appeared to have been unable to produce evidence to back up media briefings that Gray had breached the Civil Service Code”. Whoops!

Even the Murdoch Times is in bet-hedging mode: “The Cabinet Secretary forced ministers to weaken a highly critical statement on the departure of Sue Gray from the Civil Service to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, The Times has been told”. So the latest briefing is to say A Big Civil Service Boy Did It And Ran Away. They had her bang to rights, honestly.

Except they didn’t: the press was briefed, the smears were spread, the accusations made, and then when it came to ponying up some actual evidence, none was forthcoming. On the eve of a round of local elections that could prove disastrous to them, the Tories have been caught lying. Again.

This blog is not Keir Starmer’s greatest fan. But this time he is in the clear.

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Sun Poll Deception FLOPS

The inevitable combination of falsehood and misinformation that will spew from the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press all the way to the next General Election, and no doubt well beyond there, aimed at the Labour Party has begun for the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker, as one glance at today’s edition of the Super Soaraway Current Bun shows.

There, alongside more Royalist propaganda, readers are told “Exclusive Sun Poll … BRITS SAY NO TO WOKE … Sir Softie blast”, and under the by-line of the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, still pretending to be a real journalist, we learn “BRITS are opposed to explicit sex education in class, have strong views on what a woman is and are proud of our nation’s past”.

All of which has sweet Fanny Adams to do with the term WOKE, which means either “Well-informed, up-to-date”, or “Alert to injustices in society, especially racism”. So we already know that Master Cole does not know what he is talking about, so no change there, then. But, sadly, there is more.

“We asked 3,000 Brits last week what they thought about the state of British politics and what will happen at the next General Election … That’s about three times the size of most opinion polls, for a more accurate take of the national temperature … Just 18 per cent of Brits say we should be ashamed of our past, compared to the 45 per cent who want to cheer for it”.

Which has what relevance to how those punters will vote? None. Nix. Nil. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Not a sausage. Bugger all. But do go on. “Following outcry about explicit sex acts in the classroom, ministers are due to update guidance on what is appropriate”. “Explicit sex acts in the classroom?” Shit, that’s a hell of a change since I went to school. Or Master Cole is shit at journalism.

It’s the latter, isn’t it? Then we get the bullshit that says a majority one way is a majority, and one the other way means voters are “divided”. Here it comes: “People are more divided however on whether transgender identities have a place in schools - with 51 per cent of voters saying they do, with 36 per cent opposed”. No, Master Cole, that’s a 15 per cent majority not in your favour.

On he drivels. “A majority of the public want the UK to remain signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, with only 27 per cent saying we should pull out. But 55 per cent of Tory 2019 voters say quit the Strasbourg court”. Selective interpretation. And on those overall, and therefore more relevant polling numbers, Cole just flat-out lies. “Although the gap has narrowed Labour remain ahead by about 43 per cent to the Tories' 29”. So?

And how high would the 13th floor like me to jump today?

“That would likely see Sir Keir fall short of an overall majority in an election but have the largest party”. That’s a straight-A F*** Right Off. One Tweeter observed “Total nonsense from Harry Cole, suggesting a 14 point Labour lead would lead to Labour falling short of a majority … According to Electoral Calculus that would produce a Labour majority of *checks notes*... 146”.

But if at first you don’t succeed, well, suck a little more seed, eh? “Sir Keir’s supporters appear to be on the wrong side of a public sick of woke nonsense seeping into their lives”. Such as? “Sir Keir says a woman can have a penis, but 47 per cent disagree”. Yes, it’s all about blaming Trans people, rather than the party that’s been in power for 13 years and fouled up the country.

“While most of the public think the next election is a foregone conclusion, that cannot be said of the voters that gave the Tories their 2019 majority”. Very good, Master Cole, but the franchise is not yet restricted to 2019 Tory voters, with Jonathan Portes of KCL noting “The public think we should abide by ECHR rulings, and an absolute majority support teaching about gender identity in school. Good to see the Sun telling us that the public are a lot more in tune with the ‘New Elite’ than with the bigots and racists”.

Adam Bienkov of Byline Times added “For context this poll also found that voters: Want to stay in the ECHR … Want gender ID taught in school … Don't think the Conservatives can win the next general election … Give Labour a 14 point lead”. But, it seems, Master Cole has been given his instructions.

That means the Murdoch mafiosi is worried: Rishi Sunak and his pals will do more or less anything that Don Rupioni and the rest of the Cosa Rupra demand of them - within reason, of course. Keir Starmer may play ball. But, then again, he may not. Best to kick the shit out of him, just in case.

Client journalism continues its pointless journey. No change there, then.

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Swear Allegiance? Yeah, Right

Next Saturday, the former Prince Brian will be formally proclaimed King in a Coronation ceremony, before thousands of invited guests and a TV audience which may not be as large, or as enthusiastic, as the Establishment and its more sycophantic promoters in our free and fearless press would like. The role of the monarchy is - rightly - coming under increasing scrutiny.

The UK has millions of citizens on or below the poverty line. Inflation, particularly for food, continues to rage. Brexit continues its long and inevitable journey from triumphant vote winner to national pariah, the shame of a nation conned into voting to make itself poorer. At such a time, the idea of spraying around £250 million up the wall for Brian and Camilla is a hard sell.

What more and more citizens may also be doing is looking at countries whose monarchies are on a rather smaller scale - Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark for instance - and even those that have, along the way, dispensed with Royalty, like Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Portugal, where the last but one King was assassinated, along with his son.

That event, along with the proclamation of the First Republic two years later, was against a backdrop of economic instability and poverty. Not that the grovelling press pack of the UK wants to consider such details: instead, today has brought a collective attack of gaslighting, but one which their audience may finally see through. We are being instructed to swear allegiance.

From the Sunday Brexit, still called the Express, telling us “KING’S SOLEMN VOW TO SERVE US ALL … Millions watching Coronation invited to pledge allegiance”, to the Murdoch Sunday Times, with “Archbishop will ask millions to pledge allegiance to their King … Coronation to feature ‘homage of the people’”, the message is clear. And the Mail on Sunday trowels it on.

“In historic break with centuries of tradition that will turn Charles’ big day into the People’s Coronation … WE ARE ALL INVITED TO SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING” thunders the headline. Who is he, Kim Jong-un? That creepy personality cult vibe, together with more fawning publicity shots of the Waleses, gives the unmistakable impression of an empty façade.

On goes the MoS: “For the first time in history, every citizen of the UK and all the other nations of which the monarch is head of state will be asked to 'make their homage in heart and voice to their undoubted King'. The trailblazing move will make the ceremony more of a 'People's Coronation', as previously only members of the aristocracy were called upon to make such a pledge”.

And on goes the creepiness. “The 'Homage of the People' is just one of the significant updates to the ancient ritual, which will see other religious faiths, as well as the Church of England, playing key roles. Female members of the clergy will also be involved for the first time”. How very modern, only 105 years after some women were finally given the right to vote.

For those who dissent from the North Korea tendency, the Mail has followed up with the typically threatening headline “How YOU can pledge allegiance to King Charles on Saturday: Millions watching ceremony on TV will be invited to join vow - but spoilsport anti-monarchy critics say they will refuse to join in”. Then comes a vindictive attack on Professor Priyamvada Gopal.

Not that it’s because she’s not white, of course - perish the thought! It’s just another of those sheer coincidences that see the Mail titles publish one bad faith tirade after another directed at the Duchess of Sussex, the papers employing a whole host of bottom feeding practitioners of yellow journalism to trash Haz and Megs while fawning sycophantically over the Working Royals.

Maybe some will join in and repeat “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God … God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the King live for ever” as commanded. But while the member for times long past Jacob Rees Mogg gushed “It will be a brilliant expression of our fealty - every loyal subject will want to do this”, he misses the obvious: we are no longer subjects.

And so we no longer pay fealty. Moreover, more and more of those no-longer-subjects may look instead at the Coronation’s £250 million price tag, or the Observer warning “Rituals that people no longer believe in can easily come to seem problematic as well as ridiculous”, rather than obediently join in.

The monarchy was for a time, but maybe not for all time. That is all.

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Murdoch - The Nature Of The Beast

“Mr Murdoch, you must be the first Mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal enterprise”. So said then Labour MP Tom Watson to James Murdoch during a DCMS session on phon hacking at the late and not at all lamented Screws. Watson was pilloried for using the M-Word; we have since discovered that he was right. How right came into focus this week.

We already knew that a number of claimants, including the Duke of Sussex, Elton John, Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley had fired an opening salvo against both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Now came the case against News Group Newspapers - the Murdoch mafiosi. They, too, wanted the claims against them struck out. As the charge sheet made for grim reading.

Not only was Harry once more present - this time he was joining by videolink from his home in California - but added to the claimant list was actor and campaigner Hugh Grant. As Harry did with the Mail titles, Grant made a point of appearing personally at the court. The Guardian had the details.

“Hugh Grant has claimed the Sun burgled his flat and placed a tracking device in his car in an attempt to obtain stories about his personal life … The actor appeared at the high court on Thursday for a hearing which set out his allegations that the Sun also tapped landline telephones and hacked his voicemails”. Burglary. Bugging. Landline phone taps. And there was more.

“In a witness statement to the court, Grant said: ‘My claim concerns unlawful acts committed by the Sun, including burglaries to order, the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information through bugging, landline tapping, phone hacking and the use of private investigators to do all these and other illegal things against me.’” And more.

Evening all

“Grant said that in 2011 his London flat was broken into, with the front door forced off its hinges but nothing stolen. He says the following day a story appeared in the Sun that ‘detailed the interior of the flat, including the signs of a domestic row’ … Grant said at that time he had no idea who had carried out the break-in: ‘I had no evidence that this burglary was carried out or commissioned on the instruction of the press, let alone the Sun.’” And more.

“He was prompted to launch his latest legal claim after being passed information which ‘showed, for the first time, evidence that the Sun had targeted unlawful activity at me and my associates directly … I found it astonishing that the Sun carried out these unlawful acts against me at a time when I was preparing to give evidence to a public inquiry on press ethics’”.

He wasn’t finished. “Grant also alleges that during the 2000s the Sun employed private investigators to break into two properties connected to his film production company and his ex-girlfriend Liz Hurley. The actor claims these burglaries were carried out with ‘knowledge and approval of Rebekah Brooks who was editor of the Sun at the time’”. Which raises one prospect.

Ms Brooks, if NGN fails to have the actions struck out, is in the frame for a session on the stand. Remember that one of the reasons she got off the phone hacking charge last time was claiming she didn’t know it was happening. Anything that shows she did know it was happening puts her evidence to the phone hacking trial - and Leveson - in doubt.

Told you there was more to come

And here’s a belter of a coda: “He alleges that a senior reporter at the paper commissioned the ‘blagging’ of private information about individuals including ‘the child of a former prime minister’”. That sounds awfully like Gordon Brown’s second son and the Murdoch press revealing his cystic fibrosis - then claiming they got the information from a “concerned parent”. Hmmmm.

This is what Harry said about NGN: “how can anybody properly trust … a media organisation … when its senior executives and board cover up the truth … and then have the gall to try to ‘strike out’ people’s legitimate claims on the basis that they should have known they had a claim much earlier … when NGN has gone to such great lengths to conceal the truth?”

There was more. “When they have the powers that they have, and where even the Police and the Government of the day are scared to hold them accountable or seek justice against them, they can truly believe they are above the law. And if they’re above the law, then it’s the general public and the country that suffers. It’s really that simple”. Hugh Grant had more.

“I have invested a great deal of time in my campaign work for a better and ethical press … the defendant clearly considers itself above the law and is using the law now in a way I believe it was never intended, that is to further cover up and conceal what it has done … I strongly believe that cannot be allowed to happen and that what it has done must be brought to light”.

And remember - the idea that it only happens to the well-off and famous is for the birds, as countless victims of press abuse will know. It should have been no surprise to know that when the Mail titles were accused of appallingly bad behaviour, the follow-up against Don Rupioni and his clan would reveal yet worse goings-on. This time they should all face justice.

We may finally see what is creeping around under that rock. Stay tuned.

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Dominic Raab - Shove The Excuses

So farewell then Dominic Raab, who has resigned his cabinet post, to the great relief of all those who wished it had happened rather earlier. This followed a report by Adam Tolley KC, and Raab’s assurance that he would resign if it upheld any claim of bullying against him. To be on the safe side, it upheld two claims. Worse, the conclusions were damning.

“He acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct in the context of a work meeting. It also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates … On a number of occasions at meetings with policy officials, the DPM acted in a manner which was intimidating, in the sense of going further than was necessary or appropriate in delivering critical feedback, and also insulting”.

As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point. Tolley was putting it mildly and diplomatically. There was a telling coda: “The DPM has been able to regulate this level of ‘abrasiveness’ since the announcement of the investigation. He should have altered his approach earlier”. That’s how mild.

That much is bad, but what is worse for those who remain in Government, and especially Rishi Sunak, is that Raab, like Gavin “Stupid Boy” Williamson, and Nadhim Zahawi of heated stables on expenses infamy, was allowed to resign and was not sacked. Hence Sunak is also diminished by his now former deputy’s fall. This the right-wing press has failed to notice.

Then another thought enters: perhaps they do not want to notice, given their craven support for the Tories. Nor, it seems, do they want to notice that their man has not even bothered to apologise. As Tolley notes, “He has not offered any apology, given that he does not accept that he has done anything wrong”.

Some across the media back Raab unequivocally: the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog quoted Raab’s no-regret resignation letter claiming “Ministers must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials, in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us … In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent”.

And concurred. “He’s clearly right, the sheer intransigence and inertia of the bureaucracy requires a minister to drive change despite the civil service”. So they don’t know what they’re talking about, either (no change there). The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker claim that Raab was “SHAFTED BY SNOWFLAKES”. But LBC host James O’Brien had a caution on that one.

“Everyone on the senior editorial staff at the Daily Mail will have witnessed or received a spittle-flecked ‘double-c*nting’ from Paul Dacre. Do bear this in mind when reading their coverage of Raab’s bullying” before reminding us “Boris Johnson is still trying to put Dacre in the House of Lords”.

Another media outlet that has ventured rather a long way up the Tories’ arsehole, the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, gave Raab a platform to right the wrong he claimed to have occurred. Lewis Goodall noted that “Raab has written a piece for the Telegraph saying the British people ‘will pay the price for this Kafkaesque saga.’ He says ‘this precedent will set the playbook for a small number of officials to target ministers.’”

Raab has since gone to the BBC and claimed to Chris Mason, and as Theresa May once said, I am not making this up, that “that ‘activist civil servants’ wanted to block the work of government with ‘passive-aggressive’ tactics”. Bullshit. Especially coming from someone whose record of ministerial accomplishment is not unadjacent to Sweet Fanny Adams.

It was left to Byline Times political editor Adam Bienkov to make the obvious conclusion: “That Raab’s behaviour has instead not just been tolerated, but actively defended by Sunak and his media supporters, tells us everything that we need to know about the rotten standards still dominating within this Government”. And the rotten standards of our right-wing press.

Dominic Raab was unfit for office. And he still is. Anyone say “by-election”?

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Braverman Briefing BUSTED

Nothing epitomises the weak and feeble client journalism practised by those in and around our free and fearless press, and their inability or unwillingness to interrogate their sources, than the obedient copying and pasting of briefings directly on to the front pages of national newspapers and promoted as truth. No analysis, no questions asked, no stopping to think.

And for the right-leaning part of that press, which means most of it, that means showing the FORRINS that we in the UK make our own decisions. Which brings us to the European Convention on Human Rights, which right-wingers find problematic, because for them, YOOMAN RIGHTS are A Very Bad Thing when it stops the Tories picking on those who are not white.

When the first attempt to deport refugees to Rwanda, on the grounds that they had arrived in the UK by irregular means, failed following intervention citing the Human Rights Act, the Tory right was incandescent. Suella Braverman, for some reason appointed Home Secretary by Rishi Sunak even though she had previously had to resign the post, would stop all that.

But here a problem entered: as the UK was a signatory to the ECHR, human rights claims could be appealed all the way to their being decided by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Which is ABROAD and FORRIN. The Brexiteer death cult that is the Tory right wanted a way to cut that out, even though it could not be cut out without leaving the Convention.

So any briefing from the Home Office claiming that the ECHR could in some way be bypassed, or rulings simply ignored, should have been taken with the largest available pinch of salt - and ignored. But in the looking glass world of the right-wing press, reality was not allowed to intrude this morning as the latest Braverman Briefing was taken as gospel - and given front page status.

The Murdoch Times gave the most prominent billing: “Judges lose power to block migrant flights … Tory rebels win concessions from Sunak on Rwanda deportations” is the headline, although Matt Dathan’s article goes on to claim “Judges will no longer be able to block migrant deportations … the Government has agreed to amend its Illegal Migration Bill”.

Remember the rider “Secretary Suella Braverman has made the following statement under Section 19(1)(b) of the Human Rights Act 1998: I am unable to make a statement that, in my view, the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill are compatible with the Convention rights, but the Government nonetheless wishes to proceed with the Bill”. So why no press scepticism?

Also, Sunak has confirmed that the UK will not be exiting the ECHR. Over at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, Charles Hymas is also not asking questions. “Braverman given powers to ignore ECHR” they tell, going on to explain “The Home Secretary is expected to be given ‘discretion’ to ignore Strasbourg injunctions, known as Rule 39 orders”.

In the Times, “Judges lose power” becomes “Judges will no longer be able to block”, and then in the Tel “given powers” becomes “is expected to be given ‘discretion’”. But the latter does come clean on why the briefing took place: “The move … is expected to head off a revolt by some 60 Tory MPs who have been demanding stronger action against the ECHR”.

The UK is a signatory to the Convention, and although one hates to come over all Neil Kinnock, there is a national newspaper - a national newspaper - talking about elected representatives “demanding … action” against it. The Tel article also claims that any legal action to block deportation flights can only proceed once the allegedly illegal migrant has been deported.

Yeah, right. Then comes the admission “Ministers hope to enact the legislation before the Summer recess”. So it might happen, but then again, it might not. Moreover, any decision using that legislation is highly likely to be contested, given that Ms Braverman has admitted that the Bill’s provisions may not be compatible with the Convention rights.

Copy and Paste client journalism is alive and well. But you knew that already.

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Murdoch Cuts And Runs

It has long been the view of commentators, from the left to those few remaining on the right who are not down the rabbit hole, that Murdoch property Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) is not about news. It is a propaganda outlet, which at the time of the 2020 US Presidential Election was shilling for Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. Who lost.

The Donald could not, would not accept that he lost. Maintaining that he had in reality won, he blamed voter fraud, but there was none. He blamed the left, but this too was bunk. Then he blamed voting machines, which in the retelling had mysteriously switched votes from him to Joe Biden. This was not only untrue, it was preposterous. But that didn’t stop his supporters.

And that is where FNC came unstuck, pushing stories about voting machines which were not only untrue, but that their hosts knew to be untrue. Those hosts gave a platform to wacko conspiracy theorists like lawyer Sidney Powell, knowing all the time that she was lying. And many of those lies were aimed at one company - Dominion Voting Systems.

Ultimately, Dominion sued for defamation. The Murdoch mafiosi were their usual belligerent selves: they kept on lying about voting machines, while getting their lawyers to try and throw the case out. The case did not get thrown out. The discovery phase of the action made public a number of snippets which Don Rupioni would rather had not been made public.

Murdoch admitted he could have intervened to stop the lies, but equally admitted that he didn’t; FNC executives wanted to hold on to their pro-Trump and pro-wacko conspiracy theory audience, rather than lose them by telling them the truth; what the channel did in the run-up to the Presidential Election looked awfully like unpaid advertising for The Trump campaign.

The case should have come to trial this week. But on Monday, a 24 hour delay was announced. By Tuesday, it seemed that the trial would go ahead anyway. But then another delay was announced. Murdoch and his fellow media mafiosi had settled: Dominion would not receive the $1.6 billion they initially demanded in damages, but a lesser $787.5 million.

As the BBC has reported, “The deal spares Fox executives such as Rupert Murdoch from having to testify” before the real taking of the piss: “Fox said Tuesday's settlement in one of the most anticipated defamation trials in recent US history reflected its ‘commitment to the highest journalistic standards’”. FNC doesn’t have any “journalistic standards”.

What the Beeb also told was that “The Fox statement added without elaborating that the network ‘acknowledges the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false’ … Dominion chief executive John Poulos told a press conference the deal included Fox ‘admitting to telling lies, causing enormous damage to my company’”. That’s going to hurt.

We saw how FNC deals with reality. “The lawsuit said that the false claims were partly an effort to win over viewers who were angered by Fox's decision on election night to - correctly - declare that Mr Trump's then-challenger, Joe Biden, had won the crucial state of Arizona … Two of the Fox executives responsible for the Arizona decision lost their jobs two months later”.

Thees organisation does not tolerate reality, Meester Bond. At least the two unfortunate executives were spared poisonous spiders, venom from a spiked toe-cap, being cut in two by a laser beam, electrocution in front of their peers, being thrown to hungry piranha fish, cremated alive, falling into a coffin full of venomous snakes, or being literally thrown to the dogs.

But, as Yashar Ali has noted, Murdoch cutting and running is because of one ego: “1. $787.5 million settlement from Fox … 2. Over 1,000 people charged with federal crimes for Jan 6 … 3. A complex special counsel investigation … 4. Careers and reputations destroyed … 5. A major state investigation … All because one man, Donald Trump, couldn’t admit he lost”.

And it’s not over for Fox News, as Ben Smith observed. “Statement from Smartmatic lawyer Erik Connolly: ‘Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest … Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy”. Another big payout looms.

Pundits from across the political spectrum, from Keith Olbermann to former Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson, had urged Dominion not to settle and to make an example of FNC. Now the same entreaties are being made of Smartmatic. Rupert Murdoch and family made one hell of a mistake.

And Trump? Like he gives a shit about anyone else. Never mind, Rupe, eh?

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Euro Fash Summit - Perhaps

Back in 1940, there was a so-called World’s Fair in Lisbon. Most of the world was otherwise engaged, and perhaps surprised: the only nation other than Portugal to take part was Brazil. The exaggerated title was par for the course for the less than benign régime of António de Oliveira Salazar: it is a concept not lost on the party leader who seeks to follow in his footsteps.

André Ventura. And his twitchy right arm

So no-one should have been surprised to hear that there was to be a “Great right wing world summit”, also in Lisbon, next month. This was the invention of one André Ventura, leader of far-right party Chega, who, as I noted recently, has called for a “new dictatorship”, has been openly racist and misogynist, is intolerant of minorities, and claimed voting may be rigged.

And while Portugal’s constitution prohibits “armed associations, military, militarized or paramilitary-type associations and organizations that are racist or display a fascist ideology”, there is Ventura being openly racist and making a salute with his right arm that looks more than a little Third Reich.

But that was in 2020: now, Ventura leads the third largest party in the Assembly of the Republic. So full of himself that he has called his Summit, which, rather than being “right wing”, will be far-right, and then some. We need only peruse the list of those invited, and those attending, to confirm that this is to be a gathering of the Euro Fash, plus a few hangers-on.

But here a problem enters: gathering all the Euro Fash together represents a monumental security risk. This the local media has acknowledged: “The presence in Lisbon of ‘various leaders of the world’s extreme right promises to be a big headache for PSP police who will have to guarantee security of those taking part in the summit between May 13 and 14’”. Do go on.

“So says Correio da Manhã tabloid today, following up on a video statement recorded by André Ventura, leader of Portugal’s right wing party CHEGA … CM suggests the Lisbon summit aims to emulate events put on by the ‘ultra conservative American movement’, championed by former president Donald Trump”. Ventura’s schtick contains the usual dishonest braggadocio.

“The presence of Jair Bolsonaro, Matteo Salvini and many other leaders of the European right, places Lisbon as one of the strongest new centers of the right in Europe and one of the world references in the fight against socialism; the fight against impoverishment, the fight against globalism, the fight against federalism, the fight against gender ideology, the fight against for the dignity of those who work for those who live at the cost of those who work”. Yawn.

It’s globalists, trans people, it’s people taking YOUR money, it’s someone else’s fault. So who’s coming? “Confirmed for the event already are former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, Geert Wilders of Holland’s Freedom Party, Tino Chupralia, president of Germany’s Alternative (AfD) party, and Santiago Abascal, of Spain’s Vox”.

Also, “Mr Trump has already been sent an invitation to the summit, as has France’s right wing icon Marine Le Pen”. No sign yet of former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, but give it time. And guess what? “CHEGA has been in touch with the ministry of internal administration, ‘which will have to articulate security’ for such VIP attendees”.

Yes, the party that blames it all on those sponging off taxpayers wants to, er, sponge off taxpayers to pay its security bill. Where will it take place? “The city’s Campo Pequeno was one of the first choices, but a decision is still dependent on whether or not this is considered ‘safe enough’ from the point of being able to guarantee attendees’ security”. That’s the Lisbon bull ring.

Which is adjacent to a very busy main road (the Avenida da República), close to one of Lisbon’s main transport hubs at Entrecampos, and houses a shopping mall whose tenants may not take kindly to losing a weekend’s takings just so the Euro Fash and their hangers-on can have a secure jolly.

And while one observer mused “We should not make this bigger than it is. Ventura is just inviting his I&D buddies and a Brazilian far-right entertainer who previously helped open a burger joint in Florida”, another made the obvious point: “Portuguese party Chega will hold a world summit in #Lisbon with several far-right party leaders. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini will attend. So a summit of Nazi Parties. What could go wrong?”. Hence the scepticism.

Will the City of Lisbon pay the security bill for The Man Who Would Be Salazar, the party leader who wants to proclaim the Fourth Republic, scratching the racist itch as he waves his right arm in a style that is not reminiscent of Nazism, honestly? Or is Ventura just on a self-publicity kick?

We may find out well before the weekend of May 13. More on this later.

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No Coronation Let-Up For Megs Hate

With the King’s Coronation, an event which should be a celebratory and joyous one, if only for ardent Royalists, less than a month away, one might have thought that the tsunami of hatred coming from our free and fearless press and directed at the Sussexes might abate for the duration of those celebrations. But that thought would have been sadly misplaced.

Who're you f***ing calling sick and obsessive, c***?!?!?

The right-leaning part of the Fourth Estate, which spends an inordinate amount of time trying to prove true Haz’ claim that they would only stop when his wife was dead, has if anything pushed the pedal even closer to the metal in its collective obsession. If a lone man or woman did what they are doing, they would be accused of stalking. And the accusation would be justified.

Edwin Hayward has been looking at the stats. And they make for worrying reading. “This is what industrial-scale hatemongering looks like. All the stories below attacking Meghan (mainly) and Harry (quite a bit) appeared on the Express website within the last 24H. 44 bile-filled rants in just one day. That's a pace of 16,000 attacks a year”. Was this an isolated 24-hour period?

Sadly not. “Perhaps you're wondering if it's some kind of weird unrepresentative blip? Sadly not. Take a look at this thread of mine from two years ago”. Which told “This is what institutionalised bullying and racism looks like. 50 - yes, fifty - articles attacking Meghan Markle were published on the Express website yesterday. That's *50* articles in *24* hours”.

He also divulged this nugget: “Google has archived over 27,000 separate Express articles which have ‘Meghan’ in the title”. Also, the spewing of hatred never stopped. Never: “the Daily Mail, Express etc. kept up their attacks on Meghan and Harry even during the mourning period for the Queen”. In parallel with the hatred has come fawning talking up of the (now) Waleses.

And this is where the Mail has proudly inflated its latest soufflé of grovelling well beyond the point of structural integrity. Alternatively, the article, “How Kate's ancestor played a key role in abolishing slavery ... after the Sussexes' barbs about Royals and racism” might better be described as turd polishing.

From the start, with the claim “The Princess of Wales’s ancestor was known as ‘greatest American abolitionist’” (Harriet Martineau was not American and visited the USA only once, albeit over a period of several months), the Mail is stretching credibility. The claim that Ms Martineau’s visits to US Presidents James Madison and Andrew Jackson somehow “ultimately set in motion” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is pure speculation.

How DARE she care about her own family?

The linking of the Mail’s heroine to Meg’s ancestors is yet more tenuous. Worse, it has no relevance whatever to the Mail’s unceasing efforts to portray the now Princess of Wales as some kind of superior being, a style icon and wonderful mother beyond criticism. It’s all part of the sick Megs-bashing obsession of the right-wing press. It’s empty and disturbing in equal measure.

After all, this whole piece is an overlong attempt to refute one claim, which the Mail at least mentions: “Prince Harry’s notorious interview with Oprah Winfrey - an interview in which, many maintain, Harry levelled an accusation of racism against the Royal Family with his claim that an unnamed relative had speculated on how dark his (then unborn) baby Archie’s skin would be”.

Authored by one Claudia Joseph, who has also brought the world “'Figure magician' who helped Princess of Wales get in shape after the birth of Prince George closes her business after revealing it 'did not survive' the pressure of her divorce and pandemic losses” and “Well-heeled celebrities follow in Camilla's footsteps by snapping up the Queen Consort's favourite bunion busters - but with five-inch platforms”. Proper highbrow stuff.

And if anyone thinks that is all the Mail is offering us by the way of Megs bashing today, economic migrant Amanda Bloody Platell has excreted “Why female royals must be glad that Meghan is staying away” [no citation], in which she makes a series of potentially actionable claims about Haz.

“Now we know the reason Prince Harry held out so long before accepting his invitation to the Coronation. Far from agonising over his duty to King and country, he was obsessed with the seating plan. He needed to know who he and Meghan, if she deigned to attend, would sit behind and who’d be in front of them. What arrogance to refuse to say until the last minute whether they were coming or not. How rude to fail to reply by the RSVP date”.

How does she know when they replied? But it’s just another day in the seam of sick and creepy obsession mined relentlessly for sales and clicks by a press establishment desperate for cheap copy - and yet more desperate to prop up another part of the establishment, that being the Royal Family.

It’s high time every last one of the bottom-feeding “Royal experts” and pundits was made to go out into the world and get a real job. Like Haz and Megs.

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Nile Gardiner - Partisan Idiot Speaks

Joe Biden has been visiting Ireland, being awarded the privilege of addressing the Oireachtas among his engagements. He also made time to visit Northern Ireland, meeting party leaders and encouraging them in the direction of restoring the power sharing executive at Stormont: The USA is, let us not forget, a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreements of 25 years ago.

Nile Gardiner. At least as stupid as he looks

So far, so routine, but in the fevered mind of partisan pundits, Biden had done something wrong. And there are few pundits more tediously and reliably partisan than Nile “Chauncey” Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. He was aghast at Biden’s behaviour: “Joe Biden has gravely insulted Britain” he whined plaintively.

Do go on. “President Biden’s insulting decision to prioritise Ireland over the UK on his visit to mark the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement should have come as no surprise”. The GFA is about Ireland, Nile. And it was a visit to Ireland. He will make a state visit to the UK later. And talking of state visits.

“It is just as unsurprising as his decision to skip the coronation of King Charles III … His approach towards Britain, traditionally America’s closest friend and ally, has been sneering, arrogant and disrespectful”. Missed that? So did I. But then he admits “Yes, it is true that no US president has ever attended the Coronation of a British monarch. But the last Coronation, of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, was 70 years ago, in the aftermath of World War Two, in a completely different era”. And a Republican President (Eisenhower).

And Nile doesn’t say boo about the GOP. But this is lame rubbish. US Presidents don’t do Coronations. Ike didn’t, nor did FDR in 1937. Biden did attend the funeral service for Elizabeth II, but gets no credit from Gardiner. Instead, Chauncey gets out his quote generator and moans loudly.

“An additional factor shaping Biden’s treatment of Britain is his intense animosity towards Brexit, and his adoration of the European Union … Biden has shamelessly appeased the EU and its powerhouses of Paris and Berlin, while often treating London with barely disguised menace and disdain”.

No citation, and none will be forthcoming. He whines at Biden because that’s what he did to Barack Obama, and what he does to all Dems. Compare and contrast with the visit to the UK in 2019 by Combover Crybaby Donald Trump: “The roaring success of Trump's state visit proves the Special Relationship is alive and well … this was one of the most effective overseas visits of the Trump presidency”. It may have been effective. But not in the way suggested.

While Gardiner simpered “But the grandeur of the state visit was matched by the force of Mr Trump’s message for the British people. His top policy priority was to advance a US-UK free trade deal which, when put in place, will be one of the biggest bilateral trade deals ever signed … the president made it crystal clear that he wants a trade deal implemented as soon as possible, ideally by 2020”, he missed the Trump gaffe that caused all the trouble.

Not that he’d admit that a Republican President did gaffes, or interfered in domestic UK politics. But Trump did just that, after he admitted “I think we’re going to have a great trade deal … We’re going to have a great and very comprehensive trade deal … I think everything with a trade deal is on the table. When you’re dealing with trade, everything’s on the table”. Do go on.

“So NHS or anything else … a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table”. Whoops! The Brexit Party and its Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who had been such enthusiastic supporters of The Donald, and who were expected to win the Peterborough by-election that took place a few days after Trump made those remarks, didn’t. They lost. It was Trump wot lost it.

But there was nothing but praise from Gardiner. “While the European Union will wait years, even decades, for a trade deal with America, Britain could have one within a year, provided it leaves the EU on October 31”. Didn’t happen. It was never going to happen. Not in the real world.

Not that Chauncey was going to tell readers of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph. Instead, he sneered “Joe Biden is increasingly portrayed on both sides of the Atlantic as a bumbling, gaffe-prone president who mumbles his words, and can be strikingly incoherent in public settings. This is an accurate assessment”. No it isn’t. It’s just partisan abuse.

And never forget: this is the idiot who, while he was having a sneer at Barack Obama, said “When John F. Kennedy delivered his ‘Ich Bin Ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 26, 1963, 450,000 people flocked to hear him". Except that the Brandenburg Gate was on the other side of the wall, in East Berlin. JFK spoke at the Rathaus Schöneberg.

That’s what happens when you’ve never had a proper job. Sad, really.

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Dan Wootton - You’re A Sick Man

Still generating more heat than light at the broadcasting noise floor occupant that is Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), otherwise unemployable economic migrant Dan Wootton has been promoting his own view of the world, in which Combover Crybaby Donald Trump is good, the actual US President Joe Biden is bad, and don’t mention the Sussexes.

He's desperate, Dan

Someone out there may actually agree with Desperate Dan, but whoever they are, they’re keeping awfully quiet about it. He warmed up by slagging off Biden. “For all of the British folk who loudly celebrated the demise of Trump, well now you have an anti-British President … If anyone was in any doubt about Biden’s deep hatred of the UK, today proved it beyond doubt”.

It did? There was more. “Biden has made his anti-British feelings clear on many occasions [just the one (poor) example] … Joe Biden leaves the special relationship hanging by a thread”. No thought is allowed to enter that the act of leaving the EU might have made the UK less relevant to the USA. No proof of this supposed hatred. No credibility Dan Wootton. No change there.

And another subject where there is no change from the obsession, tantrum throwing and bile spewing is The Sussexes. Like former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, Wootton’s creepy obsession with Megs would have lesser people seeing a visit from the cops asking them if they didn’t have anything less cringe inducing to occupy their time.

Meanwhile, he’s been continuing his obsession in yet another Mail Online column. “Has gutless Meghan swerved the Coronation because she can't stand the thought of being booed? Kate's relief will be palpable, but she'll still have to keep furious William away from his treacherous brother Harry” he told his adoring followers as he made up yet another screed of sick fantasy.

He varied the rant to claim “So Meghan bottles it, leaving Prince Harry to attend the Coronation alone in order to avoid boos from angry Brits in the crowd. But how sad to deny the king the chance to see his two grandchildren who will remain in California”. You capitalise the word King, Dan, and if Brian wants to see his grandchildren, he can fly over to the USA. Sorted.

Dan who?

But this is hypocritical: Wootton has spent months saying that Megs should not attend the Coronation. Now that she’s not coming, he rants about her “bottling it”, which is a strange way to say “prioritising the fourth birthday of son Archie”. All because he probably had something like “Selfish Meghan to steel Coronation limelight. Kate in tears” lined up and now can’t use it.

This is, let us not forget, the creep who went after Caroline Flack right up to the point that the unfortunate former Love Island presenter took her own life, and then claimed that he was her friend. That sums up the entitlement of the media class: when ordinary people do it, it’s sick, obsessive hatred. When Desperate Dan Wootton does it, it’s award winning journalism.

Remember, after the Queen died, it did not take long for Wootton to take out his obsession and wave it: “A pitch perfect address to the nation by King Charles III. Vowed to move on from the issues he cares so deeply. Endorsed Wills and Kate as the Prince and Princess of Wales. Expressed his love to Harry and Meghan, even though they plan to trash him”. There was more.

“Meghan Markle’s pack of lies to her nodding BFF Oprah Winfrey suggesting the monarchy is a racist institution [she didn’t] and casting doubt on its senior members is now providing a significant boost to the fast-moving republican cause in Jamaica at the worst possible moment. For all their talk of believing in and loving the Commonwealth pre-Megxit [strawman], Harry and Meghan have become the pin-ups for its destruction [no citation]”. And, sadly, more.

“As the journalist who broke the most stories about former Suits star Meghan’s tumultuous time in the Royal Family, including the Sussexes decision to Megxit, it’s utter hogwash to suggest her race played any role in the ensuing rows … Meghan wasn’t pushed out of the Royal Family because of ethnicity”. Says over-privileged and over-promoted white man.

His name’s Dan, he’s a desperate man. And increasingly irrelevant.

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