Tag: Daily Mail

Edward and the Rabid Right

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I was never one who thought Ed Milliband was the best choice for Labour leader. It seems I was totally wrong. The Daily Mail launched an attack on the leader of the opposition in a flanking move by making a flanking move against his dead father.

Why would they attack dead man? Well, obviously a dead man can’t fight back. It’s easier to attack the defenceless, and that’s’ the usual tactic of the right when you can’t win on the substance of the debate.

In footballing terms it’s a professional foul. The Mail seems to aspire to be the Vinnie Jones of journalism. That is a typical tactic of the rabid right; to hell with the facts, a good lie will do.

We can see the same thing elsewhere. In the USA the Republican right have shut down the government in an attempt to stop the implementation of the Obamacare bill. They think it is their patriotic duty to attack the country, the poor in particular.

If the facts don’t suit then invent new ones. Here we have a government who have consistently failed in the central plank of their mission to sort out the economy. They boldly declare that we are now seeing recovery and accuse the opposition of more borrowing while that is exactly what they are doing.

They distract the public’s attention by introducing controversial laws such as same sex marriage and attack the unemployed as the cause of our economic ills. They ignore the failings of banks and financial services whose behaviour continues to be not only counterproductive but often illegal.

Yes, ignore the rubbish coming out of Manchester this week but beware of that dead guy, he must be dangerous still.

I now look to Ed Milliband with a new sense of admiration. If the Mail is attacking him, in a cowardly way, then he must be good. I look to him to keep the country’s eyes fixed on the continuing failures of C

What the Coalition Sees Fit

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I read, with considerable interest, the Daily Mail account of how Joan Edwards’ bequest to the nation was , somehow, diverted into the coffers of the two parties that form our Coalition Government.

Miss Edwards lef about half a million pounds to “whichever government is in office at the date of my death for the government in their absolute discretion to use as they may think fit.” There is no mention of a political party which is in power (in contrast with the account given by party spin doctors). The executors of the will sent the money to the coalition.

What did they consider using the money for? What did they, in their absolute discretion, do with the money, the whole of her estate? They divided it between the Tories and the Lib Dems.

Presumably miss Edwards made the will before the last election and assumed that a British Government, in their ‘absolute discretion’, would put the money to good use, for the benefit of the nation they are pledged to serve. Unfortunately, that’s not the sort of government we have in power at the present time.

Critics of the government can make all sorts of arguments about the economic policies of the government, dismal as they are, or comment on their treatment of the poor. Nothing they say can condemn this shallowexcuse for a government so completely as their own actions in this matter. What sort of people are they? This sad episode exposes exactly the self-obsessed, money grabbing, untrustworthy politicians who give the profession such a bad name.

Politics in the UK has sunk to an unfathomable low today. What are people to think of anyone in politics? A dark shadow of mistrust has been cast over the whole of Westminster by a crowd of pickpockets. What do you think the chances of retrieving the money are? I don’t give it much hope.