Monday 7 October 2013

The Mail, Ed Miliband & other 'moral' parties


AS the tussle between Ed Miliband and the Daily Mail intensifies,
what a 'task' it's been trying to 'choose sides' and pinpoint one's
'British values'.

Ralph Miliband "hated Britain", the Mail alleges, a headline
intended to register a typical Mail hatred and revel in its controversy,
even while riding the considerable public backlash.

While the claims against him are, of course, spurious in their very
terms of reference, it's fitting that the Mail chose the verb  'hated',
thus revealing not just its desperate distortions but its core mindset.

And yet, while trying to avoid that same net of hateful invective, it's 
hard to decide which parties here are the more reprehensible.

Including the seemingly obvious, here's some further 'valued'
choices to reflect on:
~ The poisonous Mail, maligning a learned Marxist and
principled man in naked pursuit of his son.

~ 'Red Ed's' own declared rejection of his father's socialist ideals
in preference to continuous neoliberal ones, all in standard
Labourite service to leading class interests, capitalist order and
safe political office.

~ The hypocrite, opportunist and war criminal Alastair Campbell,
coming to his leader's defence in savaging the odious Mail's Deputy
Editor John Steafal on Newsnight.

~ Newsnight, the rest of the BBC and other liberal media lauding
Campbell's intervention, thus giving him even more hiding space
for his war crimes.

~ Cameron and Clegg empathisisng with Miliband in the name
of media and public 'decency', after their own rightist pandering
to Daily Mail prejudice and efforts to take the country into
another murderous, indecent war.

~ Liberal oulets like the Guardian gloating over the Mail's public
discomfort and withdrawal of large corporate advertisers, while
it protects villains like Blair and Campbell, rationalises Western
wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria, and continues to take multiple
advertising cheques from planet-destroying corporations.

~ The oligarch-owned Independent preaching to the Lord-owned
Daily Mail.

Hard to decide, eh? There's just so many noble media institutions,
moral political figures and great 'British values' to choose
from here.  It's just a pity Ralph Miliband himself isn't here to
help shed more light on them all.

No comments: