There is a growing sense of concern among some Daily Mail writers and editorial executives about their newspaper's devotion to Gordon Brown. "Some of us are starting to feel we're writing for a Labour paper like the Mirror," says one. "The Mail's coverage of David Cameron's trip to Rwanda was mad. There was no attempt to give him any benefit of the doubt. The attacks were amazingly skewed."Columnist Richard Littlejohn has noticeably distanced himself from the Brown worship of the leader columns and the news pages. And Mail sketchwriter Quentin Letts all but disowned the paper's anti-Cameron coverage of the Rwanda trip on Sky News on Wednesday afternoon, so I am told, saying that he was "freelance" and had nothing to do with the stuff.
With Mail editor Paul Dacre currently away sick, how much longer can Brown rely on such a free ride from this supposedly conservative paper? Graphic Hat-tip Theo Spark
57 comments:
Is that graphic a retread of the Hilton/Cameron one? Cameron failed to present his trip and his concern over the floods in the right way.
Many of us have no doubt he was right to go and have said so here and there but your party's discomfiture after those terrible by-elections and Cameron's little boy lost performance is not something that either Labour commentators or the MSM should be expected to pass up.
A Fleet Street insider told me that the Mail was full of bastards and that staffers wrote what they were told to or they were out of the door.
Doesn't say a lot for the dreadful rag, does it?
(Yes, I know. The national dailies attract bastards, but these Daily Mail bastards apparently have a Phd in Bastardy at the University of Woudntpissonyouifyouwereonfireshire.)
Welcome back!
"those terrible by-elections"
So RuPaul, you mean the by-elections wher the only major party to see a contractionin their share of the vote, was Brown Honeymoon Labour?
Haven't the nurses come round with your medication yet? You must be getting awfully drowsy by now.
Nurse! Nurse! get RuPaul back to bed before he falls off his chair and wets himself.
Anyway,
Odd as it may seem, I suspect Dacre is another closet pinko, who has been playing right-wing journo/editor, to pay his mortage. I mean c'mon, has the Daily Hate Mail helped the Tories, one bit, in the last ten years?? It is good at reminding people why they stopped voting for Conservative.
Dacre betrayed his true trot leanings when he delivered that speech on the BBC a while ago, he started with words to the effect that, he couldn't live without Radio 4 and would gladly pay the licence fee just for that.
No self-respecting right-winger could say that!
Correct me if i am wrong, but the Mail have NEVER supported Cameron.
The paper is not that pro-Brown either...
The Daily Mail isn't a 'conservative' paper Iain, it's a womans paper.
"
The paper is not that pro-Brown either..."
Compared to the BBC, then no.
But considering it is supposed to be the arch Conservative, right-wing paper, then yes it bloody-well is Pro-Brown! Being very anti-Cameron as well, is also an indirect way of supporting the bogeyman.
A very interesting question Iain to which the answer is that things will continue until Dacre gets his knighthood from Brown. Presumably the owners of the Mail think its worth it?
It is also not just the pro-Brown stuff but also the attack dogs that Dacre lets loose on Conservatives. Messrs Phillips, Littlejohn and Hitchens etc.
This is insidious stuff and has eroded support for the Conservatives. The fact that these attack dogs would rather vent at the only party capable of a) winning an election and b) governing with some right leaning policies, is the mystery.
Still I guess the regular large Mail cheque helps sooth their conscience.
In fact Browns performance when it can be seen has been utterly mediocre .He has lied on Europe , he has been culpable on the floods and even the New Statesman says "lucky". He has been comfortably outclassed in debate and this lack of quality gives me great hope . the Mail has been crucial in magnifying this nonentity
Its odd you say this Iain because I was only today thinking "That is it " , as of now I realise the Daly Mail and I are not alike . They seem to to like old Style Socialist Flag waving whereas I value the structures of the country. They are fascists and I am, a Conservative not only that but they are bloody lazy journalists .
This was the end of one of today`s posts
“Most importantly when Cameon went to Witney to see his Constituents who were already suffering , prior to his Rwanda trip, the BBC refused to cover it . Tara Hamilton Miller reveals that Cameron personally called the BBC to complain knowing how vital shots of him knee deep in Oxfordshire water were .
I am furious with the BBC but oddly happy to discover that I am not , as I had assumed, a Daily Mail Reader. Their support for Gollum Brown has estranged me forever.”
I will never trust the Mail again . Their gullibility is beneath me and I am tired of tub thumping if there is no real loyalty to the country behind it . All those who love this country must clearly fight against he imposition of the horror of Brown Socialism.
ONCE AGAIN THE MAIL HAS SHOWN ITSELF SUSCEPTIBLE TO FASCISM
And that is what Brown is . National Socialism high taxes but keep the workers on board by being nasty to the darkies.. It has been a woeful few weeks for this Paper and I hope they realise that not everyone sways with each passing breeze. It will not be forgotten.
Traitors.
They got a voodoo doll in that newsroom?
Popbitch seems to think he's about to kick the bucket... (Dacre, that is)
Iain, Iain
Yr such a gentleman yr attempt to be like...well, the Mail, in yr post is slightly laughable.
I know many Mail staff who'd rather be writing for the Guardian, frankly. So what?
Dacre sees the difference between substance and style. Not to say Dave doesn't have substance, he does, but, crucially, his truthful substance doesn't fit his current style. By which I mean, I've heard from various people how rightwing Dave really is, or was, but he's swallowing his own hype. Rather like, er, Tony did. Just in a second rate kind of way.
Anyhow, none of this matters. Dacre and the Mail will still urge voters to go for the Tories at the next election, unless things really go unbelievably tits up for the Cameroonies.
Since becoming PM Gordon Brown has announced a review of the supercasino decision, a review of the decision to reclassify cannabis, and a review of 24-hour drinking - all Daily Mail campaigns.
Is it therefore that surprising that the Mail is giving him a fair wind at the moment? There's no point being a campaigning newspaper if you then piss all over people when they back your campaigns.
I am a big fan of BBC's Head to Head programme. At the moment the only pro tory voice who also happens to very balanced and fair is Michael Gove.
Watching Janet Daily last week I was relieved that David Aaronvitch was there to provide some balance, in fact when he has to step in and do that from a Conservative perspective then I know that we have serious unbalance in the media at the moment.
As for the Daily Mail columnists Phillips, Littlejohn and Hitchens where is the Conservative balance in that rag?
They tend to kick the Conservatives harder than McGuire of the Daily Mirror. Odd thing was I told someone last week that the Daily Mail had become the Daily Mirror's identical twin!
The idea that Mail staff would dare rebel is absurd. On any paper, it is the editor or proprietor who sets the agenda, and journalists write what they are told or, in the case of commentators, are hired because of the opinions they are known to hold.
The Right is endlessly whining about lack of support from papers such as the Mail and the Telegraph, as if the Tories are owed it as of right. In fact, papers are rarely slavish - some of the most trenchant attacks on Labout over the years came from the Guardian and, to a lesser extent, the Independent. Support has to be earned.
Furthermore, papers generally like to be seen to back winners, and Cameron doesn't look like that.
I suppose it's tempting to blame all negative coverage on some elaborate consipracy (Dacre as a closet lefty - come on!) rather than the truth that the Tories are pretty unappealing.
The Mail has always been on the right. David Cameron is an Eco Leftie so he will not have their support. Gordon Brown is giving the impression of a steady hand. He has agreed to the new Aircraft Carriers. He is looking at drugs classification.etc.
All the Tory supporters I know would rather have Brown than Cameron. Can you not see what is going on.
Its not David Camerons Conservatives its our Consevatives sheer arogance.
'He has agreed to the new Aircraft Carriers.'
Is that quite right? Brown was in France last week but has there been some agreement announced? The relationship with a wholly devolved Scotland and their government's attitude to these aircraft carriers has presumably altered the situation too. With whom has Brown agreed. And to what, precisely ?
I've been ranting for weeks about Dacre and his lickspittles, who have turned the Mail into the Mirror. Letts, Waterhouse and Littlejohn are the only ones to still attack the bogeyman, although Littlejohn has a go at Cameron too.
I hear Dacre is unwell. I don't wish ill of the man, but I hope he steps aside soon to allow a Tory to run the most Tory of newspapers.
Oh noooooo! I despair. Even Iain has got the 'It's all the meeedjas fault' bug. For Christ's sake wise up. Your party are performing miserably, Cameron cocked-up big style in the by-election, you're there to be shot at like anyone else. Whinging about the media... now that's the way to get the media on board.
Try first principles... that is try getting some bloody principles first, then someone might listen. But trying to run the Mandleson/Campbell campaign 12 years later just sucks.
hatfield girl.
That's right. The carriers are to be built in Rosyth, with the blessing of the SNP. It's official.
Dacre has obviously sold his soul to the Devil , Brown.
Most of you do not understand who/what you are dealing with.
Brown isnt Saturnine he is Satanic, as you are going to find out within the next few weeks.
9 points behind in the Torygraph
England wants a party of The Right not a rainbow alliance.
The Daily Mail wants a party of The Right.
Iain - if West Ham only play up the left wing its very easy for the oppo to out-play up the right.
"So RuPaul, you mean the by-elections wher the only major party to see a contractionin their share of the vote, was Brown Honeymoon Labour?"
err I think government usually lose by elections, not increase their vote.You see, opposition parties on their way to power actually win by elections.
Stay in denial though, please..
To Middle England, Brown is the strong moral leader, against casinos, pro security and an unexciting but capable chancellor.
I will never vote Labour. But, I will never vote for Cameron.
The Daily Mail responds to real life in Britain, not poncey Londoners, and while I will not vote at the next election, Brown is the devil I know.
The Mail once supported the blackshirts.
And as for that dastardly take over of the News Chronicle....
Duke of Edinburgh
...a bloody awful newspaper...
(OK he was talking about the Express)
"To Middle England, Brown is the strong moral leader,"
Utter nonsnense, he is a Scottish, Stalinist thief who stole their pensions. Not a moral crusader.
Perhaps before the Mail implodes we can persuade it to take Heffer back ? I was a big fan when he first arrived, but now think I have been hijacked.
I hardly recognise the Telegraph any more.
Alan Douglas
Major lept into a 15% lead when he first took over , of course he was in power for seven years although looking back we might have wished Labour were there for the ERM.
In fact the New Statesman wrote about the Mail position a while ago predicting that maintaining their pro Brown Stance was not going to be possible for long .It is a paper read by Consertives and , like me , they will start to turn off.
They well know that it is their readers who will be suffering the inevitable high tax regime Brown is committed to with his Union and left wing friends.They cannot afford to have been a supporter of the misery to come and they will back Cameron given the smallest excuse .
This is not over by a long way.Cameron has surged back with confidence and the signs of the end of the honeymoon are already there. Conservatives will now pull together as will all right thinking people to save the country form the fascist Gollum Brown and his National Socialism
I must say that the trip to Africa was innapropriate at this time when we have a National Flood disaster here! IDS's well researched & a true study of todays UK is a Conservatism at it's best...BUT what about "The West Lothian ?", Prisons, Immigration,Pensions,Security,et al .
Attack ..Attack, Attack..we need to tackle Labour on so many fronts... The goal is wide open...can anyone accept HH as Leader of the House & DLOt Labour Party!..Jacqui Smith as Home Sec'...could go on & on there are so many flaws in the Labour Party team !
The Electorate is only aware of the spin & soundbites of Blairism... it doesn't want scraps from the Tories it wants a strong, very strong Opposition that is Conservative.
I wrote to complain about this very subject yesterday. Sick of this grovelling stance, they will start to see readership decline if they continue.
Poor Mr Littlejohn, he must be in a real tizz. On the one hand, he hates Broon and has the agony of the Mail kissing his puritanical rear. And on the hand, he can hardly address the balance by praising Cameron for going to Rwanda can he? What was it Littlejohn said of Rwanda...
"Does anyone really give a monkey's about what happens in Rwanda? If the Mbongo tribe wants to wipe out the Mbingo tribe then as far as I am concerned that is entirely a matter for them.
Now that's the true voice of the Mail!
It's interesting that despite the "less informed" Labour apparatchiks who enjoy slagging off "The Daily Mail" and its readership Gordon knows he has to win them over if he has any hope of securing a 4th term of government. There are a lot of marginal seats in middle england where the sitting Labour MP has a slim majority with the Conservatives in second place. If he can stop enough of these people switching to or voting Conservative by appearing more "conservative" than Cameron and at the same time getting his tame media to attack the Conservative leader and his party for vague;touchy-feely liberal tendencies whilst sublimily attaching Blair's image of "all spin no substance" to Cameron whilst he attaches to himself an image of serious, effective and capable,short on spin and big on substance - he's probably won and the games up for "David Cameron's Conservative Party"
If Kinnock had been there for the ERM Newmania, we would have been thrown back to the 1960's and had taxes back to 90%. No thanks. If only we had not had the europhiles running the Conservative Party at that time, we would have avoided it all.
The Mail staff have noticed that their newspaper has gone nuts - just coincidentally at the same moment exactly as Murdoch launches attacks on Cameron in all his media and the BBC start to act strangely blanking Cameron's visits to flood-stricken Witney and so on.
Several polls emerge which have all dropped 'others' to around 10% from 15% for some reason ignoring the current BNP surge which is about 5% nationally or possibly more.
The figure allocated to Brown looks quite flattering at over 40% but it is a fabrication. And he knows it.
What's it all about?
There is no obvious strategy to go for an election by Brown as he knows that he is vulnerable. If he doubted it Sedgefield has shown him with his vote down 14% in favour of 9% to the BNP and 5% more going to the LD's.
what stands out a mile is that all these falsified 'polls'(See the pathetic ICM Guardian apology yesterday for their misleading attempts) and news coverage 'errors' (blanking Cameron's flood visits) are targeted on something, as they are so coordinated in time and in purpose.
this is a bare faced assassination attempt on Cameron exactly like the one in October 2003 that was launched against IDS.
Cameron is standing firm against the EU Constution which is why Brown is getting such biassed media cooperation against Cameron. People can sense that things are a bit odd and it opens up an opportunity for Cameron.
He could start working directly to voters bypassing the media to get his messaage out. By leafleting stories showing how the media are in effect not communicating the truth, he could win support. It's time to get the foot soldiers going.
Having this other channel working for him would mean he could talk about the EU Constitution in print without having to be talking too much about it in the media, being pilloried as a xenophobe etc.
To survive in the current onslaught, which he will, he needs two faces...one for the media and one for the voters.
I reckon both the Mail and Brown are trying to lull each other into a false sense of security.
It won't last long.
Face it.
For a political party to be elected it must be organised... and disciplined .. cos it sure needs to be to be a Government. Labour learned that after 10 years in Oposition... it took another 9 to be elected.
Now the current Conservative front bench is a shadow ministry of no talent and the party id indisciplined and disorganised.
Frankly IF they were voted into power they would make a mess of it.
Even the dumbest voter can sense that...
pleased you feel you are competent to speak on behalf of the dumbest voter, madasafish.
Hatfield Girl, yes absolutely the point. Cui Bono, eh?
Councillor Piper:"Try first principles... that is try getting some bloody principles first, then someone might listen".
Hilarious! This is from a Labour councillor??
my mate works at the gordian - for about 20 years. he tells me that he finds working there less fun now as they are working within such tight controls over what they are allowed to say.
the media have left reality somewhere behind. it's time to leave them behind. take to direct communications to voters via leaflet.
Thank you WW@12.16.
How exciting, perhaps the Labour Leader intends to reincarnate the British aircraft industry so that there will be planes to fly off the carriers, the British steel industry and even, one day, the British car industry, too.
Though building the ships in 5 (or is it 3? or some other number) bits and then welding the bits together at Rosyth is very daring. Still, it does spread the work about in the way the unions wanted.
Poland has a highly skilled shipbuilding workforce so that should help.
Why would you expoect the Mai to support Cameron?
It is a Conservative newspaper afterall.
And Littlejohn was Highly critical of CMDs Jolly to africa. The title of his Article:
Out of Africa Dave, it's time to get serious
LINK
Simon at “July 26, 2007 10:44 PM” is spot on.
A journ worth his salt can and should be able to switch between one political leaning to another at the drop of a hat, that is their job to write what the boss tells them. They are not policy makers or opinion shapers, they are writers. Opinion is left to the “Columnists”, not the work force who report the news for the paper. The fact that Daily Mail Journos are kicking up a fuss indicates that the lunatics seem to control the asylum, who the hell do they think they are.
Broon claims he has a ministry of all the talents. A quick cross check of the cabinet shows that they have a common background, they have emerged from the morass of student politics, local government, quangos, pressure groups, charities and the not for profit sectors of the economy. Most seem to have no direct connection or involvement with wealth creation or profitable businesses. It is hardly a ministry of all the talents, perhaps even a minstry of the talentless, but Cameron and his minions don't lay into Broon for this.
Broon stands for a centalised Whitehall (Gordon) knows best approach, but it clearly doesn't work, the response to the flooding is slow, Milliband and Beckett fail to ensure that flood defences were kept in order but DC does little to highlight Broon and Bliar's failings. Ainsworth was on C4 News the other night - almost came over as a complete waste of space, and rather unconvincing.
Broon offers £600m rising to £800m on flood defences - small beer compared to capital spending by the water companies. But is this for coastal or river defences in Britain, or partiuclarly England. The Tories have to hold Broon to account, unless they do they face anther period out of power.
Blair spends 3 weeks cavorting around the country like a showman with Broon in the wings - did DC attack this dual premiership or not.
Broon claims that it is a new government - but Broon was Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years for Blair and so somehow isn't tarnished by Blair. If that isn't spin I don't know what is.
The list of Nulab failings is long, tax credits, NHS computer systems, Child Support Agency, pensions, flood defences, a shambolic transport policy, education, computerised recruitment of doctors, etc. There are plenty of areas where Broon and Co have made a mess of things, yet silence is the order of the day.
The Tories had been the most ruthless political party in Western Europe, holding power in Britain for much of the 20th Century, yet since 1997 they have allowed themselves to be constantly outmanoeverd by NuLab. Does DC have enough nous to revese this trend? I not sure that he is the right man for the job of turfing Broon and NuLab out. DC has not been playing to his strengths since Blair stepped aside, and although Broon is charisma free, he is ruthless and determined to retain power. PMQs aside what has DC done to damnage Broon's reputation? Perhaps he is hoping that a continued stock market crash will do the job instead.
It's utterly bizarre that within our "free" press there is such editorial control and strict partisanship. I haven't bought a paper for ages but when I do I like the fact that The Times has pro-Labour and anti-Labour articles on the same page.
I also think that everybody sees through this right-wing Brownism on casinos, cannabis and booze - apart from the Mail readers apparently.
In a way, I feel for Gordon Brown. He has been handed a thoroughly sucked orange by Blair, who spent his last few months taking the pith as well. Now he's also finding that the top job needs a skill set he doesn't necessarily have, like Scotty taking over the Enterprise.
Similarly, Blair was in the wrong post for 10 years - his charm and persuasion might have achieved so much if he'd been Foreign Secretary. Instead, he made himself the absentee landlord of a crumbling democracy.
Is Peter Hitchens right to say that we need both major parties to fall apart before we can get reconnection to the people?
Sackerson
I am getting sick to the proverbial back teeth with right wing commentators who unlike their opposite numbers can never see anything good about the only Party representing their views.
Heffer
Daley
Hitchens
and others are , after all only in the business of selling their twittering scribble and their incessant shrieking faux outrage becomes increasingly pointless not to say subject to diminishing returns of entertainment . They will all head the way of George Walden whose nasty self aggrandising book “Time To Emigrate “ is so queasily overfull of his intellectual ,soi disant, conciet I could not finish it .
What do they get for handing the country to Brown and his One Party Fascism.
Thirty Pieces of Silver ? .................and the rest.
Regretably the Tories will have to employ an "Alister Campbell" type to get the media to treat us fairly.
Following the treatment of Kinnock it was the only way Labour could deal with their media opposition.
The "30 pieces of silver" seems a very apt description for Heffer, Daley, Hitchens, Pascoe-Watson, Phillips and Littlejohn plus the Times hacks.
PS I never knew that Alister Campbell was behind that ex BBC "independent" MP.
Simon said... The Right is endlessly whining about lack of support from papers such as the Mail and the Telegraph, as if the Tories are owed it as of right. In fact, papers are rarely slavish - some of the most trenchant attacks on Labout over the years came from the Guardian and, to a lesser extent, the Independent. Support has to be earned.
The BBC have attacked Labour too. The only thing is Simon, all these attacks have been from the left, so they do not add weight to your argument.
The Tory leadership has been its own worst enemy for not going after Brown. Maybe that will change sooner rather than later. When it does, maybe the lazy hacks throughout the MSM might realise there are some stories out there showing Brown is not the straight guy he claims to be.
The fact is too many people rely on what the press feeds them. If the press decides to turn a blind eye because some stories do not fit their current agenda, then people will not get a fair reflection of the state of affairs.
That is why the Tories need to step up several gears and go to work loudly explaining Labour's failings and Brown's spin, distancing from his own policies, incompetence and faux sincerity.
If the media don't want to play our records, Newmania, by-pass them.
go through street level leafleting direct to voters. it will get the message delivered, and win far more respect to see a human face behind the message.
Newmania, I can see your point of view, though Hitchens started from the left. I guess he discovered that concern and respect for ordinary people is not actually the real business of the left.
But we do seem to have a problem with our system of representative democracy - I've lived in a number of places and never had an MP I voted for. Currently I'm in a constituency with a nuke-proof Labour majority. in over 20 years, they've never even sent someone to ask for my vote. The first time I heard Roy Hattersley's voice live was from the megaphone on the Party car when he retired, saying in effect, "So long, and thanks for all the fish". It seems that to get a change of government you have to have a disaster, so you are forced to wish your country ill to wish it well.
What's the answer? Do we need a different voting system?
Binding referendums would help Sackerson; referendums arising from popular initiative which, when voted on, either instigate new legislation or annul extant legislation.
When the state has become as intrusive and extensive in its dealings with citizens as has ours, a single vote every few years should the Executive decide to have one, is not nearly enough but totalitarian, not democratic.
"If the media don't want to play our records, Newmania, by-pass them.go through street level leafleting direct to voters. it will get the message delivered, and win far more respect to see a human face behind the message."
Naive in the extreme.Any party on its way to Number 10 needs a positive press.The fact is Cameron was the story for 18 months , now Brown is the story.Each PMQs is followed with news reports leading on some policy announcement from Brown.Brown has momentum, it may not last but for the time being there is little the Tories can do about it.
As for The Mail.It's readers will overwhelmingly vote Tory as they have always done.A non story...
HG:
Like the Californian Proposition 13, demanding a cut in State taxation, that (despite the warning from economists) turned CA into the most prosperous State in the Union? Brilliant idea!
S, Wouldn't it be great if we woke up and the American constitution had been agreed as the pattern for our constitution.
Sackerson - If it appears that Gollum Brown cannot get his precous by the current system don`t worry .. there will very soon be some " Constitutional Reform " to his advantage.
Did Peter Hitchens start on the left I know Christopher did. Some of his old stuff is priceless
Those two aircraft carriers that Gollum announced...are they in addition to the two that Tone announced last year? And the £135m allocated for the rebuilding of Birmingham New Street Station, is that another on top of what the £135m already promised?
No. It mut be true. After all, the polls say that Broon is a legal decent honest and truthful 'regular type' of PM, who wouldn't stoop to anything as low as spin (like announcing spending that's already been announced)…and our guardians of truth, those fearless men and women of our exalted corps of journalists would surely have spotted if he was pulling a fast one.
Four aircraft carriers, eh! Britannia will surely rule the waves once more. In fact is that the sound of celebratory orgasms I hear coming from the offices of the ‘Snail on Monday’ ?....or is it just a bunch of w*****s at work?
Geezer: are you seriously contending that those by-elections were not terrible for the Tories and very particularly for Dave-id Cameron?
Obviously the Labour share fell. These were by-elections. We are incumbents and in government. But these were fantastic results for LP and saying any different makes you seem like an idiot, which I'm sure you're not really.
Love RuPaul reference ... ha ha ... so tall and so lean and so beautiful ... but can't help think the personal attacks in general are not the way to go ...
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