As the SKWAWKBOX showed yesterday, the attack of the Establishment media on Labour MP Laura Pidcock hit a new low with articles in various rags accusing her of hypocrisy for taking a birthday trip to Venice that was planned before she was even an MP. Ms Pidcock had Labour’s permission for the absence, the debate she missed was called after she had left – and the debate was not linked to any vote.
Desperate attempts to smear by an intellectually bankrupt Establishment.
The Mail Online article contained a quote from Tory MP Andrew Percy – and then it contained an amended version of the quote. In the first version, Percy accused Ms Pidcock of “hypocrisy that gives politics a bad name” because, in his words, she was
Laura Pidcock should be apologising to her constituents and to Parliament for doing what she herself accused others of just a few days before.
The only slight problem was, she had made no such accusation. So the Mail changed the wording of the quote – without any acknowledgement of the error or apology to Ms Pidcock:
Laura Pidcock should be apologising to her constituents and to Parliament for doing what her fellow Labour MPs accused others of just a few days before.
Quite something to be demanding an apology and accusing someone of hypocrisy – then to fail to apologise when you screw up.
But were the error and the change the responsibility of the Mail, or of the MP? We asked Mr Percy’s office about it. A response was promised by 5pm yesterday, but had still not materialised by the same time today. So we sent a follow-up email reiterating the questions and advising Mr Percy how the article would need to be written if he chose not to respond, so he could make an informed decision:
Still waiting for the response I was promised yesterday by 5pm regarding the Mail’s changes to Andrew’s quote. Now Sky News has published a quote very similar to the original one in the Mail.
Please respond by return with answers to the following:
- which version of the words is correct – the one accusing Laura Pidcock of personally criticising Tory MPs for not voting or the later one saying Labour MPs made the criticism?
- did you change the quote or did the Mail? If the latter, did they have your advance permission for them to do so?
- what do you think of the Mail changing its quotation of your words without publishing a correction notice or apology to Ms Pidcock?
- you criticised Laura Pidcock’s absence on the basis that she or Labour MPs had criticised Tory MPs for being absence for last week’s UC vote. There was no vote this week, so she merely missed – with her whips’ permission – some talking in the Commons and didn’t miss a vote. Isn’t that in fact hypocritical and disingenuous of you?
Fast answer, please. If you don’t respond, the questions will be published anyway with a note that you failed to respond.
Mr Percy declined emphatically to make any response on the record – either to address the changed wording of his quote or the question of hypocrisy, or to make any apology to Ms Pidcock for any inaccuracy in his original statement.
For any Tory MP to make either version of the accusation about an MP absent for a non-vote debate when all Tory MPs but one abstained from voting on the main Universal Credit debate last week and the Work and Pensions Secretary refused to appear to answer for the resulting government defeat and failed to turn up for the second debate this week is, frankly, a bit rich.
We’re none the wiser about whether the Mail or Andrew Percy changed the quote. But setting Mr Percy aside, this shoddy excuse for a government is most definitely ‘giv[ing] politics a bad name’ – not to mention disgracing Parliament and the country – with its craven approach to democracy and process.
Which makes it hardly surprising that the Tories and their media allies want our attention on a Labour MP who has nothing to answer for.
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Expect nothing less from Tories!
Reblogged this on sdbast.
keep it up boys. like the right wing media tabloids for the right wing tories, you provide good arguments for when labour MP’s appear on tv, on radio etc and get asked these questions on the hoof. (Not that tories ever get these kind of questions – they’re usually on the attack). And here again you can add good attack material. Tell those labour mp’s to read SQBox every morning for material.
IF THE CAP FITS PERCY WEAR IT!
Another toerag gone quiet…Conspicuous by his silence.
I reckon that the rag quoted him correctly originally and he asked for ‘copy control’ (personal approval) THEN asked for the amendment after you highlighted his hypocrisy & lies.
We know they’re all of the: “What would the daily heil say?” mindset. They thought they’d done him a favour; turns out they’ve only helped grass him up good ‘n’ proper.
Now, he can’t exactly go complaining or explaining (squirming out of it) on other media platforms, in case they (the heil) do an unfavourable write-up on or about him in the near future.
Percy’s in a pickle 🙂
I think on the grounds of balanced reporting we should hear some words from the journalist? Nick ‘fatty” Ferarri. Fatty explains!
The trouble with you lefties is you don’t understand Newspeak. You should do, I’ve been using it throughout my career and a least since 1984. Here is how I explained it to a bolshy caller to my programme.
Caller ” I don’t remember JC saying he was going to cancel student debt” FF ” what the do you understand by the words I will deal with?”
Caller ” that’s only part of the statement, I can’t see what that’s got to do with anything” FF ” I’ll repeat what do you understand by the words I will deal with it chum” Caller lost for words ……..er er.
FF You can see that as a journalist? that does his homework I skillfully demolished the caller’s argument by swiftly translating the phrase ‘I will deal with it’ English too ‘I will cancel your debt’ Newspeak, as you can see the inference is not even subtle since lots of the letters are the same in both phrases. So any fool can see that the fine journalist at the Daily Mail was right to publish Sir Andrew Point-Percy’s words since the truth is, more often than not, lost in translation.
Nick had to leave us here to partake of a chip butty as his blood sugar is low ‘Newspeak’ high ‘English’.
To clarify the matter I thought I would help Fatty out by doing some ‘journalistic research’ on the interweb thingy. English to Spanish translation. ‘I will deal with it’ Espanola Me ocupare’ de ella.
‘Your debt is cancelled’ Espanola Voy a cancelar su deuda.
Fatty ‘ you see some of the letters are same so they must mean the same thing, even in Spanish another triumph for the journalist who does his homework asta la vista chum. FF
Excellent comment very journalistic to say the least , now what about the fine journalist at the Daily Snail
Chip Butty thats what us lefties call an oxymoron , you moron Nick !
Still keeping schtum is he?
I would never read the mail, the sun, the telegraph, nor read watch or listen to the BBC, therefore am never exposed to Tory lies about Labour members in “mainstream” media outlets.
I do however read skwawkbox, speye Joe, vox political, scriptonite, beastrabban.wordpress.com, another angry voice and Canary.
Tories seriously underestimate the power of the underground press to shine a light on their lies while people like myself are never exposed to their attempt to poison political discourse