Billionaire-owned newspaper front pages are and BBC review must not distract from Labour’s positive vision and policy emphasis
Senior Labour campaigners have praised the exceptional discipline and focus of the party’s grassroots supporters and campaigners in maintaining focus on Labour’s outstanding policy platform and the party’s vision for the kind of country the UK’s people want to live in.
That focus has seen Labour make an outstanding start to the general election campaign, exceeding even the early performance of the 2017 ‘Corbyn surge’.
And in order to maintain and even improve that trajectory, campaign leaders are asking Labour supporters to show the same discipline in refusing to engage with either right-wing newspaper front pages – or with the Sky News and BBC ‘paper reviews’.
One senior Labour insider told the SKWAWKBOX:
The papers are owned by a handful of billionaires who want to guard their wealth and power and avoid the implementation of phase two of Leveson [the recommendations of the review into malfeasance by newspapers cancelled by the Tories].
The broadcasters’ nightly reviews of the next day’s front pages are clearly a vehicle for amplifying those right-wing headlines, dressed up as ‘news’.
So it goes without saying that the nearer Labour gets to government, the more extreme and desperate the front pages are going to be – and then those are going to be regurgitated by the broadcasters.
But we need every Labour supporter and campaigner to keep their attention on, and their online conversations about, Labour’s policies and positive campaign.
Talking about the newspaper smears just gives them more reach – so even wasting energy attacking them is playing into the hands of those who want to prevent real change.
We have a vision for this country that the Tories and the papers can’t hope to match. That’s what we want to be amplifying.
SKWAWKBOX view:
Don’t give the Establishment and the press barons what they want. Stay focused on policies and the country’s need and appetite for change.
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Sky News had a caption up yesterday saying it was the Brexit election.
Nigel Evans on BBC this morning also tried to claim the election was all about Brexit.
Thinking they’re strongest on Brexit only highlights how badly they’re doing on everything else.
You could say it’s an admission that everything else they’ve touched has turned to shit.
Lets compare visceral hatreds,
Tory hatred for all public services in General and the NHS in Particular
Labour hatred of obscene inequality, when the free market system is broken,
Capatalism died in 2007, this is socialism for the 1%
It’s a bit rich for Cummings glove puppet to call business a bunch of bastards to further his own personal ambition
Then attack Labour for trying to fix another Eton mess
‘Not for Sale’
Mandelson was always misquoted
He had no objections to people getting filthy rich on the back of their hard work, as long as they pay their taxes,
We are talking about those who dont pay their fair share
The Tory party doesn’t exist anymore, it was taken over by Brexit/UKIP/BNP a long time ago
RIP
Harold McMillan
JRM
Has made this a class war
Eton v the rest
I reckon that studied ignoring of the propaganda press is a good policy. But some stories will need refutation, since silence is often an admission of guilt.One thing that does need more controlled response is the fevered imagining of *everything* done by the Beeb being a Tory-led conspiracy, which is not the same as an inherent bias; I rarely watch ‘Newsnight’ because of that bias – but it did a pretty good demolition of the Tories last night.
BTW – has everyone picked up that the Advertising Standards Authority has banned Universal Credit advertisements as ‘misleading’? Sometimes the news is worth a look. It will be interesting to see the scope of that reportage.
Today the party needs to grow a backbone
By bringing back CW which is the right thing to do, we have to stand up to the inevitable onslaught
You do that by making it crystal clear he was NEVER accused of anti semitism
It’s as simple as that
Today we will all see if the LP/NEC has a backbone and an ounce of integrity. What NEC decides on Williamson will say a great deal about the LP going forward to me and I am not hopeful in the least though think he should be fully reinstated and able to fight his seat. Far too few in PLP asking important questions and standing in solidarity with vital issues such as the imprisonment and torture of Assange for political reasons. LP is going into this election with a host of hostile (to Corbyn, free speech and peace) MP candidates.
Dunno. I don’t think turning the other cheek has been universally successful and consensus here seems to be that we should kick back. Banging fists on tables has always been my strong preference but I admit to having no instinct for the common view.
If passive civility is the new activism I suppose I can shut the fuck up for the good of the party.
Have a nice Christmas everybody!
I’ve made a complaint to the BBC regarding The Papers segment as it it is biased vehicle towards the far right. You can’t run a segment that for every Guardian or Mirror review you have The Times, The Torygraph, The Express, Daily Mail, The *^# Star, FT & The not so Independent! I’m still waiting for my reply from the Bastard Broadcasting Corporation!
Just read the Daily Mirror, guys….