Brexit U-Turn – The hypocrisy of the ‘ultras’ mouthpiece

By TruePublica: Paul Dacre, who used to be the Daily Mail’s editor until last August after 26 years at the helm drove a right-wing newspaper into Britain’s most fanatical anti-liberal voice. In a rare moment of clarity three years ago, even David Cameron made a case for replacing the then Mail’s editor on grounds that he was threatening the nation’s future with his stance on Brexit.

The Daily Mail has a history of being on the wrong side of the big things. Who, in their right minds could forget those immortal words when comparing Brexit to World World War 2 – “As in 1939 we are at a crossroads in our island history,” without even a hint of irony for a paper that at the previous crossroads, its own editorials stood sympathetic to fascism and acted as a recruitment agent for Oswald Mosley. “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” eh!

The Mail practically invented the language of Brexit. With “Remoaners” and concepts of the “tsunami of immigrants,” along with “Crush the saboteurs,” and “Enemies of the people” – the nation has been encouraged to split.

So serious is the Brexit meltdown as we approach its own manufactured cliff that doubt has now entered the mindset of even those employed at this most hate-filled of bile spewing propagandists. The Daily Mail has been at the heart of creating a violent culture of hostility towards migrants and refugees that has done little but to massively increase racism and xenophobic attitudes in our country and drive the nation-state into what we can clearly see is a political slow-motion crash.

 

In the last month or so, the Mail has, let’s say, softened its tone, so much so that it’s new editor Geordie Grieg recently said:

“And who are they, these self-appointed guardians of the Brexit flame — a loose affiliation of backbench zealots, failed ministers and serial show-offs, who claim to represent Britain’s best interests, but risk destroying their party and the nation’s prosperity.

“They are, of course, entitled to their opinion. But, for all their pretensions, they speak only for those who place purist ideology above pragmatism and the practicalities of politics.”

 

If ever there was a U-turn, that was it.

 

In June 2016, the Telegraph fully backed Brexit prior to the referendum. It aligned itself with what it thought was its readership and supported its columnist Boris Johnson. Its stablemates the Sun, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express were already there.

The Telegraph’s editorial pieces accused “the Remainers” campaign of trying to scare the public “into believing that calamity lies in wait for an independent Britain.” The Telegraph argued that “a world of opportunity is waiting for a fully independent Britain”, not least because it is “a leading economic power”. In describing the EU, the line was the same in the years of their run-up. It was about the “dislocation between those who govern and the governed.” Therefore, taking back control was the Brexit slogan of slogans.

Just days before the referendum, The Telegraph concluded: “We are told it is a choice between fear and hope. If that is the case, then we choose hope … On Thursday, the country has another opportunity to lift the clouds. We must take it.”

As a direct result of these mouthpieces of the ‘ultras’ – all we have left is hope. What we don’t have is the certainty of leadership a strong country needs.

Today, this is how The Telegraph views the current events of Brexit negotiations and the very people they supported.

Michael Deacon, the Telegraph’s parliamentary sketchwriter says:

“The so-called ‘European Research Group’ on the Conservative backbenches is stuffed with the most risible crowd of fantasists, crackpots and dunderheads to be found anywhere outside the comments section below a YouTube video about chemtrails. In the Commons on Thursday these jabbering blowhards spent three solid hours rubbishing the Prime Minister and her proposed deal without once, any of them, explaining how they would have done it better…

“They seem to imagine that negotiating with the EU – an entity vastly bigger, richer and more powerful than the UK – is a doddle. It appears not to have occurred to them that Michel Barnier might actually be quite a difficult person to dupe. Perhaps the problem is the company they keep. After all, if the only people you regularly encounter in day-to-day political life are your fellow morons, then I suppose it’s only natural to assume that everyone else in politics must be a moron too.”

 

Is this not the very epitome of hypocrisy.

The cheerleaders of this chaos understand that Brexit is now going so badly, it has become so divisive and unwinnable, that if a no-deal Brexit does in fact happen, chaos is exactly what we get. They also understand that under this scenario people are going to want heads on spikes in a festival of vengeance and scapegoating – and the Mail, Telegraph and Express will be first in the queue along with all the members of the ‘ultras’ who inhabit that gang of ‘fantasists, crackpots and dunderheads’ at ERG headquarters.

 

 

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