No10 – The propaganda machine complains the Dept of Propaganda isn’t being fair

TruePublica Editor: This is an opinion piece. I have to say those words to stop another threat of libel by this awful government. And I hate to say I told you so – but alas what emerges now from insiders at No 10 Downing Street and within the mainstream media is something I’ve been warning about for a few years now. I warned that a new form of politics had arrived. I warned it was driven with authoritarian tendencies and I warned that it would turn nasty. And it has.

 

As I recently wrote in the Ten Steps To Democratic Breakdown – “Award-winning British journalist Nafeez Ahmed calls the rise of Boris Johnson’s right-wing free-market Conservatives a bunch of “unabashed authoritarians.” Alex Eror at Foreign Policy says Johnson will “double down on culture wars and nativist rhetoric to hold on to his new electorate.” The FT asks if Britain can survive Johnson’s populism turning into authoritarianism. The New York Times postulates that a new form of political thuggery has arrived.”

Even the former chairman of the Conservative party (1990-92), an ardent Thatcherite politician and now Tory life-peer, Chris Patten, has openly stated that under Boris Johnson – “it is reasonable to worry that the country will soon come to resemble a tinpot dictatorship.”

In another article From Watchdog to Attack Dog I commented that the last election was a journalistic farce – “the mainstream media has a responsibility to hold power to account, not facilitate wannabe authoritarians into Downing Street.” But they did.

Recently, the London School of Economics produced a lengthy, in-depth report about the mainstream media that raised – “a number of pressing ethical questions regarding the role of the media in our democracy.” That report emphasised that the mainstream media had willfully gone about to collectively delegitimise the main political opposition to Boris Johnson by using tactics such as – “distortion, ridicule, scorn and personal attacks; and through association, mainly with terrorism.”

Collectively, the mainstream media conspired to ensure one party was voted into power.

These same so-called “senior journalists” used a massive architecture of publicity and did everything at their disposal to make sure a ‘tinpot dictator’ like Boris Johnson was elected. Then they somehow cannot understand why he behaves like a fascist towards them!

And people constantly kept saying that the comparison between Johnson and Trump was far fetched.

 

Not happy

The Guardian complains: Political journalists boycotted a Downing Street briefing on Monday after one of Boris Johnson’s aides banned selected reporters from attending.

The Times – who doesn’t report that one of its own journalists was excluded also complained that: The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, ITV’s Robert Peston and the political editors of national newspapers were among those who walked out of the briefing in solidarity with excluded rivals.

HuffPost – whose own correspondent was excluded from the briefing said: “Following objections from the journalists, communications director Lee Cain then arrived to declare: “Those invited to the briefing can stay – everyone else, I’m afraid, will have to leave.”

Jane Merrick is Policy Editor at the i-paper and Time Person of The Year 2017. She said:

“For four years under Tony Blair’s government, I worked for the Daily Mail. His No10 absolutely hated us – you might say justifiably – and yet we were never banned from any briefing involving civil servants under his government, ever.”

 

What they didn’t say

While the MSM was going about their daily business (throughout the months leading to the December election) of pumping the nation full of propaganda, that the LSE described as anti-democratic, they failed to collectively hold this government to account – which, let’s be fair, is A) what they are supposed to be doing B) what they are paid for.

What I want to know why it is that these ‘news’ organisations have gone completely quiet on the Met Police investigations into Johnson and Cummings Vote Leave campaign. And of course, it is vital that the Russia Report is published so we can see exactly who has been funding and interfering in Britain’s political and economic affairs. After all, we know that Russians close to the Kremlin gave the Tory party and Boris Johnson’s own campaign to become leader millions. Isn’t that important to the fundamentals of our democracy?

The Arcuri investigation is not about Boris Johnson’s inability to control his sexual appetite, it’s about corruption in high public office – plain and simple. Why has the MSM not ganged up and keep incessantly asking Boris Johnson and the Dept for Propaganda at No10 if their apparent leader was shagging someone (on taxpayers cash) in what amounts to a full-on and very serious political conflict of interest?

And why is the MSM not demanding answers on the NHS? If it is not for sale why was the UK/US trade discussion document redacted to such an extent that there was nothing to read? And why won’t this government publish any of the economic assessment reports of their WTO plan which would absolutely devastate the economy if Britain ended up going in that direction, which looks increasingly more likely each day?

 

Indoctrination

We are witnessing, right before our eyes the evolution of government by thuggery. It starts with the language of authoritarianism. We will be told what to believe. Hence, the reason why journalists, the same ones that ganged up to get Boris Johnson into power – are now complaining about what they were warned about in the first place.

People like The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg now fakes a position to defend her colleagues that are effectively being gagged by the government. She and her ‘brave’ colleagues who stood in solidarity now have no choice but to pretend their anger as they were exposed as the stooges of the Tories by one of their most decorated – who said of them that they created an “onslaught of lies” and “peddled Downing Street’s lies and smears”. Peter Oborne went further to that the MSM had ended up “becoming a subsidiary part of the government machine” and was “turning their readers and viewers into dupes“. Oborne openly accused life-long colleagues of distorting the political landscape of British politics. It should be noted who the government intended to be a part of its mouthpiece.

You can see examples of this distortion being used when the government let it slip that it was no longer allowing the word ‘Brexit’ to be used in communications and briefings. And it will continue throughout this year – the lies, falsehoods, the disinformation and projects of political indoctrination.

Lewis Goodall the Policy Editor at BBC Newsnight Tweeted:

“Meanwhile, in Whitehall, I’m told some civil servants have been told again this morning that they are not to use the term “EU Exit” any more. Programmes/teams which contain the words “EU Exit” will be renamed. Instructions have come from Number 10/Cabinet office.”

You see what I mean.

Director of propaganda

First up, you have of course read about Dominic Cummings now legendary bullying and coercive manner whilst in government. He is the type of individual who would be sacked without hesitation by any half decent employer in Britain. But then again, this is the nature of his Boris Johnson’s government.

And, who is the No10 head of communications at the centre of this inconvenient public row? Well, it’s Lee Cain – and prior to his appointment, he worked as Head of Broadcast for the Vote Leave campaign. Just eight weeks ago, Police started investigating the Vote Leave campaign after an Electoral Commission probe said it broke electoral law and have passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service. The MSM have not pressured the government to comment on it so we haven’t heard anything.

 

---