Vultures – circling over the Truss Government already?

 

I wonder what our Westminster MSM will write about after the Tory Party Conference ends tonight. After all, the chief editors, political correspondents and the rest of them thoroughly enjoyed reporting on the internecine strife in that party, a strife which they themselves have diligently promoted. Just take this morning’s print editions’ headlines, using ‘warfare’ and ‘meltdown’. There’s also the word ‘coup’ which refers to a warning by Ms Braverman, the new HO Minister. You can find them all in their gory glory in the usual place (link).

There’s a fine example of how to distort what was said in order to achieve a really tactless headline or front page, if one’s the editor of The Star (scroll down here). Look at the DM’s headline and note how carefully it is phrased:

“It’s not MY fault the mini-budget was such a shambles, it’s because of the Queen’s FUNERAL, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng claims – Kwasi Kwarteng appeared to blame Queen’s funeral for shambolic mini-budget” (link)

Anyone who simply scans the headlines, scrolling down on their smartphone, will remember only that Kwarteng blamed the Queen for the minibudget shambles. This is a distortion. The first paragraph interprets what Kwarteng said in order to justify the headline but further down we get what looks like a quote:

“Kwasi Kwarteng appeared to blame the ‘high pressure’ of the Queen’s funeral for his shambolic mini-budget. […] In an interview with GB News, the Chancellor said it was important to place the mini-budget in the ‘context’ of the Queen’s death and funeral. […] He said: ‘It was a very quick time that we did it. And you have got to remember the context. What was extraordinary about that month was that we had a new Government and also we had the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, so we had a nation in mourning and then literally four days I think after the funeral, we had the mini-budget.’ (link)

It is factually correct and I am amazed – not! – that the Westminster MSM rabble has so utterly disregarded the fact that the Truss government has been in No 10 for a month only. Moreover, there’s not a scintilla of shame, not one tittle of reflection about their own role in this shambles – not that I’d expect that, given that the memory of MSM ‘journalists’ seems to be even shorter than that of the ordinary punter.

It’s as if they’ve already forgotten their over-enthusiastic reports of La Truss’ election campaign, a campaign which was only aimed at Tory Party members. It was not a campaign in a GE. Those same papers looked and read as if they were Tory supporters, dyed blue in the wool.

Now though they’re deep red and won’t mention the role they played in ousting Johnson, keeping the real reason for their campaign well hidden: revenge for Brexit. Their support for Labour is a thinly-veiled support for Labour’s Remain policies. It’s inexplicable otherwise why all those ‘rich’ writers – they are ‘rich’ in Labour parlance because they’re not on bennies – are so keen to see Starmer in No 10.

Meanwhile, the DT’s political editor- now elevated to ‘associate editor’ –  has indulged in a bit of ‘analysis’, with the subtitle “An in depth look at the six of the groups that will be key to Liz Truss’s survival” (paywalled link). I’m going to town on this because it demonstrates how the coming ‘narrative’ is going to be framed, even though it’s a ridiculous exercise. One can see right from the start that it’s about smearing certain prominent Tories. For example, the first ‘group’ is labelled “The Hard Right” – gasp! See this:

“Ms Truss’s most natural constituency is among the hard Right wing of the party which wants low tax, low government spending and tough immigration policies. Leading lights including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Steve Baker and Suella Braverman have been given ministerial posts, and they will become the Prime Minister’s Praetorian Guard when her back is against the wall. The mini-Budget was aimed at them, but they are annoyed that the Prime Minister and Kwasi Kwarteng made such a hash of the 45p tax rate cut that it is likely to be off the table for a generation. There is a large overlap with formal factions such as the Common Sense Group of Tories, led by Sir John Hayes, and the anti-lockdown Covid Recovery Group, led by Mark Harper. If this faction starts to turn on Ms Truss, her premiership will be over.” (paywalled link)

Two points are noteworthy: one is that actual conservatives are already labelled as ‘Hard Right’, insinuating hordes of skinheads stomping through the HoC. The other is the remark about the 45% tax cut now probably being off the table for a generation. How prophetic: it certainly will be and will probably be raised to 50% if not more once Labour is in government. But hey – that’s what all you ‘rich people’ dwelling in the Westminster village want, isn’t it?

Here are the other ‘groups’, for the record: “Disaffected Sunakites”, the only Tories named being Dominic Raab and the former Party Chairman Oliver Dowden – blimey, what powerhouses! Then there are the “Boris mourners”, with Ms Dorries being the most prominent one. She’s again ‘in the news’. The headline in the DM says it all:

“Ex-minister Nadine Dorries warns Tories will ‘absolutely LOSE’ the next election under flip-flopping Truss ‘because they ousted Boris’: Blue-on-blue war turns ugly as MPs blame PM for lagging behind Labour after tax U-turns following Gove-led ‘coup’” (link)

Then there are such spurious groups as “Serial rebels”, with Mr Ellwood the most prominent; the “Red Wallers”, and an actual faction, the “One Nation Tories”:

“About 30 MPs and six peers are currently members of the caucus, which represents the moderate, centrist wing of the party and will act as a handbrake on some of the Prime Minister’s more radical policies, such as expanding the Rwanda plan for illegal migrants and deregulating business, agriculture and finance. Like many of the other factions, the group contains MPs who regard themselves as overlooked talent, including the former business secretary Greg Clark, who had hoped to remain in the Cabinet when Ms Truss took over; Matt Hancock, who is still eyeing a ministerial comeback after resigning as health secretary last year; and David Mundell, who had hoped to return to his old job as Scottish secretary under Ms Truss.” (paywalled link)

The ‘narrative’ being pushed by what used to be the ‘Torygraph’ is obvious: there are a lot of disgruntled MPs who thought and think they deserve a ministerial post and will therefore be happy to get rid of Truss. One has to wonder about their political acumen though. Do they not know that they’ll be out, no ministerial posts ‘for a generation’ if they keep fighting for their own glory rather than support the PM they now have? 

Also missing in this extraordinary ‘analysis’ are the names of some actual Big Beasts, like the foremost Brexiteers John Redwood and David Davis. Perhaps they have already resigned mentally and won’t stand in the next GE anyway. Have they washed their hands of this government and indeed of the Party? 

It is quite extraordinary how the Westminster ‘system’, driven by the MSM which are in turn driven by 24/7 ‘news’ taken from twitter, is deliriously reporting on ‘palace revolutions’ and ‘coups’, pushing for ‘regime change’ while utterly disregarding the actual, real-life plight of us all.

At the start of the Tory AMG there was one poll which I can’t find any longer. The poll stated that the majority of Tory voters prefer a low-tax, small-state government. Clearly the Westminster MSM believe this is wrong and that a high-tax, big-state government is what we all need. 

The Westminster swamp dwellers are either living deeply in cloud-cuckoo-land or have lost the few marbles they had to start with. In any case, it doesn’t bode well for the future of our country. 



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