Tag Archives: daily mail

Praise for Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrats from both sides – should we be worried?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th May 2013 - 12:16 pm

I remember hearing Nick Clegg saying that if he was being attacked from both left and right, then he felt reassured that he was doing something right. He may be feeling slightly worried now, as there have been a couple of not entirely unpleasant pieces in the New Statesman and Daily Telegraph in the last few days.

From the left, we have Rafael Behr, the political editor of the New Statesman, arguing that it’s Nick Clegg, not Nigel Farage, who has shaken up Westminster:

For Lib Dems, the distinction is between two styles of politics. There is the managerial one, laden with

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged daily telegraph, miriam gonzalez durantez, new statesman, nick clegg, peter oborne, quentin letts and rafael behr | 8 Comments

Surely the ultimate Daily Mail headline?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th April 2013 - 1:58 pm

I think it’s fair to say that Mail Online has excelled itself:

Though it may look like something from the Daily Mail-omatic website, this is genuine. Really. I guess I’m only disappointed that they couldn’t fit in ‘Outrage at BBC/welfare/immigrants’ as well.

(Hat-tip: Alex Massie.)

Posted in News | Also tagged alex massie | 16 Comments

The welfare debate and the age of the trollemic

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th April 2013 - 9:25 am

I decided to invent a new word yesterday:

Is “trollemic” a word? If not it should be. Trollemic = deliberately OTT argument to generate controversy & make rational debate impossible.

— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) April 3, 2013

It’s the welfare debate that’s prompted it, but it could be any other topic on a given week.

Yesterday saw the Daily Mail publish a typically sensationalist front page blaming the welfare state for the tragedy of six children being killed by their parents. On Monday the Mirror shouted ‘Shameful’, with a cartoon showing Thatcher, Cameron, Osorne and Clegg banging in the final nail of a coffin marked ‘RIP Welfare’.

Each is exaggerating to make their own point. Both are gross over-statements: trollemics.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ben goldacre, charlie brooker, daily mirror, featured, james delingpole, julie burchill, mick philpott, polly toynbee, trollemic and welfare | 26 Comments

Daily Mail reports one poll which Nick Clegg does top

By Stephen Tall | Mon 1st April 2013 - 2:25 pm

A Bank Holiday snippet from the Daily Mail today. It shows both good news and bad news for Nick Clegg:

Poor, benighted Nick Clegg. According to the Lib Dem Voice website, his approval rating is minus 2 per cent. Not that David Cameron can take much comfort from the figure. The BBC1 quiz Pointless gave 100 people 100 seconds to name a Cabinet minister. Clegg was top with 32 per cent compared with 22 per cent for Cameron and Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Business Secretary. No one mentioned George Osborne.

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 12 Comments

6 out of 10 places with happiest residents have high Liberal Democrat inflluence

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th March 2013 - 4:15 pm

Something to cheer us on a cold, wintry Spring afternoon.

I’m rarely comfortable about linking to the Daily Mail, but for once it has some good news for Liberal Democrats, although, of course, it doesn’t realise it.

Today, it points to a survey which shows the 10 places in Britain with the happiest residents – and six of them are run, or have recently been run by Liberal Democrats.

Harrogate tops the poll with Stockport, St Albans, Kingston upon Thames, Bath and Truro also in the top ten.

Clearly, as Ben …

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Posted in News | Also tagged Local government | 6 Comments

116 Liberal Democrats write to the Daily Mail opposing secret courts

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 4th March 2013 - 11:55 am

Today’s Daily Mail contains a letter from 116 Liberal Democrats asking MPs to vote down Part 2 of the Justice and Security Bill. The signatories include a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, an MEP, 5 members of the Federal Executive, 2 members of the Federal Policy Committee, 6 past and present members of the Liberal Democrat Voice editorial team and a number of parliamentary candidates. The letter says:

We are writing to urge all MPs to do the right thing by voting against Part II of the Justice and Security Bill when it has its Report stage in

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged charlotte henry, jo shaw, julian huppert, justice and security bill and secret courts | 17 Comments

What on earth is the Mail up to?

By Paul Walter | Mon 17th September 2012 - 8:54 am

Defence Minister: Clegg axed me because I won’t support attack on Iran – was the headline of a Mail story yesterday, which began:

A Liberal Democrat Defence Minister has claimed he was sacked to avoid a damaging Coalition split over a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

Former Armed Forces Minister Sir Nick Harvey told friends that he was fired in the reshuffle to allow Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to sign Britain up to

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Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg and nick harvey | 26 Comments

Tom Brake MP writes… Justice and Security Bill – a good result for the Lib Dems and Civil Liberties

By Tom Brake MP | Tue 29th May 2012 - 4:18 pm

Back in April, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and others reported that Nick Clegg, unhappy with the breadth and scope of the Justice and Security Green Paper, and having read the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report into it, had written to Ministerial colleagues setting out his red lines for any Bill to be introduced in the second session.

These red lines, as reported at the time, were:

That any use of Closed Material Procedures (CMPs) should be restricted to exceptional cases of national security only
That they complement, not replace, the current system of Public Interest Immunity (PII)

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged justice and security bill, nick clegg and the guardian | 3 Comments

We must be doing something right – Mail rails at ‘Commie Clegg’, Telegraph blasts ‘Socialist Vince’

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd May 2012 - 8:25 am

There’s a measure in marketing known as Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE) — it’s used to assess the impact of coverage in the media. Glancing at today’s right-wing press, the Lib Dems have won headlines money can’t buy…

Nick Clegg’s push for increased social mobility, to equalise opportunities for the poorest in society, has earned him the tag ‘Commie Clegg’ in today’s Mail. This is of course the same paper that only two years ago splashed on the bizarre headline ‘Clegg’s Nazi slur on Britain’.

Meanwhile …

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Posted in News | Also tagged daily telegraph, featured, nick clegg and vince cable | 27 Comments

Another Mail headline to savour… Lynne ‘slaps down’ Tory minister for opposing Coalition support for equal marriage

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th May 2012 - 2:15 pm

At this rate the Daily Mail will soon become Lib Dems’ favourite reading… A few days after its front page proclaiming David Cameron’s lament ‘I’d govern like a true Tory if it wasn’t for the Lib Dems’, the paper reports:

Tory Minister is slapped down by Lib Dems after criticising gay marriage

Two Ministers in the Coalition clashed last night over David Cameron’s plan to allow gay marriages.
Tim Loughton, Tory Minister for Children and Families, came under fire from Liberal Democrat partners after he said he was totally opposed to same-sex marriage and that the Prime Minister would do better

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged equal marriage, lynne featherstone and tim loughton | 17 Comments

And I would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for these pesky Lib Dems – Cameron

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 9th May 2012 - 7:55 pm

I read the Daily Mail every day. It’s worth it because in amongst the inaccurate, scaremongering bile, there’s quite often a wee gem which shows off the Liberal Democrat influence in the Coalition.

Today, it carries an interview with David Cameron in which he tells how these pesky Liberal Democrats have stopped him doing things like getting rid of human rights legislation, eroding people’s employment rights and stopping him introducing a tax break for married couples.

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Posted in News | Also tagged coalition, david cameron and liberal democrats | 25 Comments

The Interception of Communications Commissioner has failed

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th April 2012 - 10:25 am

I’ve been reading through all the annual reports issues by the Interception of Communications Commissioner since the passage of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. He is meant to make sure that the powers granted to public bodies under RIPA to intercept our communications are being used correctly.

The annual reports are not a pretty read, especially when set against a modicum of knowledge about the outside world during the years the reports cover. Consider the following.

1. No scrutiny of the costs system

First, under RIPA there is provision for the government to pay communication service providers costs for meeting the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, greg callus, Interception of Communications Commissioner, nick davies and ripa | 2 Comments

“Hard to believe she’s just 16!” The headline that sums up the morality of the Daily Mail

By Stephen Tall | Sat 14th April 2012 - 6:45 pm

Next time that esteemed family newspaper the Daily Mail screams at the permissive society for its outrages against decent family values it will be worth recalling this article and its beyond-parody headline:

Hard to believe she’s just 16! Kendall Jenner looks older than her years as she shows off her model shape in stunning bikini shoot

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Posted in News | Also tagged chris morris and media | 16 Comments

Mary Ann Sieghart socks it to Quentin Letts for his “witheringly misogynistic” assault on Lynne Featherstone

By Stephen Tall | Mon 9th April 2012 - 1:55 pm

I try as hard as possible not to link to the Daily Mail — it’s my small and admittedly token gesture not to encourage them. And Quentin Letts is the Mail at its most unpleasantly execrable, slavering to stick his pen-knife into anyone he cares to disdain, especially if they’re female or have a funny accent or some other personal tic to pick on.

Last week, he laid into Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone. It was classic play-the-woman-I’ve-got-no-balls Letts:

Though aged 60 (and counting), she teeters up to the Despatch Box in high heels, grinning girlishly at the Opposition benches before

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, lynne featherstone, mary ann sieghart and quentin letts | 21 Comments

Another day, another good Daily Mail front page

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th April 2012 - 11:25 pm

Trust you’re sitting down, but it’s another day and another Daily Mail front page pushing a positive civil liberties story, reporting on good news from government as another idea from the Conservative part of the Coalition is failing to win favour. It’s becoming rather a habit.

Posted in News | Also tagged civil liberties | 18 Comments

Why I (still) read the Daily Mail

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd February 2012 - 8:25 am

Four years on, I’m still a Daily Mail reader (even if they think I’m a foreigner). Here’s an updated explanation.

I once rang the Daily Mail to mildly complain about a story I had a connection with. The journalist I spoke to put me on hold while he conferred with a colleague. At least, he thought he put me on hold. But courtesy of him hitting the wrong button, I got to hear what they were saying. And it wasn’t exactly a master class in concern for accuracy. Yet I still read the newspaper regularly.

Why? Because it would be foolish not …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged journalism | 16 Comments

Has our police force been ‘completely transformed’ by the Lawrence case?

By Sid Cumberland | Fri 6th January 2012 - 1:15 pm

Like the summer riots, the Stephen Lawrence case provides us with yet another attitudinal Rorschach test; we screw our eyes up, peer closely, and conclude that what we have seen is just what we expected. At least, that’s my view, after hearing Paul Dacre’s astonishing self-congratulation on Tuesday.

For him, the verdict was ‘a glorious day’ for the Lawrences, the police, British justice, politicians, British newspapers (especially, of course, the Daily Mail, without whose ‘relentless campaigning’ none of this would have happened).

For me, it was a good day; but it was also a reminder of

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged metropolitan police, racism and stephen lawrence | 3 Comments

No, Stephen Tall, I’m certainly NOT Daily Mail!

By Lee Dargue | Sun 4th December 2011 - 9:00 am

In his latest blog, Stephen Tall argues that byseeing Jeremy Clarkson as un-beneficial to a modern society makes me somehow a right-wing *insert your own adjective for the Daily Mail here*.

Not in the slightest. I’m left-wing (so David Cameron doesn’t like me either, boo-hoo) and totally a liberal. I’ve never ever claimed Clarkson should not be allowed to speak, as that would be illiberal. I simply say that he is a loud-mouth oxygen thief (I use the same freedom of speech against him, that he should rightly be granted).

He’s claimed to be attention-seeking, I agree. And before you …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged jeremy clarkson and stephen tall | 14 Comments

Daily Mail sued by Carina Trimingham

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th October 2011 - 10:33 pm

The Press Gazette reports:

MP Chris Huhne’s partner Carina Trimingham today brought a High Court damages action over a “cataclysmic interference” with her private life.

The PR adviser, whose adulterous affair with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change became public in June 2010 – with Huhne leaving his wife of 26 years – is suing Associated Newspapers for misuse of private information.

Her counsel, William Bennett, told Mr Justice Tugendhat in London that – in eight newspaper articles and on its website Mail Online – the Daily Mail had exercised its expertise and determination to dig into 44-year-old Trimingham’s private life and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged carina trimingham, chris huhne and journalism | 12 Comments

Opinion: Should I stay or should I go?

By Nick Tyrone | Mon 5th September 2011 - 5:16 pm

For those of you who don’t read the Daily Mail every day, there was a lead article last week all about how awful the Liberal Democrats are. No great surprise there, I hear you say. The reasons given this time were that the Lib Dems are looking to keep the 50p tax rate in place, uphold the Human Rights Act, and “frustrate every effort to cut immigration”. The party is also trying to promote too many green policies as well, ones that “threaten to cripple business”. Apparently, we are “reverting to type as the fringe party mouthpiece of Left-wing causes”.

Yet …

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Posted in Op-eds | 43 Comments

Anonymous Tory MP launches broadside against “hypocritical, immature, manipulative” David Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th June 2011 - 10:15 am

There’s a quite extraordinary broadside against David Cameron’s leadership in today’s Mail – written it appears by a current Conservative MP who chooses to remain anonymous — accusing him of “cynically manipulating” the party’s candidates’ list to stuff its green benches with “friends who went to the same school or moved in the same social circle”.

Here’s a flavour:

Speeches Cameron made before the Election about a new politics gave us great hope. But before too long, the less appealing side to his character became clear as he displayed an immature tendency to poke fun at certain individuals or groups

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Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party, mark pritchard and tim montgomerie | 11 Comments

Learning the lessons from last week #3: Grassroots campaigns don’t win national elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th May 2011 - 7:53 am

Liberal Democrats have long known that grassroots campaigns can win a ward, a council or a constituency – but they don’t win national election campaigns. It’s the knowledge that you need both the grassroots campaign and an effective national media and/or advertising campaign that explains why when Chris Rennard was the party’s Chief Executive not only did the Campaigns Department grow hugely in size – but so too did the national press team.

Yet at the heart of the Yes campaign in last week’s AV referendum seems to have been a big mistake: trying to run a grassroots campaign to win …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum, barack obama, chris rennard, david cameron, ed miliband and paul waugh | 41 Comments

Opinion: Why Nick Clegg is probably right not to meet Gary McKinnon’s mother

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 26th February 2011 - 2:53 pm

A quick search on my own blog for “Gary McKinnon” will show that I have written several times, at some length, on the reasons why I believe that he should not be extradited to the US. I believe that to do so to such a vulnerable person would be a disproportionate action which would seriously and adversely affect his health. For an Asperger’s sufferer, change can be really difficult to deal with. The National Autistic Society website states that routine and familiarity are key elements in living with their condition.

In my view, it would …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged caron lindsay, gary mckinnon, janis sharp, nick clegg and troy davis | 48 Comments

Labour members attack party’s “Daily Mail view of the world”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th January 2011 - 7:25 am

Another day, another nail in the coffin of liberalism in the Labour Party. Sadiq Khan, the party’s shadow justice secretary, today amped-up the debate on votes for prisoners by condemnIng the Coalition’s proposals as — POPULIST CLICHE ALERT — “a slap in the face for victims of crime”.

But his pandering to the forces of authoritarian conservatism hasn’t gone down well with all Labour members. Over at LabourList, Kevin Peel has an excellent post criticising Mr Khan’s outburst, pointing out that no matter what you think of the decision the UK was under a legal obligation following a …

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Posted in News | Also tagged featured, LabourList, sadiq khan and votes for prisoners | 22 Comments

Ministry of Justice’s paperwork overdose hits the media

By Mark Pack | Thu 21st October 2010 - 10:27 pm

My story Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice has hit the media today in a nice piece from Matthew Parris in The Times and in a long piece in the Daily Mail. If the latter’s piece sounds rather familiar when you read it, that’d be because the wording bears a remarkable resemblance to the story run on this site. Perhaps next time I should slip in a ficticious name and see what happens

Posted in News | Also tagged matthew parris and ministry of justice | 4 Comments

Mail readers attack paper’s ‘Hypocrisy’ slurs on Nick Clegg

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th October 2010 - 11:35 am

Ah, the Daily Mail and its stable-mate the Mail on Sunday: bastions of enlightened reason and liberal decency. Or something. Today, the paper takes it upon itself to scream ‘Hypocrisy’ at Nick Clegg.

Not on grounds of policy, but because of the options Miriam and he are considering for their eldest child’s school, including a voluntary-aided Catholic school in London, the Oratory: as the Mail so subtly fulminates, ‘Nick Clegg is an atheist whose party doesn’t believe in school selection. So where does he want to send his sons… the same exclusive Catholic school as the Blairs’.

You can gauge the extent of the Mail’s self-righteous fury from the comparison of Nick Clegg to Tony Blair. The only thing missing from the usual Mail checklist-of-outrage is the accusation that Nick Clegg causes cancer. Next week, perhaps.

What do the Mail’s online readers make of the paper’s tirade? Here are the top three ‘best rated’ comments so far submitted:

Why is atheist Nick Clegg considering sending his son to an exclusive Catholic school?
erm – his wife is Catholic.
- Paul, Richmond, 9/10/2010 23:39

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Posted in News | Also tagged education, featured, media and nick clegg | 41 Comments

Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 8:50 pm

My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon’s big political news that William Hague’s special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair.

Iain writes: “We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well,” and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I’d make.

The questions were fair enough…

Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged daily telegraph, media, paul staines and william hague | 34 Comments

Tory MP in Commons sex party “scandal”

By The Voice | Sun 15th August 2010 - 11:20 am

The Mail is getting worked up that people attending a black tie dinner at the House of Commons may later, having left those hallowed halls, enjoy some form of sexual activity.

The newspaper is upset that Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell has sponsored the black tie event in the Commons, after which attendees will go onto what the Mail says is

an ‘After Party’ on a nearby boat where entertainment includes ‘pole dancing, burlesque and erotic performances’.

Needless to say, this is an outrage – the Mail even tracked down an unnamed MP to comment ‘This smutty event is below the dignity of …

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Posted in News | Also tagged andrew rosindell | 14 Comments

Daily Mail takes a tip from the BNP

By Iain Roberts | Mon 9th August 2010 - 3:55 pm

A story in today’s Daily Mail looks like the sort of thing you’d expect to find in a BNP leaflet.

The headline says it all

Revealed: The UK maternity units in which only 1 in 10 mothers is of white British origin

Of course there’s variation around the country – always has been, always will be.

Nationally the figures (which appear later on in the Mail article) are:
62% white British
7% other white
5% black
4% pakistani
3% indian
8% other
11% unknown

Concern about immigration is legitimate, but why is the Mail so worried about the mothers’ skin colour?

Posted in News | Also tagged immigration | 11 Comments

Mail blunders over Twitter, again

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th June 2010 - 7:20 pm

Fresh from the Mail’s triumph of journalism where it exposed an MP sending tweets in the middle of the night (only a pedant would point out that the Mail’s journalist read the time wrong and in fact the tweets were sent during the day), we have the Mail’s splash on how Steve Jobs may be planning to recall iPhone 4s (and again only a pedant would point out that the Mail’s journalist failed to see the words pointing out that the Twitter account is a spoof).

Makes you want to work for the Mail so you can share in …

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Posted in News | Also tagged journalism, steve jobs and twitter | 3 Comments