Fuck, obviously, the Daily Mail. It's not even that going after the dead father of their political enemies is low even by their standards - they'd have to literally give away the eyes and hands of Muslim orphans as free gifts if they want to sink any lower. It's that they called a MP's dad a traitor, then argued the fact the MP got really fucking furious is evidence that MPs shouldn't have oversight over the press. That's like sending letter-bombs to the Post Office and claiming it proves the mail should be privatised.
Oh, and while I'm ranting; Harry Cole? If this article is standard fair, please to be stating examples. If Ed Milliband's reaction demonstrates political calculations, please to be explaining to us how a man seeking to defend his dead father's name without political manoeuvring would act. Absent such revelations, sit the hell down. I rather think enough stupid things have been said today.
5 comments:
It seems rather odd to criticise him for "political calculations" anyway, given that he is a politician responding to a politically-motivated article. Frankly, if he didn't make political calculations before writing the response, he isn't doing his bloody job right!
Good point, and one I'm sure Cole would have happily pointed out had Milliband's response been different, in some as-yet unspecified way.
Perhaps it is unfair to criticise someone for criticizing someone for political calculation when the criticism is itself presumably based on political calculation. But this seems like the path to madness.
There is certainly a school of thought that says criticising politicians and political actors for minor hypocrisy is generally unwise, since utterly coherent political commentary would cost the speaker more than it would be worth.
Major grade hypocrisy and obvious Catch-22 approaches ("Obama visited the troops in a cynical move! Obama failed to visit the troops in a deliberate snub") are still fair game, though. I think this is as well. It's one thing to point out your opponent is cheating at cards when you know you're cheating as well. It's quite another to point out your opponent is cheating whilst pretending you're not even playing the game.
I just wonder how many of his enemies Ed Miliband has to leave beaten to a bloody pulp in a ditch before the idea that he's a weak leader finally dies. I don't think the Mail could have screwed up their response any worse if they'd tried.
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