Friday 12 February 2021

Trump and Foxhole News

Watching the Trump impeachment (the latest one!) on CNN you have to be struck by the incredible partisan nature of American politics. The sheer quantity of evidence against him is overwhelming but he will almost certainly get away with it. Amazingly, some, if not the great majority of Republican senators are going to vote to acquit Trump of the insurrection charges. Seeing and hearing the former president incriminate himself over and over again and looking at what happened on 6 January one has to wonder what a future president would have to do to be impeached.

Presumably, shooting a few democrats might do it but even that could not be guaranteed if Trump escapes punishment. Someone on CNN said they aren't worried about him running again in 2024 but they are terrified of him doing so - and losing.

Prosecutors kept pointing out all the occasions at Trump rallies when he fired up the mob and all the tweets he sent to his eighty million followers, many of them white supremacists or racists. Let's be honest he's a total nutjob. But he didn't start being a nutjob in January. He had plenty of people overlooking his bizarre behaviour for years.

More than that, not only did plenty of people who should know better look the other way, others openly supported him and encouraged it.

Fox News, for example, has been a cheerleader for conservatism in its most extreme form. It's owned by Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun, The Times and Sky TV. Fox has supported Trump and everything he says and does right from the outset. When he won in 2016 and before the inauguration if you remember, Trump gave an interview to Michael Gove and apparently Murdoch sat in on it.

And it wasn't just Fox in the USA, there are any number of Radio stations and websites pushing out crazy right-wing, fascist, racist and white supremacist ideology. 

Now we seem to moving in the same direction. We already had Spiked, Guido Fawkes and Breitbart now we are getting Foxhole News from Leave.EU as well as Andrew Neil starting up a new TV Network, GB News, with £60m backing from wealthy men.

I noted some recent tweeted headlines from Foxhole. What about these:

Or what about this:

Or this:

Or this:

Brexit is doing untold damage to Britain after just a few weeks. The shellfish industry has all but gone and financial services are seeping away into Europe yet these people are intent on keeping it going for years and years if they can. Everything will be slanted against the EU. Brussels will become as hated as Berlin was in 1940.

It looks like a long hard road back to normality and we aren't going to do it without the support of the Labour party.  Sooner or later Kier Starmer is going to have to start pushing back against the hard-right agenda which currently seems to dominate the Anglo-American world.

In Europe there is a recognition that improving the lives of ordinary people matters. The EU are regulating to improve job security, consumer protection and safety and the environment. But here and in the USA the pursuit of money always comes first - and second and third. Any kind of regulation is anathema if it reduces the profits of companies. People come a long way behind.

Let me say, by the way I am not a Marxist. By inclination I am on the centre right and I know businesses are not charities, but to prevent a race to the bottom in working and living standards it's necessary to regulate.  As Heseltine once said, "civilisation is built on regulations."

Brexit is just the latest example of this kicking against regulations. It is being pursued against the interests of the people as fishermen are just beginning to discover, yet there is not the slightest admission of it  - yet.  I live in hope that at some point a leading Brexiteer will admit it was a huge mistake. But Foxhole News, GB News as well as the old guard at The Sun, The Mail and The Telegraph are going to pump out an awful lot of bile and lies before that happens.


Posted by at