Off Topic The Politics Thread
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Meanwhile Johnson has asked Sunak to look at removing restrictions on the pay of directors and non-execs.
Bosses pay isn't inflationary, apparently.
Yes, designed to attract business into the UK. Hard argument to make when public sector told to tighten their belts. Can't see it happening
Sadly, yes. When are the authorities going to put children first, and stop worrying they'll be accused of racism? Labour's Sarah Champion has done good work in this area.
Met Office issue thunderstorm and flash flood warning for Southern England tomorrow (Thurs).
Must be Glastonbury week then
Must be Glastonbury week then
Well, it's owned by Murdoch and endorsed the Tory Party in the 2019, 2017, 2015, and 2010 elections. Many of it's best commentators have strong links to the Tory Party: Finkelstein, Parris, Hague, Rifkind, Phillips etc. If that's not a Tory paper, I don't know what is! That's not a critique, it's my favourite paper, but it certainly leans very heavily blue.
The Times backed New Labour, so how could it be a Tory paper? The Daily Mail is a Tory paper, though less so now Dacre has gone.
The fact that The Times didn't endorse the blithering Ed Miliband or extremist Jeremy Corbyn does not make it a Tory stalwart imo. You mention Matthew Parris. He is passionately against the current government and has moved into Lib Dem territory. Max Hastings is a self confessed Labour supporter. Sam Coates and Beth Rigsby both wrote for The Times. Edward Lucas was a Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate. Janice Turner is ex Guardian. Trevor Phillips is not Tory so far as I know. Nor Giles Coren. I don't agree The Times is "very heavily blue". Given the state of the Labour Party, it may currently be slightly right of centre but it's certainly very critical of the government.
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It backed Labour when the Tory Party was in complete disarray in '01 and '05 and a Lab win was a shoe in. The exception to the rule. Couldn't bring themselves to back Labour in 1997 though and backed a bunch of anti-EU independents.
Anyway, not going to spend more time on this. It's not worth our time, and to most people is commonly accepted.
The Times withdrew a story about Johnson trying to appoint his then bit on the side (he was still married to someone else at the time) now wife as his chief of staff (taxpayer funded role) when he was Foreign Secretary. Cummings also claims Johnson tried to get her an official job in 2020. There is no injunction against repeating this story, but Downing Street asked the Times to withdraw it and it did pretty sharpish (this was last Saturday). The paper is now declining to tell its readers why it made this decision.
I have a subscription to the Times, it’s very easy to filter out its blue bias which is mostly confined to editorial/comment. However, if it decides it’s journalism has to be pro Tory as well, I’ll have to think again.
I have a subscription to the Times, it’s very easy to filter out its blue bias which is mostly confined to editorial/comment. However, if it decides it’s journalism has to be pro Tory as well, I’ll have to think again.
For £120k you can have dinner and ask him yourself.
You personally see The Times as very heavily blue because you have liberal views. Here's an interesting YouGov survey from 2017:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politic.../07/how-left-or-right-wing-are-uks-newspapers
You will see you're in the extreme 14% that think The Times is very right wing. Then there are 12% who think The Times is very left wing - that'll be the Norman Tebbits. For the rest, most see the paper as centre or slightly right of centre, and 28% as fairly right.
But does this make The Times a Tory paper? I'd say it's an Establishment paper, but any newspaper that supports the Labour Party in two successive elections cannot be Tory paper. Here's a test. The Daily Mirror is a Labour paper. If it supported the Tories in two successive elections, could it still be called a Labour paper?
I don't think so.
If the Mirror supported the Tories in 2017 because Corbyn was a danger to the nation, I'd still think of it as a Labour newspaper.
Also, you're putting words in my mouth. I said, "leans very heavily blue", not "is very right wing". Those are very different things. I think the link you've shared rather proves my point! Most people see it as a right of centre (i.e. blue) paper.
Except The Times didn’t leave the Tories because they were a danger, but because it preferred what a Labour government offered. So it’s like the Mirror saying, this David Cameron, we’ll throw our weight behind him!
I read “very heavily blue” as very solid Tory, encompassing both wings of the Party ie incl ERG. Which is substantially to the right obviously.
I don’t see The Times as a Tory paper, but I accept opinions differ.
How much of this tax payers money was handed out to shareholders?
I've quite enjoyed hearing Lynch in the rounds of interviews today. I don't have a problem with them striking. Good on em!