Supposedly, according to Private Eye (https://twitter.com/sunny_hundal/status/467784116038279168/photo/1), many of the stories about how racist UKIP candidates are, have actually been leaked by the Tories' oppo research people.
Talking of Farage, you've seen this spectacular meltdown / excellent interview (http://www.lbc.co.uk/watch-nigel-farage-v-james-obrien-live-from-1130-90532), yes?
I'm not surprised at all by allegations that the Tories have been looking up things their primary opponents have said, and publicising them. That's VERY BASIC SHIT: When people are taking your votes, LOOK UP THE THINGS THEY SAY AND BRING ATTENTION TO THE STUPID ONES.
If your main complaint is "our opponents pay attention to what we say and repeat it", you're fucked.
Oh sure; the interesting part of that story is that one of the newspapers that has agreed to pretend they didn't get the story from the Tories is the Guardian.
Is there evidence that they've actually "agreed to pretend" and that they aren't getting this on their own? UKIP politicians these days are like Canadian Reform Alliance Party[1] backbenchers before the muzzles came out and the message discipline kicked in - a fountain of terrible.
(I mean, I know that column claimed it, but that's something in gossip-column-format from a British newspaper. Should I take their unsourced claim seriously?)
[1]: Their real name. They picked it. Not a joke name.
Annoying long comment lost because this laptop isn't configured sensibly and I haven't done the settings swoop yet. Private Eye is a notorious news magazine with a history of publishing stuff that's probably true but not provably so, some columns more reliable than others, Street Of Shame is normally incredibly well sourced as half the entries are written by the journalists pissed off at the orders they've been given.
If they had a decent website they're be the go-to news organisation for most of us these days...
Similarly, Le Canard Enchaîné in France is a similar dumping ground for gossip that real newspapers either can't or won't publish, as well as genuine investigatory stuff. (It doesn't run ads, for instance, so it doesn't have to worry about pissing off advertisers.)
So, for instance, when it turns out that the French railways have ordered hundreds of trains that are too big (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/french-railway-operator-sncf-orders-trains-too-big) and the SNCF claims it's just a few hundred, and Le Canard Enchaîné says it's thousands, I'd believe Le Canard.
It's probably more that the tories offered to be laxer about press regs in exchange for this - note of course that this sort of shit is SOP, a lot of newspaper campaigns in the UK are dreamt up by the government in power, and then they pitch it to the government's allied newspapers and the newspapers then "pressure" the government to implement the policy the government came up with to begin with.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 07:35 pm (UTC)Talking of Farage, you've seen this spectacular meltdown / excellent interview (http://www.lbc.co.uk/watch-nigel-farage-v-james-obrien-live-from-1130-90532), yes?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 11:41 pm (UTC)If your main complaint is "our opponents pay attention to what we say and repeat it", you're fucked.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 12:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 11:51 am (UTC)(I mean, I know that column claimed it, but that's something in gossip-column-format from a British newspaper. Should I take their unsourced claim seriously?)
[1]: Their real name. They picked it. Not a joke name.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 09:21 pm (UTC)If they had a decent website they're be the go-to news organisation for most of us these days...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Eye
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-21 01:36 pm (UTC)So, for instance, when it turns out that the French railways have ordered hundreds of trains that are too big (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/french-railway-operator-sncf-orders-trains-too-big) and the SNCF claims it's just a few hundred, and Le Canard Enchaîné says it's thousands, I'd believe Le Canard.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 01:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 02:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-20 07:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 08:39 pm (UTC)My favourite quote from it has to be
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 09:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-19 11:52 pm (UTC)