The Daily Mail

[glasfryn]

it could be a good vote catcher as Ed Milliband is trying to swing the Labour party further left with more socialism and might just bring in those socialists who thought the Labour party had become watered down tories.
I might even consider voting for them again myself

 

[TheJasperCo]

Just playing Devil's advocate here, but has anyone slating the DM actually read the article in question? Or have they formed their own opinions based on other people's opinions of the article?

 

[ROSM]

Just playing Devil's advocate here, but has anyone slating the DM actually read the article in question? Or have they formed their own opinions based on other people's opinions of the article?

Yes I did. And the repeat version with added 'evil' today. It was a low point in the daily mail's history among a catalogue of low points.

I am not a fan of ed milliband but I understand and am pleased of the way he has tried to handle it today. Recently there were things written about Cameron's now deceased father in another media outlet that were below the belt but this has surpassed it.

 

[tinycowboy]

The Daily Mail is a bizarre schizophrenic (hope i spelled that right) oddity. I'm always dumbstruck by its crazy mixture of prurience, prudishness, extreme hatred, cosiness and easy puzzles.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Free on the internet! I'll take that!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The Daily Mail seem to hate Great Britain, don't they?

 

[East Preston Gull]

It's a great read on a Sunday. Excellent sports pull out and the Event mag is a good read. Just saying

PS: the rest of the paper is sh*t though

This!!
The Sunday has a different editor( the two editors are having a private little war) The Sunday mail is a great read for all political leanings.

At the end of the day you have the mail and sun on one side and the guardian and mirror on the other. Both can be extreme in their views. You pay your money and take your choice..enjoy them if you must but don't judge the people who read the one you don't like.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Really poor taste, no journalistic value.

Terrible for them to use the term evil about his father

 

[Dandyman]

Some very good comments on this thread. I'm not the only one who feels the undercurrent of anti-semitism in the Mail's smear tactics and in it's general descriptions of the Millibands.

 

[ROKERITE]

it could be a good vote catcher as Ed Milliband is trying to swing the Labour party further left with more socialism and might just bring in those socialists who thought the Labour party had become watered down tories.
I might even consider voting for them again myself

And with luck they'll lose far more votes from the centre.
Like most people I haven't read the article in The Daily Mail. But Milliband's father was a dreadful man and if Ed is going to talk about the influence Ralph had on him it seems perfectly fair that it is pointed out just who and what Ralph was. Ofcourse Ed's desire to muzzle the freedom of the press would be in line with his father's totalitarian views.

 

[ROSM]

And with luck they'll lose far more votes from the centre.
Like most people I haven't read the article in The Daily Mail. But Milliband's father was a dreadful man and if Ed is going to talk about the influence Ralph had on him it seems perfectly fair that it is pointed out just who and what Ralph was. Ofcourse Ed's desire to muzzle the freedom of the press would be in line with his father's totalitarian views.

So why would you describe his father as dreadful?

And actually this one episode is more likely to lead to press muzzling than away from it. The mail have played this very badly.

 

[cunning fergus]

Some very good comments on this thread. I'm not the only one who feels the undercurrent of anti-semitism in the Mail's smear tactics and in it's general descriptions of the Millibands.

That may well be true however patriotism or nationalism to a Marxist are bourgeoisie ideologies and the very antithesis of Marxism.

If he was the Marxist holding the views he very publicly circulated then he was obviously diametrically opposed to the historical institutions and social constructs that are embedded in this country, he may not have hated everything about Britain but he would have hated an awful lot about it, and particularly the important things. The patriotic Marxist he is being portrayed as is ridiculous, it's like a law abiding anarchist.

Miliband sr was hardly some gentle old soul hidden from the public, he was an active political agitator and an author who was very well connected to the Labour Party (and other left wing political grandees) for years. Not many kids in North London would have had the kind of people dropping in for tea like David and Edward did. Not that that has harmed their careers...................political careers that is.

Miliband would be better served being honest.....................his old man ended up as a capitalist member of the establishment...............that won't scare any horses.

 

[Buzzer]

So your point is that a leopard cannot change its spots?

In its own way then isn't that exactly what the Mail are alledging against Miliband's old man?

Fact is if you are a commited Marxist (as he was) then the state as it in the UK is an incongruious concept to him.............to quote Marx:

"The executive of the modern state is nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie".

The UK hasnever been like the old soviet union because it is literally ****ing STEEPED in the aristocracy and bourgeoise...........so he must have absolutely ****ing hated this country purely in a political theoretical sense at the very least.

All this bollocks about Miliband's old man patriotic marxist is ****ing laughable...........its an oxymoron.

Fact is though, Miliband Sr wasnt a Marxist at all, he managed to create a portfiolio of property in London and Oxfordshire and used his patronage and influence to get his progenies into Oxford. Clever they may have been but they were hardly a pair of Alan Turings either...................he became the very thing he despised.

So there we have it, not a very edifying spectacle in my view and actually I think Clegg called it right, but on the bare facts the Mail has a point. In fact if they really wanted to smear Miliband's old man.................they would use his real name.

All this is very true, especially the bit about Milliband snr using his influence to get both sons into Oxford when clearly at least one of them is about as bright as Prince Harry on a bad hair day but I do have to say, who cares? Using the sins of his father to smear Milliband jnr seems bizarre especially with Rothermere's form.

Mind you, it does piss me off with the whole 'Britain is crap except for me and my mates' type stuff we have from certain quarters. Yes, I'm looking at you Jeremy Hardy, Tariq Ali, Jon Snow.

I'm drunk so probably best to leave it here.

 

[Buzzer]

Some very good comments on this thread. I'm not the only one who feels the undercurrent of anti-semitism in the Mail's smear tactics and in it's general descriptions of the Millibands.

Yup. They do seem to be making a big thing of it. I don't recall Michael Howard or Nigel Lawson or Leon Britton's heritage being quite so important in days gone past.

 

[Leighgull]

Alastair Campbell just savaged the deputy editor on Newsnight. Guy didn't know if he was Arthur or Martha.

 

[Don Quixote]

When Thatcher died they said don't speak ill of the dead. It seems as if the same rule does not apply to Ralph Miliband.

 

[Leighgull]

When Thatcher died they said don't speak ill of the dead. It seems as if the same rule does not apply to Ralph Miliband.

They've dropped a major bollock with this though. It has just made pretty much everyone in the country with an ounce of decency feel sorry for Milliband.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

So your point is that a leopard cannot change its spots?

In its own way then isn't that exactly what the Mail are alledging against Miliband's old man?

Fact is if you are a commited Marxist (as he was) then the state as it in the UK is an incongruious concept to him.............to quote Marx:

"The executive of the modern state is nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie".

The UK hasnever been like the old soviet union because it is literally ****ing STEEPED in the aristocracy and bourgeoise...........so he must have absolutely ****ing hated this country purely in a political theoretical sense at the very least.

All this bollocks about Miliband's old man patriotic marxist is ****ing laughable...........its an oxymoron.

Fact is though, Miliband Sr wasnt a Marxist at all, he managed to create a portfiolio of property in London and Oxfordshire and used his patronage and influence to get his progenies into Oxford. Clever they may have been but they were hardly a pair of Alan Turings either...................he became the very thing he despised.

So there we have it, not a very edifying spectacle in my view and actually I think Clegg called it right, but on the bare facts the Mail has a point. In fact if they really wanted to smear Miliband's old man.................they would use his real name.

I think you've collapse a lot of things together.

It is possible to despise the way a country is run, and the apparatus of the state, without despising the country itself. Just like Albion fans despised Bellotti, Archer and the Albion board, but that didn't mean they hated Brighton & Hove Albion. In fact the opposite was true. Similarly, Gandhi despised the way India was governed, but that didn't mean he despised India.

Similarly, I don't see how owning property is inconsistent with having Marxist beliefs. Are you saying you can only be a Marxist if you are poor? Miliband lived in a capitalist system and operated within it. Doesn't mean he couldn't see the limitations of it, and his own wealth to advocate a different system for himself and everyone else.

 

[soistes]

I think you've collapse a lot of things together.

It is possible to despise the way a country is run, and the apparatus of the state, without despising the country itself. Just like Albion fans despised Bellotti, Archer and the Albion board, but that didn't mean they hated Brighton & Hove Albion. In fact the opposite was true. Similarly, Gandhi despised the way India was governed, but that didn't mean he despised India.

Similarly, I don't see how owning property is inconsistent with having Marxist beliefs. Are you saying you can only be a Marxist if you are poor? Miliband lived in a capitalist system and operated within it. Doesn't mean he couldn't see the limitations of it, and his own wealth to advocate a different system for himself and everyone else.

Spot on

 

[The Large One]

Yup. They do seem to be making a big thing of it. I don't recall Michael Howard or Nigel Lawson or Leon Britton's heritage being quite so important in days gone past.

I've read John Sergeant's autobiography, and he talks of his time in the 'Westminster Village'.

Not so much from the papers, but he did say he heard a certain amount of anti-semitic rhetoric from certain sections of the Tory backbenches when Margaret Thatcher promoted Nigel Lawson and Leon Britton to the cabinet.