Tory press tries to knock Clegg out of the ring

April 22nd, 2010

On the day of the second television debate our predominantly right wing press did their worst to totally discredit Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, which since last Thursday, have surged in the opinion polls to equal ranking with Labour and the Conservatives. Leading the pack, unsurprisingly was the Daily Mail, which wins top marks for conduct unbecoming of a democratic free press.

This is their headline and standfirst that took up two thirds of the front page.

CLEGG IN NAZI SLUR ON BRITAIN

Our delusions of grandeur are greater cross to bear than German guilt over Nazis. We need to be put back in our place, says the Lib Dem leader.

You have to turn the page and follow the story inside to discover, that this quote was taken from an article he wrote for The Guardian in 2002. And, of course, if you read the original article, which The Guardian has put up on its web site, you discover that what he said has  been distorted and taken entirely out of context. But the Daily Mail does not report what he says. It uses the space to print the views of Tory MP Nicholos Soames, Churchill’s grandson, in reaction to the quote the Mail read to him. Soames danced to the Daily Mail tune. Here is what he said.

These views will disgust people the length and breadth of the country. They show that Nick Clegg unfit to lead his party, let alone the country. They are an insult to the memory of Britain’s war dead……..

The 2002  article was written to combat what Clegg saw as British prejudice against the new democratic Germany. It was provoked by the behaviour of his school mates from the Westminster public school on a visit to Germany.  This is how it started.

I still cringe when I remember what happened on the school bus. The shame of it still lingers.We were all travelling together – a class of 17-year-olds from my school and our German “exchange” partners – on an excursion to the Bavarian mountains. The German teenagers had already endured a month at our school in central London. Now it was our turn to spend a month in Munich, living with our “exchange” families and attending the local school.

A boy called Adrian started it. He shouted from the back of the coach, “we own your country, we won the war”. Other boys tittered. One put a finger to his upper lip – the traditional British schoolyard designation for Hitler’s moustache – threw his arm out in a Nazi salute, and goose-stepped down the bus aisle. Soon there was a cascade of sneering jokes, most delivered in ‘Allo ‘Allo German accents.

 

I remember two things vividly. First, none of the girls in my class joined in. It seemed to be a male thing. Second, the German schoolchildren did not appear angry, or even offended. That was what was so heart wrenching. They just looked confused, utterly bewildered. To a generation of young Germans, raised under the crushing, introspective guilt of postwar Germany, the sight of such facile antics was simply incomprehensible.

Clegg’s experiences matched my own on my first visit to Germany as an 18-year-old in 1952, when I first got to know Germans of my own age, who were struggling to come to terms with the Nazi atrocities and trying to build a new Germany. 

Second prize for this morning’s hatchet jobs goes to the Daily Telegraph, which had this headline in three decks on top of it’s front page.
 
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem donors and payments into his private account
This suggests dirty business. The article reveals that payments from rich business to pay for his reserch staff were made into his private bank account, in 2006 when he was Lib Dem home affairs spokesman. The payments were declared and there was nothing improper about them. But the Telegraph inuendo implies impropriety.
Third prize goes to The Sun, which also wins a bonus for the wittiest headline.
CLEGG ON HIS FACE
Their story in fact was a damp squib, with a three pronged attack.
 
‘Lib Dem in new donor storm’ proved to be a rehash of the Telegraph story.
‘Accused of Afghan wan U-turn’   and ‘Baffled by own migrant policy’ produced nothing new either.
Murdoch’s other daily, The Times, stayed aloof from such gutter press tactics. But it made it crystal clear that it is dancing vigourously to Rupert Murdoch’s pro-Cameron tune, with a long friendly interview and more fuel for fears over a hung parliament.

 

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