Across the pond

Shortly before his much heralded appearance on BBC Strictly come Dancing Christmas edition, when  he might have done very well because he is a decent dancer, Vince Cable has been dragged around the floor in far more humiliating circumstances than Ann Widdicombe. who can’t dance, and who does not mind making an ass of herself now that her political career is over.

Contrast, Cable.

Who on Monday, held probably the most important cabinet role of all the Liberal Democrats, in this so-called Coalition government. Business Secretary.

Today, just twenty-four hours later, he is still the Business Secretary. But his credibility is in shreds, thanks to a sting by what my friends still call the Daily Torygraph.

The Daily Telegraph, which I have respected for the whole of my lifetime as a serious newspaper, which though right wing, reported, and reported at length, other viewpoints.

And, which had a clear distinction between news and comment.

The 2010 Daily Telegraph, however, adopted the tactics of the Murdoch press.

Not reporting, but a sting.

They sent two good-looking female journalists, to pose as loyal constituents, at his MP’s surgery, when Cable, like all decent MPs, makes themselves available to listen to their constituent’s concerns.

They conned him something awful. So that he confided to them, after they had convinced him that they were on his side, that he had declared war on Mr Murdoch, who should not be allowed to add to his already dominant power over the British media.

The Daily Telegraph, however, did not tell the world what their reporters had found out. They led on Tuesday with other things that Cable had said in the same dishonest interview.

Their headline was:

I could bring the government down.

Which was explosive enough.

But they dd not publish his comments about Murdoch, which were far more explosive.

Because the Daily Telegraph, 2010, is not the paper which has such a distinguished record in British journalism.

It is owned by the Barclay Twins, who avoid British taxes by living in the Channel Islands, and who are the most secretive of British newspaper bosses.

They are opposing Murdoch’s bid for even more power (along with many other British newspaper owners) but they don’t want you,

The British public

To know that.

Because they would rather like to own The Times themselves.

The scandal, which the British left, has never understood is not Rupert Murdoch.

It is that the British media is still overwhelmingly right wing, with the twin exceptions of the BBC and The Guardian Observer, owned by a trust.

So the fact that the Business Secretary had decided that Murdoch had too much power, was brought to the nation, not by the Torygraph, but by the BBC, whose budget has been slashed by this coalition government.

Urged on by the Murdoch press which wants to turn Sky into a right-wing rant like Murdoch’s Fox Television in the US.

The serious issue for the British media is NOT Murdoch.

It is that all the British press is rightwing, with the exception of The Independent, which is nearly bankrupt, and the Mirror, which is ailing financially, a spent force politically, and The Guardian.

Whereas the opinion polls show that the nation has a lot of left wingers.

This affair makes it crystal clear we need to rethink our media policy.

The Labour party should not be dancing on Cable’s grave, they should be attacking the fundamentals of big business domination of our media.

And Vince Cable, who has today committed political suicide, should resign tomorrow.

Go to the backbenches. Appear on Strictly Come Dancing. And help to restore his party, the Liberal Democrats, who have been hijacked by Nick Clegg, who like Tony Blair, is a Tory at heart.