I’m becoming less and less concerned about the ‘Partygate’ stories and more concerned with the motivations of the media organisations behind them. Whilst I agree that there are a multitude of reasons why Boris Johnson’s non-conservative Conservative administration needs to be replaced with something more conservative, such as the net zero nonsense promoted by Johnson, the border control failures, the unwillingness to tackle the dangerous and censorious Left and much more, ‘partygate’ is looking less and less like one of those reasons.

Of course I can understand the genuine public anger about the hypocrisy of a political and administrative class who seemingly ignored the very same rules that they’d imposed on the rest of us. However to a large extent the Partygate story is a media confection but one pushed by those in politics who are still woefully salty over the Brexit decision and Boris Johnson’s part in steering the Brexit ship through the boiling seas composed of treacherous Remainers.

The whole ‘Partygate’ story looks very much like a concerted attempt by those who have Remain sympathies both in politics and in the media to unseat a Prime Minister with a large majority. This looks especially more credible when you realise that there is not a real barrier between politics and the mainstream media as all too often those in media go to work in politics and vice versa. There is not so much a hard barrier between media and politics which would ensure that neither side got too cosy with one another but something much more equivalent to a permeable mesh between the two sides. This permeable mesh situation means that media organisations are less inclined to do proper journalism when it comes to politics and are more likely to take political sides. To paraphrase George Orwell’ statement in Animal Farm: ‘I look from journalist to politician and I really can’t tell the damned difference any more’.

Journalists and media organisations have always had some political bias but because different organisations had different biases then there was at least some diversity of viewpoint in Britain’s media. It was quite obvious back in the days when newspapers ruled the roost that the Telegraph was a supporter of the Tories and the Daily Mirror was a Labour paper whilst the broadcasters had to at least give the impression of being lacking in political bias due to broadcasting regulations. That’s not the case today. Journalism has to a large extent been turned from a craft into a profession and is now dominated by the middle class left and all that goes with it.

Not for today’s journalists the year of low level grind of basic journalism such as court reporting, death notices and crime reporting on local papers that was required to reach a level of knowledge that might entail one being given some freelance shifts on a national newspaper. Now the well connected, especially those whose families are well connected to media circles can come direct from university into low level but still quite powerful national media jobs. The middle class Left and in particular the Remainer class are in charge of our national media and they are hiring those just like themselves. I very much doubt that I would ever be able to work on national media today and come in via learning on the job. Today my face would not fit, my voice would not fit and my class would not fit. Journalism is no longer the job for the enthusiastic time served Tom, Dick or Jane, it’s a job for the Tarquins and one possibly seen as a springboard for a future job in politics either as an elected politician or as a political advisor.

Our journalists have become so ideological that they are pushing the Partygate story without looking at other aspects of it such as the leaking. They are so single mindedly out to get Boris Johnson and those who support Brexit that they are not asking one of the big questions which is ‘why is this leaking bastard leaking to me?’ Blinded by class based and ideological hatreds too many in our mainstream media are failing to ask questions like this and also failing to ask whether or not the sort of evidence that they are getting via leaks is the sort of solid evidence that would be admissible in a court of law.

The commentator Barrister’s Horse has been musing on the issue of the ‘Partygate’ saga and the various leaks that the mainstream media have used to force this issue into the public eye and use it as a battering ram against the Prime Minister. Barrister’s Horse has produced an excellent and thought provoking thread on the subject of the ‘Partygate’ phenomenon which I have reproduced below but which also can be found HERE.

As is normal policy for this blog Barrister’s Horse’s comments are in italics whereas my comments on it are in plain text.

Barrister’s Horse said:

1. It’s a really odd scenario.
The photos/email evidence re gatherings is unlikely to be admissible because:
a) Illegally obtained, and
b) They’ve been altered by cropping, pixelating or blanking out names.

That is correct. Apart from the matter of the evidence being illegally acquired there’s the matter of the chain of custody of the evidence in question and the fact that there have been redactions and alterations to this evidence shows that this chain of custody has been extremely weak and may cast a lot of doubt on the evidence itself.

The press have gone out of their way to try to get rid of the one PM who is most readily associated with Brexit. The press have been assisted in this by the involvement of ideologically driven Europhiles like Lord Hesletine who make no secret of their desire to see Johnson replaced by a pro-EU Tory leader.

There is a great deal to criticise Boris Johnson and his extremely politically engaged and influential wife about, but the ‘Partygate’ scandal really looks more like an organised attempt by a media cohort dominated by the middle class Left and by Remainers to oust a known Brexiteer. I accept that the press has always had some political influence and this goes right back to the eighteenth century, but this influence was not all one way across all publications. Back in the past including the relatively recent past media entities would promote their own in house view or the views of their proprietors but the view of outlet ‘A’ was often balanced and countered by the views of outlet ‘B’. What we have today is nothing like that. We have publications of vastly different political points of view and ownership all singing from the same hymn sheet about ‘Partygate’ and that makes me believe that a lot of the motivation behind Partygate is nothing to do with exploiting the public’s anger about hypocrisy and much more to do with getting a Remainer back in Number Ten.

I really hope that this ‘Partygate’ stuff blows up in the faces of both the civil service leakers and the press. This is because there is little in this case that could be said to be in the public interest and a lot that is in the interests of Remain obsessed media and politicians.