Culture Wars by James Curran Ivor Gaber Julian Petley

Author:James Curran,Ivor Gaber,Julian Petley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

8

Slaying the dragon

Ivor Gaber

He [Ken Livingstone] praises Mr. Blair for running ‘the government of my dreams’ on issues such as race, female equality and sexual orientation. ‘If you come out [as gay]’ he says ‘it almost guarantees you a junior ministerial post. It’s wonderful’,

Jackie Ashley, the Guardian 8 April 2004

Today as an experiment, I have been asked to run a few job advertisements. These are not ordinary jobs. These are some of the nation’s top jobs, none of which has ever been advertised before. So only extremely serious applicants, please … Bogeyman of the Left. This symbolic post fulfils the very important function of giving the British electorate (or at least the British media) someone to fear. The British find it very hard to work out the ideas or aims of the far left (also known as the “far left”, “loony left”, “mad left”, etc.), so they prefer to concentrate on one person, as this fits better into their idea of politics as soap opera. Previous holders of the post have been Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Arthur Scargill and (briefly) Derek Hatton, but the post is currently vacant. Candidates should have a strong but well-hidden sense of humour, a gift for oratory, a short name for headlines, and a minimum of one odd hobby, even if it is only newt-keeping or tea-drinking. The post is not paid, but there are considerable fees for broadcasts, interviews, articles, etc., and the incumbent will soon be able to move out of politics and become a well-loved character on telly.

Miles Kington, the Independent 28 March 1990

This chapter uses a wide-angled lens to examine the part played by the media in the evolution of the Labour Party under the leaderships of Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock. But it takes as its starting point the sharp increase in the vituperative nature of the press attacks on Labour that coincided with the so-called winter of discontent in 1978–9 (when public sector workers rebelled against the pay limits being set by the then Labour Government). We also analyse two other aspects of press reporting of the Labour left. First, the ongoing narrative that characterised left-wing politicians as ‘mad’ with Tony Benn, in particular, being singled out for such treatment. And second, how the reporting of the winter of discontent, and the leadership of Michael Foot, can be seen as early exemplars of a particular UK variant of fake news. Whilst, as outlined in Chapter 4 and 5, some of the press reports of the left were based on straightforward untruths, some of it was based on the tiniest kernel of truth, which was then vigorously and distortingly spun, either by political campaigners, or the media, into a form which we label ‘extreme spin’ and ended up with the reader gaining a totally false impression of what had actually occurred.

The treatment of Foot by the press persuaded his successor, Neil Kinnock, to attempt to prevent this demolition from happening again. With the help of Peter Mandelson and Phillip Gould,

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