To think the right wing tabloids have gone too far?

[Mistigri]

Reactions of the Mail, Express and Sun to yesterday's court decision on brexit:

The Mail's front page has a picture of the three high court judges with the headline "Enemies of the people". One judge is criticised for being "openly gay".

The Express says this is the UK's greatest crisis since the Second World War.

The Sun (proprietor: R Murdoch) takes to task the "foreign elites" who brought the case. Because their readers are less likely to approve of attacks on white pensioners (the other claimant), they focus their attack on the non-white woman claimant.

The Mail is the most problematic IMO; attacking the judiciary is another step on the road to facism.

How can we have any reasonable political debate in this environment?

I personally would rather people got behind calls for Liz Truss to be sacked for not fulfilling her duty, as Lord Chancellor, to defend the independence of the judiciary from attack.

I do have a quite unBritish attachment to free speech. I think the Mail should be able to print shite as long as it doesn't break the law. But, critically, for free speech to work without tipping over into intimidation there needs to be a willingness among people generally, and leaders in particular to condemn those who go too far. In this case, that starts with Liz Truss.

I've raised the issue of the Press reporting with my MP who has already replied. I made it clear that I thought the press have a right to object to the judgement but not to drag the judges private lives into it.
I think a lot of MPs will be concerned about how some of the papers behaved and will put pressure on Liz Truss. It is better if an MP can say that their constituents have contacted them on an issue because it shows that it is not just party political point scoring.

The MPs of a Remain bent will realise that when it comes to denunciations in the Press they could be next.

One outcome I expect from this is prominent people on the Remain side needing police protection.

I completely agree with you Mistigri. It is vital in the light of the Daily Mail attack that the government supports the judiciary for doing its job even if it doesn't agree with the verdict, It isn't about parliament overturning a referendum. Our democracy relies on the sovereignty of parliament, not the royal prerogative, which the government is trying to use. We had two revolutions in this country on this, never mind one referendum!
The massive irony is that where I work (in education) we have posters everywhere about upholding 'British' values. You know, right to free speech, equal opportunities, a parliamentary democracy, so on and so forth. As far as I can see, the Daily Mail managed to break just about every supposed value with its attack on the judiciary!

Loose I posted yesterday (can't recall if on this thread or another) that the British government defines extremism as:

"...vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs."

By this definition, it is clear to me that the Daily Mail is guilty of extremism by UK government standards.

Did anyone see Gina Miller and Farage on Andrew Marr this morning? I thought she was awesome.
I read the Express front page and honestly couldn't believe what I was reading. It was along the lines of 'Remember the euphoria of 24th June when THE PEOPLE voted to take back their country from Brussels bureaucrats and kick all the forriners out
Now, these unelected judges are trying to STOP BREXIT!!!
It was all printed on a background of the Union Jack and basically inciting civil unrest. Either they genuinely believe that, in which case they are unbelievably stupid or they know it's rubbish and are just shit stirring.
I feel ashamed to be British right now.

I agree mistigirl Liz Truss's statement was too little too late. The government should not have allowed this complete disregard for the rule of law to carry on and then issue a weak statement when pulled up on it so much later. They allowed and encouraged the papers to whip up this frenzy then when the damage was done said 'oh we agree with the independence of the judiciary'

I work in education too, and we have to integrate 'British' values' into our teaching. I wonder if I'll get away with rejecting Parliamentary democracy, the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary and advocating a return to absolute power to the executive under the guise of the Royal prerogative? That's what the government are saying 'British' values' are now.

What is utterly bizarre is the article in today's Mail about 'some sections of the media' attacking the judges.

For comparision here is the front page of a German newspaper in 1933...

But they know that they can get away with sailing close to the wind, because the Government is letting them do so. If May, Truss or someone had spoken out, they would back down. They will push it as far as they can go.

Yes, I've seen that comparison too namechange. It's chilling. The DM coming out with this kind of rabble rousing stuff wasn't shocking (still awful but not unexpected) but the DT was.

Also disappointed that Liz Truss hasn't made a strong statement condemning these headlines. She seems to be completely out of her depth. Maybe she should have stuck to writing books about punctuation...

That was Lynne Truss flippin

To be fair, I always have to check which Truss is the Conservative MP and which Truss is the Radio 4 favourite and champion of apostrophes.

Coffee in Paris is a little more expensive now, small price to pay to avoid fat tatooed brits LOL

Elements that will teach me to be a smart arse!

I should probably also apologise to Lynne Truss as well .

I think we should have a front page with pics of the editors and (ooh, foreign, super-rich) owners of the Mail, Telegraph and Sun with the headline 'Enemies of the People'.

Because they are.

The judges are not - they are simply doing their jobs.

Since you asked flowers...

(I can't claim credit for this, nicked it off FB)

By the way, given the latest poll suggests that the majority of the British public now does NOT support Brexit, now they realise how much the Leavers lied before the vote and how what they called Project Fear was actually Project Truth, I hope we can have another referendum based this time on informed opinions.

Liz Truss couldn't write a fucking joke about bacon, let alone a book on anything.

Hmm but surely the referendum, the result of which DC made clear would be followed, was authorised by parliament, so iy could be argued that parliament had already authorised triggering article 50

No-one has managed to convince me of reasons to remain in Europe!

The senior beaurocrats are unelected, and answerable to no-one; the costs of admin are ludicrous, and inefficiency is well documented.

Youth employment (especially) is exceptionally high, many EU countries are almost bankrupt, and leaders do not have a clue how to deal with the mass immigration of recent years. Eg Calais 'jungle'.

Article 50 needs to be triggered at the earliest to get us out of the ridiculously bloated and expensive European concept!