Boris Johnson has pulled out of leadership race

[feckity]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-36570120

It looks like Murdoch has been outmanoeuvred. It looks like Theresa May will now beat Gove. Daily Mail backing is huge.

Does the DM 'speak for middle england'? Or does it put words into its mouth? I've seen the latter happen - people echoing what they'd read in the DM accepting it without reading other opinions. I'm sure it happens with other newspapers too(and other media), but it's particularly obvious with the DM.

No because the Daily Mail is "the Bible of Middle England"

Little England, more like.

And don't fool yourself. Gove and Dacre are playing the same game, get Boris out of the way because he was seriously retracting on Brexit.

I think that this was the intention:
Theresa May might have even been behind this, not wanting to go head to head with Boris knowing she might lose.

I don't think that Gove wants to be PM, I think that he has been put up to this. Darce, who his wife works for or Murdoch, who he used to work for just to get Boris out of the leadership race.

Such a loss: love him or hate him he made a real contribution to established British Politics. I hope that the Conservative Party investigate if there have been any shenanigans

'And don't fool yourself. Gove and Dacre are playing the same game, get Boris out of the way because he was seriously retracting on Brexit.'

'I think that this was the intention:
Theresa May might have even been behind this, not wanting to go head to head with Boris knowing she might lose.

I don't think that Gove wants to be PM, I think that he has been put up to this. Darce, who his wife works for or Murdoch, who he used to work for just to get Boris out of the leadership race.'

I agree with both of you, I think that is probably what happened. Gove didn't want it but Dacre wanted Boris out and has immediately backed May, so he probably already thought that before today.

At the end of the day, I prefer Dacre to Murdoch, I'm part of Middle England, and if Dacre is happy with May, then I trust he knows what is best for the people.

I think the peasants will revolt if Gove gets it.

All of them, regardless of what the peasant voted for in the referendum.

Nah, you're delving too deep into the motivations. Dacre's job description is to increase circulation of the DM, isn't it, a paper originally aimed at women. Maybe he's just decided that his readership will like May's shoes?

'Dacre's job description is to increase circulation of the DM'

No, I think it has gone beyond that. I think Dacre knows that Middle England expects him to do his duty and stand up for us against the useless metropolitan elites which is why he continually blasts them in editorials when thhey repeatedly take the piss. He knows that only he can hold the shower to account.

Here are the words of Dacre himself

"Why is the left obsessed by the Daily Mail?

Paul Dacre
...
Let it be said loud and clear that the Mail, unlike News International, did NOT hack people's phones or pay the police for stories. I have sworn that on oath.

No, our crime is more heinous than that.

It is that the Mail constantly dares to stand up to the liberal-left consensus that dominates so many areas of British life and instead represents the views of the ordinary people who are our readers and who don't have a voice in today's political landscape and are too often ignored by today's ruling elite.

The metropolitan classes, of course, despise our readers with their dreams (mostly unfulfilled) of a decent education and health service they can trust, their belief in the family, patriotism, self-reliance, and their over-riding suspicion of the state and the People Who Know Best.

These people mock our readers' scepticism over the European Union and a human rights court that seems to care more about the criminal than the victim. They scoff at our readers who, while tolerant, fret that the country's schools and hospitals can't cope with mass immigration.

In other words, these people sneer at the decent working Britons – I'd argue they are the backbone of this country – they constantly profess to be concerned about."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/12/left-daily-mail-paul-dacre

That is why the metropolitan elite panic every time they hear that Dacre is about to write another editorial.

Bullingdon Club member, Boris, has lost, outwitted by Gove and the power that prefers Gove, the meritocratoc populist, Dacre of Daily Mail renown...

Well, that prediction went well, claig, didn't it?

The elites have lost, the people and their representatives have won

Apparently not - at least if we define winning in your terms.

The people are having a knees up and singing "Roll out the Barrel" as it has never before been sung.

Strange, I couldn't hear one person singing Roll out the Barrel.

Do you, like, work for them, claig ? Have I missed that bit?

The elites have indeed lost, but I'm afraid the predictable truth will be that everyone else will have lost more.

Claig just likes to wind people up, ignore. Or alternatively enjoy it for what it is, amusingly goady.

No, I don't work for them. I am one of their readers that Dacre talks about.

JudyCoolibar, I was close. They wanted Boris out, Gove done the deed. I thought and hoped Gove would go all the way, but I didn't realise Dacre would back May, which makes me think either Dacre is not too keen on Gove because Murdoch likes him or more probably that Gove doesn't really want it and is happy with Dacre's choice of May.

Anyone who Dacre backs is by definition with the people because Dacre represents Middle England.

Dacre represents Little Englanders, that isn't the same thing.

'Dacre represents Little Englanders'

Those are not the words Dacre chose in his article.

Well of course he didn't choose those words.

Everybody knows who the Daily Mail appeals to though. People of the same mindset but a higher reading age than Sun readers.

A relative of mine used to be on the board of DMGT (the group that the Mail belongs to). I'm afraid all they were interested in was the sales, and the sales strategy of the Mail is sadly incredibly effective, because of that Dacre has been allowed to pretty much operate autonomously. Lots of people who apparently don't wish to think for themselves and would rather let someone like Paul Dacre tell them how they should think instead

Ironically for anti-elitists the majority shareholder and so chief beneficiary is Viscount Rothermere, who is both very rich and scion of one of the Press Baron families. Oh and given that Paul Dacre has purchased large estates and sent his children to Eton he doesn't sound terribly 'of the people' himself anymore.

then the people are content. Bread and circuses. I'm not part of your 'people', claig. Are you actually a real person?

If the Daily Mail comments section reflects its readers, it seems Theresa May isn't that popular.

Maybe people are fed up being told what to think by newspapers?

Those are not the words Dacre chose in his article

Have you heard of dog whistle politics?

This is the Daily Mail you love. Any comments?

'If the Daily Mail comments section reflects its readers, it seems Theresa May isn't that popular'

Yes, I think that Daily Mail readerswould definitely prefer Gove, as I would, which is why Dacre's choice of May is a bit of a surprise.

There is a good article about Gove by his friend James Delingpole. Delingpole seems to think that Gove is running for real. He says Gove is a radical and wants to get things done. He knows him well, so that could be the case.

"Why my ferociously loyal friend Michael Gove may have ditched Boris"

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/01/why-my-ferociously-loyal-friend-michael-gove-may-have-ditched-bo/

It seems the DM want May because she seems to want to get other sides together and be pragmatic.

I wonder what they would have said if Boris had wanted the job. Would their view be different?

I am sure our resident expert would tell us what the DM view on Boris was. What would they have done if Boris had wanted the job and May wanted the job?

From the DM

But with the referendum wounds still raw, the markets jittery, the future uncertain — and Westminster increasingly resembling a madhouse — what the country needs most is a solid and steady hand on the tiller

Strange - because this is the paper that has gone out of its way to say things are fine in the market.

Why I would worry about Gove (with apologies for finding it on Wiki);
...Rupert Murdoch, whom Gove described in evidence before the Leveson Inquiry as "one of the most impressive and significant figures of the last 50 years".

'It seems the DM want May because she seems to want to get other sides together and be pragmatic.'

Yes, I think that is right

'I wonder what they would have said if Boris had wanted the job. Would their view be different?'

They would have chosen May without a doubt. They don't trust Boris to be serious or a safe pair of hands. Heffer is not too keen on him and here is an article by former Daily Telegraph editor, Max Hastings.

"MAX HASTINGS: If this charlatan and sexual adventurer had become Prime Minister, I'd have emigrated says his former boss

It would have signalled to many UK no longer wished to be seen as serious"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3668972/If-charlatan-sexual-adventurer-Prime-Minister-d-emigrated-says-former-boss-MAX-HASTINGS.html