Inclined to agree whole heartedly with Richard Littlejohn about the Labour poster girls

[moondog]

Spot on

Headline of the article in the Guardian is

"Dear Richard Littlejohn – here are all the things you got wrong about me
I'm not single and I didn't quit my job for a life on benefits, but why let facts get in the way of your Daily Mail column?"

Then Jack says

"Firstly, I have to commend you for managing to get so many facts completely wrong in a comparatively short article. But that's your style isn't it? Never let the truth get in the way of a good smear campaign, or something like that.

So just in case you wanted to attempt to polish that turd of an article with something that resembles the truth, here's some of them addressed:

1. I'm not single – I'm getting married in the spring."

But she is not married, so she is single and Littlejohn is right.

Littlejohn has got some of the facts wrong and has made assumptions about why she left her job. Maybe teh time pressures of getting his article out so soon after the Daily Mail did its article on the "phoney ordinary folk" used in the Labour broadcast meant that he could not find out the exact details. I'm not sure how he would find them out, I guess he woud have to interview her.

Littlejohn is really writing this piece about Labour and their campaign against poverty and thaat is why he is mentioning Jack and Cait. So he is using broad brush strokes rather than going into detail in order to make his point about Labour.

Jack says

"It took 18 months for me to find that job, and hundreds of applications, but I did it. And that's what sticks in your craw, isn't it? Because in order to satisfy the stereotype that you peddle day in day out in the rag currently lining my ferret cage, I should have stayed feckless and unemployed, and not tried to feed myself and my son decent nutritious meals, nor had the audacity to write about it."

But this is wrong as Littlejohn would not want her or her son not to eat nutritious meals and what he is writing about is wanting people to find and be in work rather than to be claiming benefits if possible.

You can know everything you need to about Littlejohn from the fact that he lives in Florida. Yes, he loves Britain so much he emigrated to a state where it's legal to shoot black people.

Jack accuse him of not getting his facts right, but has she researched Littlejohn's view of the welfare system and a safety net before writing

"The difference between us is that I am glad I live in a country that seeks to look after its citizens with a safety net, imperfect as it is, it's surely better than no support at all."

She is painting broad brush strokes there in my opinion and hasn't interviewed Littlejohn to find out if he is against "a safety net"

"It wasn't a laptop, I blogged from my mobile phone."

OK, but aren't these fairly minor errors to the point Littlejohn is trying to make.

Littlejohn says

"This is a typical Guardianista’s idea of what ‘ordinary people’ should eat. Do they really think the ‘poor’ are going to sit down in front of The Great British Bake Off on their 52-inch, taxpayer-funded plasma TVs, and tuck into a plate of Kale Pesto Pasta?

For a start, those whom the Guardianistas disdain as ‘ordinary people’ don’t eat pasta — they eat spaghetti out of tins."

Jack says

"I don't have a 52-inch plasma TV."

But he didn't say she did.

Littlejohn says
"To her credit, Jack has now embarked on a media career."

Yes, Littlejohn got some things wrong, but he is trying to make a political point about Labour and so is using big brush strokes and not going into the detail.

Maybe the Mail will get the facts right as the election approaches.

"big brush strokes" = telling lies about a real, identifiable person. That's pretty bad. Especially when you are using those lies to make a political point. He lies about Jack and he lies about Cait.

He wouldn't have to interview them to write about them but he could do some research, ffs. There's only one lazy person on that page and it's the one trousering what I guess must be at least a six-figure sum ever year for writing it. (See, I managed to make it clear I don't know exactly how much he gets - it's not hard to be honest with any potential readers.)

I read somewhere that Littlejohn earns over £1 million, I think.

I was surprised, because for what he does in making a mockery of New Labour and making Mail readers laugh, he is underpaid by a substantial amount!

"Richard Littlejohn is the best-known and highest-paid newspaper columnist in the country."

...

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre could barely disguise his glee when he poached Littlejohn last year from the Sun, where he had worked for 13 years. Littlejohn, said Dacre, was returning to his "spiritual home". Exactly how many Sun readers Littlejohn brought with him to the Mail is another matter.

There was also the suggestion that some Mail readers weren't happy with his "spivvy" style of writing, and thought his signing showed the paper was going downmarket. With a contract worth around £1m a year, Littlejohn won't be losing any sleep over it.

Sun editor Rebekah Wade certainly had her work cut out replacing him.

www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jul/17/mediaguardiantop100200630

You've got to hand it to our system. A man from an ordinary background who earns more than all the PPEs and Old Etonian journalists who write for all our other newspapers.

sun editor rebekah wade has other, more pressing concerns at the moment claig

lol

I've not read Littlebrain's article but tbh he wouldn't recognise the truth if it introduced itself to him by biting his bollocks.

The Tories should not hire Littlejohn. But they do need to deposh. Get more working class Tories to the very top of the Cabinet.

Less hugging of hoodies, huskies and Lib Dems.

No more wonkish pursuits like the 'happiness index'. Let's have some straightforward Thatcherite policies: tax cuts, red tape cuts, crime crackdowns, unskilled/illegal immigration crackdowns, and union busting.

If Cameron seriously wants to win the next election, he should surely appoint Theresa May to be Chancellor (despite Osborne doing a decent job, he is voter repellent).

For a start, those whom the Guardianistas disdain as ‘ordinary people’ don’t eat pasta — they eat spaghetti out of tins."
I take The Guardian. I am an ordinary person and even when on benefits, I have not eaten spaghetti from a tin. Ever.

'I have not eaten spaghetti from a tin. Ever.'

You've never had spag bol out of a tin?
Where on earth have you bin?
Now Littlejohn lives in Florida and deservedly earns a million
But once he ate spaghetti from a tin like an ordinary civilian
But there is one thing he never ever did back in those days
Even in a drunken stupour, he maintained rigorous ways
He read only the Daily Mail and never read the Guardian
Which is why today he deservedly earns a million

Claig. I like to see some reruns of Conservative party broadcasts from 1979-. They might frighten a few people about Ed Milliband and his policies
circa 1977 Healey/ Wilson Jim "WHAT CRISIS CALLAGHAN"....

You're right, soul2000

Unfortunately, the Conservative class of 2013, from Eton and wherever else they come from, don't have the class of Thatcher or even of Littlejohn.

Littlejohn ate spaghetti from a tin, and so did Thatcher I bet, just like we did too. We all came up the hard way, the meritocratic way, the social mobility way, not the privileged progressive way.

It's only the Conservative class of 2013 and the Guardian class who never ate what ordinary people ate, which is why we're in the mess we're in.

This is one of the best (of so many great) performances by Maggie at PMQ.

A young progressive (now an old and more famous progressive) challenges her over "income inequality". She puts him right and causes him a fright. After dealing with his question, she gives a great reply about socialism.

Unfortunately, our Conservative class of 2013 need to learn from Thatcher too, because they have forgotten all she knew.

Apparently, it was Thatcher's last time at PMQ. It is great but also sad.

The young progressive in that clip was immature and naive in those days, but today he has got even worse.

But unfortunately there is no one like Thatcher to show him the error of his ways.

At the end of that clip, someone from the Tory benches shouts out to Thatcher

"you could wipe the floor with these people"

and everyone in the House that day knew that a truer word had never been spoken.

is eatibg as spaghetti out of a tin some kind of metaphor, or do you really mean eating spaghetti out of a tin?

chibi, tinned spaghetti, it's not a metaphor, it's more tasty than that.

Heinz was the best

It's what we ate when I were a kid. We had white bread and dollops of butter. We didn't live in Primrose Hill, we didn't go to St Pauls's and Westminster School and we didn't read the Guardian, we read the Daily Mail.

Simon Hughes just becomes more naive the older he gets. I think the
answer to Dennis "BEAST OF BOLSOVER" Skinner about becoming the Governor of Europe hilarious.

I just watched on You Tube the night "Callaghan Fall" in the vote of no confidence in March 1979. That was probably the single most remarkable night in British political history and yet is hardly known.

Yes, that was a great reply by Thatcher. If you look back, it becomes obvious how much of a giant she really was. She was unique.

soul2000, was it you who recommended the Dominic Sandbrook book on the late 70s to me? The only thing that stopped me from buying it was when I saw that it talked about pop music and footballers of the time etc. Is that a big part of the book?

Claig. No there is not much about football the bit about music is about how punk was deemed to be a great threat "ALMOST LIKE TERRORISM" in some politicians eyes. The best chapter is about education in 1975 and the trendy methods that were destroying education.

One of the funniest things, is this quotation from the Guardian 27th October 1975..... In the book,..

The Pupils of William Tyndale Junior School are having a very hard
time trying to cope with their teachers . Some of these teachers are
polite and hard-working. Others are high spirited but bright enough
and likely to do well. A very few, however probably those from problem
homes -are very disturbed, and every pupil knows that just one such
teacher can completely disrupt a classroom...........

Molly Hattersley Progressive Headmistress of Islington Green Comprehensive....

Check out "Countesthorpe" School in Leicestershire..1976...
A Left wing teachers dream.

Fucking hell, Claig, I can smell the vinegar from here!
As for Thatcher, sorry, but Elvis Costello had it spot on.