Headline Hate

So, Trump thinks that, regardless of what his country's constitution might say, the only constraint upon his power and authority, at home or abroad, is his own morality.  In which case, I guess, we're all fucked.  But, before we all sink completely into despair over the idea of the moral vacuum currently occupying the White House thinking that he has the right to use US military, economic and political power to do whatever the fuck he likes, wherever and whenever he likes, for us in the UK, there has been some good news.  Not that you are likely to hear about from our right-wing press, of course.  In which case, if you missed it, London's murder rate is at an all-time low.  Not only that, but net immigration to the UK has fallen by two thirds to a post-pandemic record low!  But that can't be right, I hear you say, the Daily Hate and Nigel Farage assure me that the UK, especially London, is a crime ridden Hell hole overrun by dangerous foreign murderers and rapists personally invited into the UK by Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan.  So that must be the truth as the Daily Hate and Farage would never lie, would they?  Yet these are the facts, backed up with data: crime and immigration are down.  But as we've established here, time and again, most of the UK's press simply isn't interested in facts.  Well, not if they contradict their agendas, that is.  They'll only report them if they can somehow distort and misinterpret them in order to bolster which ever prejudices they are peddling this week.

Which is why, of course, the majority of voters mistakenly believe that immigration is rising, not declining.  But the right's grip on much of the UK's media is only half of the problem.  The other half is that the government is so poor at getting its message generally and the facts in particular, out to the electorate.  Sure, I know that they are facing a hostile media, but they really should be utilising other channels, be that social media, online media or whatever, to bypass the traditional media which is clearly not going to do them any favours.  Yet they persist in trying to curry favour with the right wing press, whether it is with immigration 'crackdowns', benefits 'crackdowns' or watering down much needed labour law reforms, regardless of the fact that it doesn't matter how right-wing they try to be, the right wing press will still hate them and simply use it all as 'proof' of their hypocrisy and untrustworthiness.  Why do they have such difficulty in grasping this simple fact?  Traditional media is never going to give a Labour government credit for anything.  They would be better off simply doing what they believe is right according to the party's founding principles.  At least have the press pour hate on them for being principled.  Plus, there's always the chance that if people's lives are improved by such measures, then their first-hand experience of reality might just override the propaganda being pumped into their brains by a hostile media.