Matthew Norman: What will history make of Blair’s guest list?
Everyone will have their own preferences from across the spectrum of science, politics, law, charity, finance, religion, sport, soldiering, the arts and entertainment. But I do not believe there is another human being over the age of 30 in Britain today who, with the entire populace as potential dinner companions, would plump, as Tony Blair did, for Vernon Kay.
Posted on July 30th, 2007 at 11:01am under Blair, Chicken Nuggets, Culture, media and sport
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it is simply not possible to watch his ceaselessly gurning features for 15 seconds without entertaining the thought “But where is your carer?”
I remembered my very specific reason (though there are others) for not liking Matthew Norman.
When he was doing his unamusing Guardian Diary some years ago, he had a running joke about how he was trying to get David Yelland (then editor of the Sun) sectioned.
It would be fair to say that he found this more amusing than I did, not least because I’ve been on the rough end of that action and have some idea of how traumatic it is. I doubt that Norman’s understanding of the process went much beyond the phrase “men in white coats”.
Anyway, as the Guardian has a policy on not making light of mental health issues, or being crass or ignorant about them, I wrote to the then Readers’ Editor and asked if he could be gently asked to desist. Which is what occurred (though I cannot currently locate the column in which this was discussed).
I still don’t like him. At all.
Firstly,who the bejezus is Vernon Kay?
Secondly,Norman’s idea that the media cheerleaders for the Iraq war are no longer working is a complete fallacy.
Anne Applebaum,a Washington Post hack and WMD devotee,who insisted on France and Germany’s disqualification from the “international community” is now regularly propagandising the danger to the “international community” of an unmolested Iran and when the mood takes her insists on the need to freeze out Russia in a new Cold War.
David Aaronovitch,who once told readers if WMD were not found in Iraq he’d never believe anything the US/UK govts.ever told him again is still regurgitating their ridiculous propaganda for The Times as we speak.
Con Coughlin told Telegraph readers of the grave threat our country faced from Iraqi superguns and linked Al Qaida to 9/11.He couldn’t find Iraq on the map but this didn’t stop him being promoted to the Telegraph’s Foreign Editor.
Bought and sold hacks who promoted the Iraq war contrary to what Norman would have us believe are alive and well,nay thriving in Fleet St.to this day.
Christopher Hitchens and Janet Daley are still seen on BBC discusssion programmes.Andrew Roberts,an Empire historian of the old school who does hack work on various right wing rags and appears on the same discussion programmes, recently had his latest book recommended by G.Dubya Bush;hardly high academic order endorsement but when you’ve been so wrong on Iraq well you might as well go the wole hog and get it signed by someone who took a leading role in the very events you purport to be describing.
Then there’s Richard Littlejohn once of The Sun
now earning even more frothing on behalf of the Israeli lobby at every given opportunity on the Mail.
These servile hacks ready to do the bidding of elite interests will never want for work until their readers wake up and demand different fare.