Prime Minister,
There is rarely a day that goes by when the Department for Wizards and Prestidigitators cannot make me laugh out loud. This time it has been in complete amazement at the sheer effrontery of their new Communications Director, Richard Caseby.
Here we have a man who was Managing Editor of one of the most vile media instruments – Rupert Murdoch’s “The Sun” – who would publish only what he was told rather than let facts get in the way of a good story. Here we have a man who is apparently quite happy to be associated with a Work and Pensions Secretary who has now been pulled up by the ONS (twice) and the Public Accounts Committee for the misuse and deliberate misquoting of official statistics and accounting, which information would have reached the national press and media via his office, and he has the utter gall to accuse The Guardian of misrepresenting facts? Jeez, talk about pots and kettles!!
Ineptitude and ideology, both words used by Caseby in his criticism of The Guardian, are more properly applied to your government. An ever-increasing number of people are coming to agree with this point of view. I suppose, really, that it is no surprise that yet another former member of staff at one of Murdoch’s foul outlets should now be in a senior position within this government, just as Coulson was. Which stone was turned over to discover him, I wonder, and how long will it be before we see him answering questions in front of a judge? Why would he want The Guardian kept out of the new standards organisation for the press; what is he afraid of them digging up?
Still, if he’s going to make the first complaint about them being allowed to join, he might as well add to Shappie Chappie’s letter to the UN as well, and complain about the latest scandal to be exposed by the press – that of SERCO covering up their employee’s rape and abuse of vulnerable inmates in holding centres. I’m sure it will have just as much effect. Here we see a man employed to be a propagandist for your government, and the one thing that propagandists cannot stand is recognisable, respectable and reliable opposition because it means they actually have to do some work in return for their fat salaries. This idiot doesn’t have that experience; all he is capable of is writing what he’s told to write. As someone who quite happily parroted Osborne’s spiteful little quips in Murdoch’s alleged newspaper, Caseby has already clearly described his own subterranean moral level. In a choice between what he puts out to the press, and The Guardian’s interpretation of it, I will therefore choose to believe The Guardian’s version of the news every single time, along with – I am certain – many other people.
As for “hysteria” in The Guardian’s reporting of what the DWP gets up to, I think he has his words confused. A more appropriate term to describe The Guardian’s reporting would be “justifiably outraged.”
Do the DWP a favour, Prime Minister. Give Caseby a tin of Brasso and tell him to go off into a quiet room and polish his neck.
Sincerely,
Darren Lynch
