Nicky Morgan, who defended former Chancellor George Osborne becoming the Editor of the Evening Standard on the basis that he would be the voice of Liberal Conservatism, has accepted the position of Media Secretary in what must rank as the most craven Vichy-like government in the UK ever.
Shape-shifter Osborne backed Boris who, in turn, has hired Morgan.
Johnson visited Lebedev for a weekend in Italy in 2018 and refuses to disclose what was discussed.
In this Michael Wolff 2008 Vanity Fair piece, Johnson says of his behaviour toward foreign press barons (click, at the bottom, to page three of the following embedded pdf), “Still, if the owner is someone other than myself, I am ready to be Vichy-like. I am prepared to praise and flatter shamelessly.”
This slavishness to foreign capital will have been honed at Eton — Capital without Borders.
The-Boris-Show-Vanity-FairMorgan now rather conveniently oversees George Osborne’s Standard and his employer Lebedev Holdings’s Independent.
Morgan’s appointment comes two years after having defended Osborne’s right to edit the Standard, despite his deregulatory & austerity policies still unfolding – starting with Grenfell.
That’s right, there is simply no non-captured London Newspaper.
The Standard was sold by the Mail to Lebedev around 2009.
And now it has a mystery Saudi Shareholder.
Even the UK Government says the Evening Standard is a tool of the Saudi State.
No wonder the previous Culture and Media Secretary, Jeremy Wright, who was already quite the poodle, had to go.
He ordered a public interest notice into the Saudi Shareholding last month.
wrightlebedevnoticeThe Guardian reported this at the time.
Lebedev (and Osborne) urged the Government not to investigate the new Saudi owners.
Amol Rajan is the BBC’s Media editor. He appears to have something of the corporatist spook about him. Venal.
This is him talking about his ex-boss, Lebedev, selling stakes in the Standard and Independent to the Saudi state.
No-one seemed to notice at the time. But two years later it is being occasionally reported on because the FT looked into it and Wright felt he had to make it look like he wanted to do something.
Incidentally, Wright was Attorney General when Lisa Osofsky was appointed head of the Serious Fraud Office, another poodle organisation.
The Standard printed a puff piece on her a few months ago.
Standard.
Ofcom Stitch-Up
Ofcom the broadcast regulator is to deliver the verdict on the Saudi owners to Nicky Morgan on August 23rd.
Though Ofcom’s boss, Sharon White, is heading to John Lewis, she will be heading up Ofcom till the end of the year.
White, along with Standard Editor George Osborne & Lord Adonis, attended the Bilderberg Conference in 2017.
Her husband Robert Chote, runs the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), created by George Osborne in 2010 to monitor public spending.
This was originally supposed to be seen as an independent body that signed off on austerity, but was eventually often referred to as the Treasury Poodle.
So it’s all very cosy.
The nepotism is staggering.
And it isn’t concealed, though questions aren’t exactly encouraged.
Loyalty over principle wins every time.
So where are the watchdogs?
What now for truth or justice?
As with Boris Johnson, one of Elias Canetti’s grandparent’s origins were in Turkey.
This morning as I skimmed Canetti’s speech for Hermann Broch’s 50th Birthday in Vienna in 1936, I was struck by the idea that a decent writer ought to be immediate, inexhaustible, universal, in opposition, and to have a special vice.
Could this be the beginning of a Golden Age of journalism?
Or a new McCarthy era in which all signs of socialism or solidarity with all fellow citizens no matter what their age or background is to be frowned upon, and even persecuted?
Keep your eye on developments re: the Kushners and the new film that will be coming out in September about Murdoch and Trump’s old mafia lawyer Roy Cohn.
With the Epstein paedophilia case suddenly coming to light and Tom Watson mainly pushing Labour Anti-Semitism stories while whitewashing all alleged Westminster VIP paedophiles such as Greville Janner, Leon Brittan and the known paedophile Harvey Proctor, the McCarthy Communist witch hunts (which were profoundly anti-semitic) and the Lavender Scare (into homosexuality) seem to be taking place in reverse.
VIP Paedophiles are getting the upper hand and the idea of anti-semitism is being used to pursue anti-racist lefties.
www.prweek.com 
CityAM 
the Guardian 
Bill Emmott 
the Guardian 
