Thursday 3rd October

The Daily Vile has gone too far this time.  And it knows it has.  It cannot quite bring itself to apologise, but has even been implicitly criticized by both Clegg and Cameron.  We are quite used to politicians being attacked, smeared, ridiculed and lied about.  But at least those politicians are still alive and can answer back.  The Daily Vile (Mail for those of you who know it under its former name) has attacked Ed and David Milliband’s father Ralph, saying that he hated Britain.  Ed was furious and demanded a right to reply.  The Vile did allow that, but responded by repeating their original allegations and today are having a four-page spread about the whole row, which they have caused in the first place.

As it happens Ralph Milliband ran away from the Nazis and served in the Royal Navy.  He was a left-winger, almost or possibly a Communist, and he did criticise many British institutions and attitudes.  So what?  There is much to still criticise.  I do it myself.  But in no way do I hate my country.  The main allegations stem from the diary entries Ralph made when he was just seventeen years old.  They then argued that this man ‘who hated Britain’ had also indoctrinated his sons with the same beliefs.

This is the Politics of Absolute Hatred and incidentally of Fear.   In fact Ed Milliband is far more centrist than Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan and Michael Foot, and no-one would argue that they hated Britain.

Why does the right wing just get more and more extreme?  Is this some sort of bunker mentality?  Will they come out next and be completely anti-Semitic because Milliband’s family were Jews?  And what about Chuka Umuna, has no-one noticed that he is black, maybe the public need this pointing out to them?    All I can conclude is that they are really running scared, and will do anything to stop Labour winning again.  The silly thing is that by picking this row, they are squeezing out all the ‘good’ press the Tories might get from their conference.   This reminds me of the row about Gordon Brown’s poor writing and how that back-fired; even the rabid racists who read the Vile may be disgusted this time.