We all
recall, I imagine, the scandal which was all over the newspapers because of
allegations that the ADDE had mis-spent money. A case in which the European
Union acted as judge, jury and executioner, in which the decision was leaked to
the press in advance without any possibility of reply, and in which the facts
never actually matched what was eventually reported. It was all over the media,
despite the ADDE being a completely separate entity to UKIP. Perhaps the ADDE
made a mistake, perhaps it did not,
certainly the EU's actions in gunning for it were
shameful.
But
can you imagine what the media would do if there were a genuine scandal about a
British political party? Suppose that a Party had failed to declare hundreds of
items of General Election expenditure, and that even more money was actually
involved than in the previous case. Suppose that the Electoral Commission were
to apply the highest possible fine in law, and asked the government to increase
its powers because it didn't have sufficient power to deal with the situation
properly. Suppose that the matter were so serious that it had been reported to
the Metropolitan Police.
That's
exactly what has just happened with the Liberal Democrats, so why is it that
attacks on UKIP are headline news but if you blink you'll miss the coverage of a
much larger Lib Dem scandal?
Do we
believe that it's:
A - The
Lib Dems are such a political irrelevance now that any story about them just
isn't newsworthy, or
B -
There's an institutional media bias against
UKIP?
I believe that this is both!
