Is Daily Mail a Tory or a BNP paper?

[BolivarianHero]

Just wondering.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. They'd say they're very anti-BNP

They certainly don't want to be called racist, and run plenty of anti-BNP stories. But their attitude to immigration is from the right wing of the Tories, and thus not too far from the BNP. They probably don't really care about colour (which the BNP certainly do), but they do seem to care about ancestry, and whether that makes someone really 'one of us' - witness the story the Mail On Sunday ran this weekend about Nick Clegg:

Revealed: The United Nations that make up Nick Clegg

Indeed, Mr Clegg’s exotic lineage and cosmopolitan lifestyle is a world away from his gritty Yorkshire constituency.

The multilingual Lib Dem leader was born to a Dutch mother and a half-Russian father, and employs a German spin doctor.

Mr Clegg’s mother, Hermance van den Wall Bake, was born under Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia and during the Second World War survived three years in a Tenko-style Japanese internment camp with her mother and sister.
...
Mr Clegg, 43, plays down his international background. When it was pointed out that he was only a quarter English, he said: ‘Well, biologically...yeah. But I was born here, brought up here, went to school here, and I feel very proud to be British. I have been very fortunate to have different bits to my identity. That’s enriched me.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1266826/The-United-Nations-Nick-Clegg.html

Now, it would be possible to mention that in a story in a neutral, or positive (as in "that's enriched me") light. But, knowing the Mail's readership, this is undoubtedly desined to cast doubts on whether Clegg is 'properly' British. There's a little bit of birtherism in there.

[T_i_B]

2. "gritty Yorkshire constituency"?????

With the exception of a few streets round Stannington, Sheffield Hallam is hardly the gritty part of town. Areas such as Dore and Wirlow are actually quite leafy and well off.

Sadly not suprised that nobody from the Daily Mail has ever even visited Sheffield Hallam before pontificating on the subject.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. It helps to bolster their 'phony' argument about him if they pretend his constituency is 'gritty'

There's a lot more in there about how he was brought up in Chalfont St. Giles, his family is rich, etc. It's part of the "quick, attack Clegg" movement in the Tory papers.

You know that "5 reasons why American conservatives should fear Clegg" piece you posted in Editorials? I looked at the titles of the author's Telegraph blog entries since the start of February, most recent at the top:

Foreign policy debate: not Nick Clegg’s finest hour
Nick Clegg's sneering rant against Britain is a disgrace
Nick Clegg’s Israel-bashing is sickening
Does Nick Clegg believe in the NATO alliance?
Barack Obama insults Poland – again
Nick Clegg is the anti-Churchill of British politics
Barack Obama should be proud America is a Superpower
Obama’s nuclear summit: a feel-good PR exercise, while Iran threatens a nuclear holocaust
President Obama should travel to Poland to honour Lech Kaczynski
Gordon Brown has abandoned the Anglo-American Special Relationship
Labour manifesto: Gordon Brown's gutless foreign policy vision
10 reasons why Barack Obama is the most naïve president in US history
Obama’s war on economic liberty: Paul Volcker’s call for European-style taxes threatens America
Has Gordon Brown snubbed Barack Obama over the nuclear summit?
Barack Obama’s imperial hubris will usher in American decline
Foreign Affairs Committee trashes the US-UK alliance: David Cameron must defend the Special Relationship
Barack Obama’s humiliation of Israel is a disgrace
US Congressman blasts Obama over the Falklands
The UN’s endorsement of ObamaCare will backfire spectacularly
The Mullahs of Iran have British blood on their hands – and must be made to pay
Congress health care vote: a dark day for freedom in America
Barack Obama treats Israel and Britain with sneering contempt
The Obama Administration’s Falklands folly is a diplomatic disaster for Washington
Barack Obama: the lonely world leader
Hurt Locker vanquishes Avatar: patriotism triumphs over anti-Americanism at the Oscars
Don’t cry for Argentina, Hillary. Clinton is a hypocrite over the Falklands
Hillary Clinton slaps Britain in the face over the Falklands
Barack Obama’s top 10 insults against Britain
France should apologise for its role in the Rwanda genocide
The Special Relationship is under fire: Barack Obama’s refusal to back Britain over the Falklands is a disgrace
Barack Obama must side with Britain over the Falklands
Hugo Chavez would make a perfect court jester
Gordon Brown: The Downing Street Bully
The Falklands conflict: tin-pot tyrant Hugo Chavez roars like a mouse against the British lion
Conservatism is the future of America
Britain must defend the Falklands against Argentine aggression
Dick Cheney: Obama’s worst nightmare
Barack Obama faces Armageddon in latest polls
Barack Obama must side with freedom in Iran
The Top 10 Apologies Barack Obama should make to the world

You can spot exactly when the first election debate was, can't you? Just time for one single sideswipe at Obama after it, but apart from that, it's all about Clegg after the debate. I can't find a single mention of him before that. For that matter, you can spot the date when the election was called - it's the first time in over a month he went after Brown. Apart from that, it's a bizarre obsession with the Falklands (too much exposure to Thatcher, perhaps), which would make you think there's an active war going on down there, and "say something bad about Obama".

But clearly the word went out to all Telegraph bloggers - "attack Clegg in any way you can". The titles are barely different from the Mail-o-matic Clegg special.

[TheBigotBasher]

5. A little bit birther?

It sounds almost as bad as Larry Johnson. Maybe someone will claim to have a "whitey tape". Although the Nazi stories and of course the "German researcher" are not too far off that.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Disgusting crap from the Hate-Mail

And I suppose the Royal Family are all pure Anglo-Saxons? Not to mention St George?

Even Winston Churchill had an American mother.

This ultra-isolationism may lose votes for the Tories as easily as gaining them

(From an East-Europaean-Jewish/ Scottish-Canadian mix.)

[TheBigotBasher]

4. Blair style New Labour?

During the Blair years he constantly reached out to the Mail - often giving them access above all other papers, including and especially the Mirror.

It is sad that the Mirror who revealed the story about Neo Con Labour and their complicity with torture were broken by the "fake photo". The story was right but the photo was not, however the fake photo killed the story and their independent streak.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. it shares 90% of the BNP worldview, sans the anti-semitic stuff

It's probably closer to UKIP's politics than any other party platform/worldview. But the Mail stays nominally Tory because no other right-wing party could form a government.

[LeftishBrit]

10. All very true

And they were very antisemitic and indeed pro-Nazi in the 1930s, and I think the antisemitism would come back if there were ever again a significant number of Jewish immigrants and asylum seekers here.

[fedsron2us]

7. This is a good question because the Mail has flirted with Fascism in the past

During the 1930s it was extremely hostile to Stanley Baldwin who was the Conservative leader at the time and tried to oust him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail

In fact there are grounds for suspecting it is not a truly Tory paper at all (in the sense of an instinctive belief in the Crown, Church of England and landed property)

[miscsoc]

8. I bet they will drop their anti-BNP stance

if the bnp progress significantly beyond the fringe in terms of votes, which they well might. among the daily mail target demographic the bnp must have a double figure percentage of the vote already.