Rutman's resignation and the hypocrisy of corporate media - 29 February 2020

This is an extraordinary resignation statement from Philip Rutnam, not only because civil servants never resign in front of the cameras, but also because of the allegations against Priti Patel, that she bullied him out of his job, and that her behavior as Home Secretary is unprofessional and unhinged.

It's not like there weren't plenty of warnings about Priti Patel, from her bizarre appearance on Question Time where she justified capital punishment for innocent people on the grounds it would be a "deterrent", to her treasonous secret meetings with the Israeli government in which she colluded to divert money from the UK foreign aid budget to the Israeli military in illegally occupied territories!

The mainstream media simply didn't bother to warn the public about what a dangerous ideological fanatic they'd be endorsing if they fell for Boris Johnson's endlessly repeated "Get Brexit Done" mantra.

And the same people in the mainstream media spent the last four and a half years demonising Jeremy Corbyn and his allies in the Labour Party, making out that they were a bunch of deranged wannabe tyrants.

Just imagine how these media hacks would be reacting if Diane Abbott had bullied a very senior civil servant out of their job within months of becoming Home Secretary, spectacularly failed to bribe him into resigning silently, and got the government dragged into the courts for constructive unfair dismissal.

The mainstream media hack pack would be having a feeding frenzy over it, but because it's a Tory figure at the centre of this scandal, we all know what's coming. The Tories will continue briefing the press against Rutnam, and anyone else who dares stand up to their bullying, and their press pals will demonise him as an "enemy of the people".

Of course it's problematic and deeply unfair that the mainstream media repeatedly give the likes of Patel, Johnson, Raab, and Rees-Mogg free passes on stuff they'd absolutely hound Labour figures for, but this is just the way it is.

The UK mainstream print media is absolutely dominated by half a dozen billionaires, most political journalists are on pay scales that put them well within the gilded establishment class who benefit from neoliberal economic extremism, and the BBC is absolutely studded with Tory party activists pretending to be impartial political journalists.

Under these circumstances it would be shockingly naive for anyone to expect the mainstream media not to act as cheerleaders for the Tory party, and apologists for the corporations and mega-rich elitists that the Tory party exists to serve.

Thus, if this kind of unprecedented resignation had happened under a Labour government, the media would be angling to trash the minister responsible, and bring the whole government tubmling down like a pack of cards.

But because it's a Tory scandal, they'll actively work to minimise the scandal, and to demonise Rutnam as an "enemy of the people".

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