ABSTRACT

'Loony left' stories of the kind analysed in this chapter and that on Haringey fit largely into the third category, although a few belong firmly in the second. Such kinds of stories are, unfortunately, a major stock in trade of sections of the English national press. As Jim Waterson pointed out on Buzzfeed in an article aptly entitled 'Britain has no fake news industry because our partisan newspapers already do that job': 'Fake news sites [of the "Macedonian" variety] have struggled to take hold in the UK political sphere, seemingly because traditional British news outlets are already incredibly adept at filling the market with highly partisan news stories that stretch the truth to its limits'. The various stories all too clearly demonstrate is exactly what happens when local and national politicians, aided and abetted by politically supportive newspapers, make a concerted effort to demonise those with different political viewpoints and aspirations from their own.