Nationalise our newspapers

If ever anyone needed convincing about the government propaganda being spewed out by their friends and allies in the press and media, then the last month should have done the trick. It nearly had me believing the nonsense.

We have been blitzed on a daily basis by the press and media with good-news stories that belong to the realms of fantasy. We have turned the corner they have informed us — the reason for their optimism is there for all to see, isn’t it? House prices rising, good results from the high street (last month anyway); and the latest bit of ground breaking evidence: Poundland, yes Poundland, are going to float their expanding business on the stock market. Indeed, the company is also reported to be doubling their outlets: what great news for our high streets! Proof beyond doubt then we are informed.

Now, I only went to Spurley Hey School when I was a young boy but, it wouldn’t have taken me, or most of my fellow pupils, very long to see through that load of complete codswallop. If any of our ambitious, aspiring, would-be local politicians can explain to me how more expensive house prices — when you can’t afford one anyway — and the expansion of a retailer that sells nothing but tat, is proof of Britain’s economic recovery, then they must have been taught at a higher level and a better school than I. Ir is that me?

It is also worthy of note how the Labour Party’s proposed policy on freezing energy prices was reported. The very next day it was headline news that our foreign owned energy companies were threatening to put the lights out in Britain should the policy be enforced, and how ill thought out the whole proposal was.

Can any of our clear thinking readers imagine the furore in the press if a trade union leader had even remotely alluded to such action? Can you imagine the out-cry? The babies dying in incubators, the old without heating, the schools having to close, the hospitals without power etc. not to mention the abrogation of Parliamentary democracy! But it’s in the national interest (according to the press) if an energy company threatens to leave the country without power — isn’t it? And a good job too: puts Ed in his place, lets him know whose running the country. Not him: even if he were to become Prime Minister. It’s big business as usual and supported by their friends in the media. Doesn't seem very democratic somehow, does it?

Let’s take another example of the media bias in helping the Tories mould the electorate’s opinions ready for the next tranche of austerity cuts: the demonising of our youth and people on benefits. You would be very lucky to pick a newspaper up in today’s climate without reading about idle youth who live in a society which they think owes them a living.

Using my old school logic though, I ask myself; is it not the case that hundreds of young people turn up for half decent jobs that are on offer? Is it not the case that our youth are getting better exam results than we ever did? Is it not the case that our generation has stood and passively watched as the steel industry and mines have been wiped out leaving no jobs to have? And is it not the bankers, the BBC execs. MP's and all the rest of the upper echelons that have been getting something for nothing in that big orgy of fraud, expense fiddling and corruption? Not our youth.

The blatant use of the press and media to twist and distort fact must be stopped. Newspapers should be nationalised and allocated proportionally to political parties based on election results and vetted by independent people, not themselves. That way you pay for what you get and know it.

Dave Platts, Rotherham