He's right. The Telegraph would have been better off with the Arabs.
Folks, this was entirely predictable -- and some of us did warn. The government, media and the broader establishment were agitated into a typical bout of #dosomethingism about the Telegraph's future when it looked as though the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund was set to take over. We can't have a major UK newspaper sold to a 'foreign power', they said. Then, the same people cheered when it was sold to Axel Springer, a foreign buyer. And now you're suddenly worried that that foreign buyer might have his own political agenda that doesn't sit with the Telegraph's own, traditionally British conservative political stance?View quoted post on X
Alex Springer's political leanings are well known: right leaning liberal, pro-EU, pro-Israel, Atlanticist, liberal-interventionist, anti-populist. I am not arguing that this position is wrong. I disagree with some aspects, of course, but I also see it as a perfectly reasonable position to hold. Whatever one thinks, though, we should very much not be surprised that this is now where the Telegraph is being pushed. Because even better known than the ideology itself is that Axel Springer treats it as an absolute non-negotiable for every journalist that works for any of its publications. Notoriously so.
And now those who had no problem with this organisation taking over the Telegraph seem surprised that all the journalists that aren't right of centre liberal, pro-EU, etc, etc are being booted out in cost-cutting measures.
Well done, folks. When the Telegraph turns liberal, pro-EU and starts serving up the John Major lie of 'Britain being best off improving the EU by reforming it from within,' like the limp, uneaten half of a cheese toastie rewarmed on a prison cell radiator, you can look in the mirror to find the person to blame. But at least this wouldn't be done by a foreign power that might have its own reasons for tilting British public opinion that way, or removing the one broadsheet newspaper that might have opposed it. Right. RIGHT?!
