Revealed: the truth about that GB smile

By Steve Carter

I was shocked to see spread across the media this week, a story claiming that John Prescott had mocked Gordon Brown’s smile as evidence of his disloyalty towards our Prime minister. There is no better supporter of the Labour movement at present than John Prescott and his message of “stop complaining and get campaigning” resonates around our party.

This news story is a gross misinterpretation of the point John Prescott was making. I was with JP on Friday and Saturday as part of the North West European campaign. John made a similar speech at all the four events I attended at Liverpool University, Liverpool Labour Group meeting, Warrington and in Manchester campaigning.

He said that the press were mocking GB’s smile as it appeared on YouTube, which was deeply unfair. He said “if a pilot of an airplane had a bad smile you would not be bothered, all you are bothered about is can he land and take off a plane”. JP was making a joke at the the media for trivialising politics and in support of GB as a good leader. He was saying that the media is only interested in personality politics and not substance.

But he has been totally misrepresented because the story the press want is a story of disunity. So the press this week have actively manipulated this support for Gordon Brown in a most grotesque manner. If a politician had manipulated a story in such away they would be pilloried – once again showing what double standards we have in journalism today.

Have we now reached the point in British politics where you can’t say anything with out it being taken the wrong way or distorted to further someone else’s political aims?

It is a tragedy of monumental proportions that we have the press we have in Britain. No wonder the sales of newspapers have collapsed and as long as they keep spreading doom and despondency the decline will continue. What we want from a media is dispassionate reporting of the facts and not endless comment masquerading as news. This story was reported across the print media and the BBC even covered it. But is simply untrue.