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Socialist Press1979 1979-10-10Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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PRESS Send us a letter, putting your views on the articles in Socialist Press, on the struggles in your union or district, or on any topic you feel is important. Write to: Socialist Press; 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.
Oxford nursery campaigners lobby Tory Minister Carlisle There a purpose in this was organised mass hysteria (although the role of the press was actually secondary to the role of television).
It was as if the media had decided to stop waiting for the second coming and organise it themseives.
Subtle.
In fact a connecting line can be drawn through all three subjects, obvious in the case of the Pope and Ireland and more subtle in the case of the Labour All the papers which most hate everything about the Labour Party discovered that they had its best interests at heart.
The Daily Mail blew Frank Chappell up into a hero of sanity against a week of lunacy.
But prominent amongst the fears of what might happen at Brighton was the fear that the call for some kind of troops out position ..on Ireland might actually be carried.
After the public capitulation of the vast majority of lefts' to a pro-imperialist position the relief in the press was enormous, to the point of deliberately blurring the fact that there had been a largish vote against the leadership amongst constituency delegates.
Where all three subjects came together was in the agreement reached between Britain and the Southern government over security measures.
The Pope had paid off, and the fizzled-out rebellion at Brighton had not ruffled it.
With delight and headlines about 'M' and 'Smiley' the press did its best to turn the grim ruthlessness of Sir Maurice Oldfield into charismatic jingoism.
It followed it up with sudden praise for the previously hated Lynch government. "Allies Against Terror" was the gloating headline in the Express.
Not enough But just in case anyone thought that this new crackdown was enough for the appetites of Fleet Street, the Observer was on hand to demand more and harsher measures.
"What is needed and in order of preference" , writes Conor Cruise O'Brien, 'is: a large increase in the Garda Special Branch ... extradition of IRA men to face trial in the. North" [yes, 'trial' is what the Observer calls it] ... "RUC men present at interogations."
It would be simpler really to cancel the Southern state and impose direct rule there too!
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