The English right wing press try to make Mick Lynch public enemy number one…

I admit I take a certain amount of pleasure in the fact that a guy with an Irish background is being such a complete pain in the neck to the British Establishment. They absolutely loath charismatic working-class leaders.

This is the front page of today’s Sun.

Take a minute to watch this bizarre monologue from Richard Madeley yesterday:

'Will you answer the question Mr Lynch, I won't let you get away with nonsense'@richardm56 grills the General Secretary of the RMT, Mick Lynch over striking over the Christmas period pic.twitter.com/htcqFREQM9

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) December 13, 2022

He is also calling out the ‘impartial’ BBC:

Mick Lynch from the @RMTunion calling out the BBC for repeating govt propaganda and the attack lines used by the right wing press.👏👏👏 #r4today pic.twitter.com/PnVIZsLGQr

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) December 13, 2022

But the press is not as powerful as it used to be. Newspaper sales are down two-thirds in 20 years. Most young people now get their news from social media, especially Tiktok. The old vilification tactics are not as powerful as they once were.

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.