Thread by @docrussjackson

Daily Mail #THREAD

Devised in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth (Viscount Northcliffe) & his brother Harold (Viscount Rothermere), the Mail has campaigned against Unions & the Labour Party, against women & most working-class men being given the vote, & now, against environmentalists.

The Daily Mail (like the Telegraph) is a newspaper which has little to do with news - it exists to protect the interests of the billionaire class from democracy.

This #thread is adapted from this excellent article by writer & historian, @johnsimkin. 🙏

spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blog…

The Mail is owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere. According to the Sunday Times Rich List he is estimated to be worth over £1 billion.

He has non-domicile tax status & owns his media businesses through a complex structure of offshore holdings & trusts.

This helps to explain why his newspapers tend to concentrate their attacks on "benefit cheats" rather than the wealthy who do not pay their taxes.

Rothermere is safe from prosecution from this government because of the loyal support he gives to the Conservative Party.

This is a long tradition that can be traced back to his two great-grandfathers, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Lord Northcliffe & Harold Harmsworth, 1st Lord Rothermere, who founded the Daily Mail in 1896.

Harold & Alfred both held extreme right-wing views & were desperate to gain political influence over the masses. In 1894 they purchased the Evening News. Established in 1881 to promote the interests of the @Conservatives, it developed one of the largest newspaper circulations.

Alfred made it clear that his newspaper would "preach the gospel of loyalty to the Empire & faith in the combined efforts of the peoples united under the British flag", & declared that in politics, the paper would be "strongly & unfalteringly" on the side of the @Conservatives.

By the end of the first year the newspaper made a profit of £14,000. The following year he stated that sales had reached 394,447. Harmsworth claimed this as a world record for a newspaper and added that sales would be over 500,000 if they owned more printing presses.

Harmsworth developed a reputation for "Jew-baiting". On one occasion he published a joke about a Jewish businessman who arranged to have a fire on his premises so that he could claim insurance money, but was forced to apologize & paid the man £600.

In the late 19th century there were several one penny newspapers for the growing numbers of working-class & lower middle-class people who could read, including a thriving radical press, as I outlined her for @BylineTimes:

bylinetimes.com/2021/02/23/a-r…

Most newspapers were printed on cheap tinted paper. Harmsworth had the idea of using more expensive high-quality white paper to allow for better illustrations, & charge just a half-penny for the newspaper & its free daily magazine. The newspaper was to be called the Daily Mail.

The Harmsworth brothers knew that they could not make a profit by relying on the revenue received from newspaper sales alone. The business model was based on creating a large circulation newspaper that would appeal to wealthy business owners wanting to advertise their products.

These were people who would fully support the political message they intended to communicate. At the same time, they knew that it would be impossible for a left-wing newspaper to attract this kind of advertising that would enable them to compete with the price of the Daily Mail.

Arguably, the Daily Mail was the first newspaper in Britain that catered for a new reading public that needed something simpler, shorter & more readable than those that had previously been available.

One new innovation was the banner headline that went right across the page.

Considerable space was given to sport and human interest stories, & most importantly, all its news stories and articles were short. The first day it sold 397,215 copies - more than had ever been sold by any newspaper in one day before.

Unlike other popular newspapers in Britain & America, Alfred Harmsworth consciously chose to completely avoid using his newspapers to support progressive change, or to identify or challenge corruption among aristocratic, political, or corporate elites.

"Looking back, what it (the Daily Mail) lacked most noticeably was a social conscience... Alfred had no desire to start looking for social evils, & no need. What he had to keep in mind were the tastes of a new public that was becoming better educated & more prosperous...

...that wanted its rose bushes & tobacco & silk corsets & tasty dishes, that liked to wave a flag for the Queen & see foreigners slip on a banana skin."

the template would serve him well, & is still identifiable as the underlying 'ethos' of the Mail today.

"Was one of the secrets of the Daily Mail success its play on the snobbishness of all of us? - all of us except the very rich & the very poor, to whom snobbishness is not important; for the rich have nothing to gain by it, & the poor have nothing to lose" - the Mail's Tom Clarke.

Alfred Harmsworth made it clear to the leaders of the Conservative Party that the newspaper would provide loyal support against the movement towards social change.

Again, something which has continued since its inception over a century ago.

Arthur Balfour, HoC Tory leader, sent a private letter to Harmsworth. "Though it is impossible for me, for obvious reasons, to appear among the list of those who publish congratulatory comments in the columns of the Daily Mail perhaps you will allow me privately to express my...

...appreciation of your new undertaking. That, if it succeeds, it will greatly conduce to the wide dissemination of sound political principles, I feel assured; & I cannot doubt, that it will succeed, knowing the skill, the energy, the resource, with which it is conducted.

You have taken the lead in the newspaper enterprise, & both you & the Party are to be heartily congratulated."

Harmsworth asked a friend to write to new PM Robert Cecil, suggesting that in return for supporting the Conservative Party, he should be rewarded with a baronetcy.

The letter pointed out that as well as owning several pro-conservative newspapers he had recently established "the Daily Mail... at a cost of near £100,000". Salisbury refused but offered a knighthood. Harmsworth rejected the offer & said he was willing to wait for a baronetcy.

It was not long before the Daily Mail began his "campaign of hate".

Its first target was the trade union movement & soon after it became foreigners. Alfred Harmsworth was a passionate supporter of the British Empire & is said to have idolised Joseph Camberlain & Cecil Rhodes.

He intended to use his newspaper & the rest of his publications to "strum the Imperial harp".

According to Harry J. Greenwall, Harmsworth "with the Daily Mail unleashed a tremendous force of potential mass thought-control" as it became the "trumpet... of British Imperialism."

Alfred Harmsworth, a strong supporter of the Boer War, saw this as an opportunity to damage the Liberal Party. A series of articles appeared in the Daily Mail that questioned the patriotism of people like David Lloyd George, who opposed the war.

The old-fashioned "Little Englander" position, said the Mail, by sympathizing with the enemy in the South African crisis, had failed to interpret the sentiment of the nation for "England & Empire", & for the Liberal Party to survive, it must support 'Liberal Imperialists'.

The Boer War was popular with the British public. In 1898 the Mail was selling 400,000/day. Harmsworth encouraged people to buy the newspaper for nationalistic reasons making it clear that his newspaper stood "for the power, the supremacy & the greatness of the British Empire".

By 1899 it had reached 600,000 and during the most dramatic moments of the war in 1900 it was almost a million and a half. According to Adrian Addison, Harmsworth knew his readers would enjoy a good war. He would often say: "The British people relish a good hero & a good hate."

Harmsworth developed a hate campaign against Germany. At first he was concerned by Germany's decision to give all adult males the vote, then by Otto von Bismarck saying the best way of preventing socialism was by introducing a series of social reforms including old age pensions.

In 1881 Bismark announced that "those who are disabled from work by age & invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state."

When the issue was debated Bismarck was described by his critics as a socialist.

It's said Bismarck's intention was to forge a bond between workers & the state so as to strengthen the latter, to maintain traditional relations of authority between social & status groups, & provide a countervailing power against the modernist forces of liberalism & socialism.

In 1883 Bismarck introduced a health insurance system that provided payments when people were sick & unable to work. Participation was mandatory & contributions were taken from the employee, the employer & the government.

The German system provided contributory retirement benefits & disability benefits as well.

Germany was therefore the first country in the world to provide a comprehensive system of income security based on social insurance principles.

The Harmsworth brothers had always been opposed to the working-class having the vote & feared the welfare reforms introduced in Germany would become the policy of the Liberal Party, so Harmsworth sent his leading journalist, George W. Steevens, to report on the country.

"The German army is the most perfectly adapted, perfectly running machine. Never can there have been a more signal triumph of organization over complexity... The German army is the finest thing thing of its kind in the world; it is the finest thing in Germany of any kind...

In the German army the men are ready, and the planes, the railway-carriages, the gas for the war-balloons, and the nails for the horseshoes are all ready too... And what should we ever do if 100,000 of this kind of army got loose in England?"

Harmsworth became convinced that Britain would have to go to war with Germany and urged the government to increase its spending on defence: "This is our hour of preparation, tomorrow may be the day of world conflict... Germany will go slowly and surely; she is not in a hurry..."

Harmsworth explained his views on Germany: "Yes, we detest the Germans, we detest them cordially & they make themselves detested by all of Europe... I should not like for anything to appear in (the Mail) that might be agreeable to Germany."

In 1904 the Conservative Govt rewarded Alfred Harmsworth with the title Lord Northcliffe. In 1910 Harold Harmsworth became Lord Rothermere. By 1904 time the brothers owned The Daily Mail, The Evening News, The Daily Mirror, The Times, The Sunday Observer & The Weekly Dispatch.

Despite this, the brothers were unable to stop the Liberal Party from winning a landslide victory in the 1906 General Election, when they won 397 seats (48.9%) compared to the Conservative Party's 156 seats (43.4%).

The Harmsworths were especially hostile to the Liberal plans to bring in a welfare state based on the German one. The main hate figure in the government was David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who wanted to provide old age pensions for people over the age of 70.

In 1909 Lloyd George announced what became known as the People's Budget. This included increases in taxation, an increase in death duties on the estates of the rich & heavy taxes on profits gained from the ownership & sale of property.

Lord Northcliffe disliked the idea of paying higher taxes in order to help provide old age pensions & used all of his newspapers to criticize the measures in the budget. In response, The Daily News launched an attack on the wealthy men opposed to the budget:

"It is they who own the newspapers, & when we remember that The Times, The Mail, & The Observer, not to mention a host of minor organs in London & the provinces, are all controlled by one man, it is easy to realise how vast a political power capital exerts by this means alone."

Lords Northcliffe & Rothermere also led the opposition to the National Insurance Bill, a health insurance scheme similar to one introduced in Germany. Northcliffe, launched a propaganda campaign against the bill claiming the scheme would be too expensive for small employers.

The climax of the campaign was a rally in the Albert Hall on 29th November, 1911. As Lord Northcliffe, controlled 40% of the morning newspaper circulation in Britain, 45% of the evening & 15% of the Sunday circulation, his views on the subject was very important.

The rich were most hostile: The Mail "alleged that inspectors would invade their drawing-rooms to check if servants' cards were stamped, while it warned the servants that their mistresses would sack them the moment they became liable for sickness benefit."

The bill was passed by the House of Commons on 6th December & received royal assent on 16th December 1911.

However, Lord Northcliffe & Lord Rothermere, had much more success in their campaign to stop women and most working-class men from being given the vote.

He ordered his newspapers to ignore the subject as he believed any publicity only helped their cause. (Similar to the way that the Daily Mail today ignores giving publicity to those trying to expose the way wealthy people use offshore holdings and trusts to avoid paying taxes.)

On a visit to Canada & the United States Northcliffe proudly pointed out that newspapers in those countries had more information on the activities of the National Union of Suffrage Societies & the Women Social & Political Union than the ones controlled by him.

However, like Rupert Murdoch, he thought it wise not to give his opinions in public as it may lose him readers: "My view of the position of newspaper owners is that they should be read & not seen. The less they appear in person the better for the influence of their newspapers."

"That is why I never appear on public platforms. As to the woman's suffrage business, I am one of those people who believe the whole thing to be a bubble, blown by a few wealthy women who employ their less prosperous sisters to do the work."

Lord Northcliffe was also extremely hostile to trade unions. One of his journalists remembered how he behaved during a strike organised by the National Union of Mineworkers: "During this coal strike the orders came thick & fast..."

"He thought mob rule might be coming, so the mob must be divided; the public must be shown how the miners were enjoying themselves at the seaside or dog races while helpless workers in other industries suffered from the creeping paralysis."

Then, as now: 'divide & rule'.

Lord Northcliffe had consistently described Germany as Britain's "secret and insidious enemy", and he commissioned Robert Blatchford, to visit Germany and then write a series of articles setting out the dangers.

The German's, Blatchford wrote, were making "gigantic preparations" to destroy the British Empire & "to force German dictatorship upon the whole of Europe". He complained Britain was not prepared for was & argued that the country was facing the possibility of an "Armageddon".

Northcliffe criticised the Liberal Govt spending more money on welfare than on defence. In the run-up to #GE1910, he accused them of "surrendering to socialism" - it was the patriotic duty of the British people to vote for the @Conservatives as Germany wanted a Liberal victory!

The Daily Mail campaigned for the introduction of military conscription to deal with the threat of Germany. It argued that "in recent years" no other subject "has attracted more attention, has aroused more discussion, or been followed by our readers with closer interest".

the daily Mail also published a pamphlet that dealt with this issue of the German military threat to Britain. Within a few weeks it sold over 1,600,000 copies. The Manchester Guardian accused the newspaper of "deliberately raking the fires of hell for votes".

On the outbreak of the First World War the editor of The Star newspaper claimed that: "Next to the Kaiser, Lord Northcliffe has done more than any living man to bring about the war."

Once the war had started Northcliffe used his newspaper empire to promote anti-German hysteria.

It was The Daily Mail that first used the term "Huns" to describe the Germans & "thus at a stroke was created the image of a terrifying, ape-like savage that threatened to rape & plunder all of Europe, & beyond."

Philip Knightly, author of the 1982 book 'The First Casualty':

"The war was made to appear one of defence against a menacing aggressor. The Kaiser was painted as a beast in human form... The Germans were portrayed as only slightly better than the hordes of Genghis Khan, rapers of nuns, mutilators of children, & destroyers of civilisation."

In one report the newspaper referred to Kaiser Wilhelm II as a "lunatic," a "barbarian," a "madman," a "monster," a "modern judas," & a "criminal monarch".

This set the propagandistic template for the demonisation of enemies within & without that is still with us today.

Northcliffe's greatest political victory was to destroy the Liberal Party.

In 1916 he joined forces with Lloyd George in an attempt to persuade PM Asquith, & several of his cabinet, to resign: if Asquith refused to establish a small War Council to run the war, he would resign.

Tom Clarke, the news editor of The Daily Mail, claims that Lord Northcliffe told him to take a message to the editor, Thomas Marlowe, that he was to run an article on the political crisis with the headline, "Asquith a National Danger".

He told Clarke to print pictures of Lloyd George & Asquith side by side: "Get a smiling picture of Lloyd George & get the worst possible picture of Asquith." Clarke was hesitant but Northcliffe said: "Rough methods are needed if we are not to lose the war... it's the only way."

Asquith resigned in late 1916 & was replaced by Lloyd George. He brought in a War Cabinet that included only four other members, with Lloyd George the only Liberal Party member. Lloyd George wanted Northcliffe to become a member, but was told Labour would withdraw its support.

The Daily Chronicle attacked the role that Lord Northcliffe & other Tory supporting newspaper barons played in removing a democratically elected government.

The Daily Chronicle argued that the new government "will have to deal with the Press menace as well as the submarine menace; otherwise Ministries will be subject to tyranny & torture by daily attacks impugning their patriotism & earnestness to win the war."

Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe, died in August, 1922, so the newspaper empire was run by his brother, Harold Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere. His main enemy was the emerging Labour Party & its leader, Ramsay MacDonald, which formed a minority government after #GE1923.

As with the Daily Mail today, during the election campaign @UKits main strategy was to try & link the Labour Party with the Soviet Union, suggesting that it was under the control of the Bolshevik government in the Soviet Union:

"The British Labour Party, as it impudently calls itself, is not British at all. It has no right whatever to its name... it has become a mere wing of the Bolshevist & Communist organisation on the Continent. It cannot act or think for itself." - Daily Mail, 30th November, 1923.

Two days after forming the first Labour Govt Ramsay MacDonald requested that the Special Branch include in its weekly report on revolutionary movements in Britain details of the "political activities... of the Fascist movement in this country".

General Borlass Childs of the Special Branch wrote back that he had never thought it right to investigate movements which wished to achieve their aims peacefully. In reality, MI5 was already working very closely with the British Fascisti, that had been established in 1923.

The British Fascisti was formed in 1923 in the aftermath of Benito Mussolini's March on Rome, being brought into being more by a fear of left-wing politics than a devotion to fascism, & to to "uphold the same lofty ideas of brotherhood, service & duty".

At its formation, at least, the British Fascisti was positioned in the same right-wing conservative camp as the British Empire Union and the Middle Class Union, and shared some members with these groups.

At its peak from 1925 to 1926 it had a membership of several thousand. It mustered 5,000 people for a London march on Empire Day in London in 1925.

Early membership largely came from high society, and included a number of women amongst its ranks.

Maxwell Knight was the organization's Director of Intelligence. In this role he had responsibility for compiling intelligence dossiers on its enemies; for planning counter-espionage & for establishing & supervising fascist cells operating in the trade union movement.

The intelligence community worked closely with the press barons to undermine the Labour Govt by associating it with the Soviet Union. Tory Party leader Stanley Baldwin, & Liberal Party leader Asquith, decided to try & bring the Labour Govt down over the issue of its relationship.

In September 1924, the Liberals condemned a trade deal. They claimed, unjustly, that Britain had given the Russians what they wanted without resolving claims of British bondholders who had suffered in the revolution. MacDonald accused them of being unscrupulous & dishonest.

In October 1924, MI5 had received a copy of a letter from by Grigory Zinoviev, chairman of the Comintern in the Soviet Union, to Labour's Arthur McManus, the British repr on the committee. British communists were asked to help ensure the ratification of Anglo-Soviet Treaties.

The Mail published the Zinoviev Letter just four days before #GE1924 Under the headline "Civil War Plot by Socialists Masters" it argued: "Moscow issues orders to the British Communists.. (who) in turn give orders to the Socialist Government, which it tamely and humbly obeys..."

"Now we can see why Mr MacDonald has done obeisance throughout the campaign to the Red Flag with its associations of murder & crime. He is a stalking horse for the Reds as Kerensky was..."

"They must see that these miserable Bolsheviks & their stealthy British accomplices are... thrown out of the country. For the safety of the nation every sane man & woman must vote on Wednesday, & vote for a Conservative Government which will know how to deal with treason."

Ramsay MacDonald suggested he was a victim of a political conspiracy: "I am also informed that the Conservative Headquarters had been spreading abroad for some days that... a mine was going to be sprung under our feet, & that the name of Zinoviev was to be associated with mine."

"Another Guy Fawkes - a new Gunpowder Plot... The letter might have originated anywhere. The staff of the Foreign Office up to the end of the week thought it was authentic... I have not seen the evidence yet."

"It is a most suspicious circumstance that a certain newspaper & the HQ of the Conservative Association seem to have had copies of it at the same time as the Foreign Office, & if that is true how can I avoid the suspicion... that the whole thing is a political plot?"

The rest of the Tory owned newspapers ran the story of what became known as the Zinoviev Letter over the next few days & it was no surprise when the election was a disaster for the Labour Party. The Conservatives won 412 seats & formed the next government.

Lord Beaverbrook, the owner of the Daily Express and Evening Standard, told Lord Rothermere, the owner of The Daily Mail and The Times, that the "Red Letter" campaign had won the election for the Conservatives.

Rothermere replied that it was probably worth a hundred seats.

After the election it was claimed that two of MI5's agents, Sidney Reilly & Arthur Maundy Gregory, had forged the Zinoviev Letter & historians agree it was a fake. It later became clear that MI5's Major George Joseph Ball, played an important role in leaking it to the press.

In 1927 Ball went to work for the @Conservatives, pioneering spin-doctoring. His lack of scruples in using intelligence for party political advantage while at Tory HQ in the late 1920s strongly suggests that he was willing to do so during the election campaign of October 1924..

Rotheremere's newspapers continued to increase their circulation. By 1926 the daily sales of the Daily Mail had reached 2,000,000. Lord Rothermere personal wealth was now £25 million and he was estimated to be the third richest man in Britain.

Rothermere became increasingly nationalistic in his political views & in 1929 joined with Lord Beaverbrook to form the United Empire Party.

Rothermere urged the Conservative Party to remove its leader, Stanley Baldwin, and replace him with Beaverbrook.

This dispute divided conservative voters & enabled the Labour Party to win #GE1929, once again in a minority government. MacDonald had long lost his left-wing views, & he joined forces with the Conservatives to form a National Governmen, making a £13m cut in unemployment benefit.

The cuts were part of a £70 million economy programme (we'd call it austerity): wages of all those paid by the state were cut. In the debate, Labour's Tom Johnson declared the policies were "not of a National Govt but of a Wall St Government". The Govt won by 309 votes to 249.

In the late 1920s, Rothermere became a supporter of Adolf Hitler.

In the German General Election of September 1930, the Nazi Party increased its number of representatives in parliament from 14 to 107. Adolf Hitler was now the leader of the second largest party in Germany.

Shortly after the Nazis' sweeping victory in the election of September 14, 1930, Rothermere went to Munich to have a long talk with Hitler, & ten days after the election wrote an article discussing the significance of the National Socialists' triumph.

The article drew attention throughout England & the Continent because it urged acceptance of the Nazis as a bulwark against Communism.

Rothermere continued to say that if it were not for the Nazis, the Communists might have gained the majority in the Reichstag.

According to Louis P. Lochner, Tycoons and Tyrant: German Industry from Hitler to Adenauer (1954) Rothermere provided funds to Hitler via Ernst Hanfstaengel.

When Hitler became Chancellor on 30th January 1933, Rothermere produced a series of articles acclaiming the new regime.

In July he told readers he "confidently expected" great things of the Nazi regime. He criticised other newspapers for "its obsession with Nazi violence & racialism", saying bad deeds would be "submerged by the immense benefits that the new regime is already bestowing on Germany."

Lord Rothermere also had several meetings with Adolf Hitler and argued that the Nazi leader desired peace. In one article written in March 1934, he called for Hitler to be given back land in Africa that had been taken as a result of the Versailles Treaty.

Hitler wrote to Rothermere: "I should like to express the appreciation of countless Germans, who regard me as their spokesman, for the wise and beneficial public support which you have given to a policy that we all hope will contribute to the enduring pacification of Europe."

"Just as we are fanatically determined to defend ourselves against attack, so do we reject the idea of taking the initiative in bringing about a war. I'm convinced no one who fought in the trenches during the world war, no matter what European country, desires another conflict."

Rothermere visited Hitler on a number of occasions, & corresponded with him. Hitler's first major dinner party for foreigners, on 19th December 1934, had as its guests of honour Rothermere, his son Esmond Harmsworth, & Ward Price, together with Ernest Tennant.

Rothermere's subsequent article in the Daily Mail was violently enthusiastic about what Hitler had done for Germany. Hitler wrote a letter to Rothermere on 3 May 1935 in which he advocated Anglo-German understanding as a firm combination for peace.

Rothermere circulated the letter to many politicians, convinced that his personal contact with Hitler had produced a real breakthrough.

Infamously, Lord Rothermere also gave full support to Oswald Mosley & the National Union of Fascists.

He wrote an article, 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts', on 22nd January, 1934, in which he praised Mosley for his "sound, common sense, Conservative doctrine".
Les well known is that Rothermere also owned the Mirror, which ran the headline 'Give the Blackshirts a helping hand.'

Rothermere's Mail article stated "Timid alarmists all this week have been whimpering that the rapid growth in numbers of the British Blackshirts is preparing the way for a system of rulership by means of steel whips and concentration camps."

"Very few of these panic-mongers have any personal knowledge of the countries that are already under Blackshirt government. The notion that a permanent reign of terror exists there has been evolved entirely from their own morbid imaginations, fed by sensational propaganda."

"As a purely British organization, the Blackshirts will respect those principles of tolerance which are traditional in British politics. They have no prejudice either of class or race. Their recruits are drawn from all social grades and every political party." - Lord Rothermere

The Mail continued supporting the fascists until July 1934, when Rothermere suddenly withdrew his support for Mosley.

The rumour on Fleet Street was that the Mail's Jewish advertisers had threatened to place their ads in a different paper if Rothermere continued his support.

Sometime later, Rothermere met with Hitler & told him how the "Jews cut off his complete revenue from advertising" & compelled him to "toe the line." Hitler later recalled Rothermere telling him that it was "quite impossible at short notice to take any effective countermeasures."

As @johnsimkin points out in his article on which this thread is based, this development explains why #StopFundingHate is right to campaign to convince companies to pull their advertising from the Mail & other hate-filled newspapers which demonise the minorities fascists target.

'Newspaper editors have a strong incentive to run sensationalist, divisive, anti-migrant headlines: it boosts readership, & that increases ad revenue' - @StopFundingHate.

The only language media barons understand is financial: advertising boycotts work.