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Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
I thought that the USP of The Independent was that they were supposed to be politically neutral and this should really apply to Brexit/the pandemic and everything else.
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The Independent gave up being politically neutral years ago, when they realised that newspapers that lack a clear voice also lack a loyal readership.
It does not overtly associate itself with any particular political party, but its outlook is overwhelmingly socially liberal, economically internationalist soft-left and, on the European issue, it practically foams at the mouth for Remain.
The BBC is reporting the issue now, using its usual weasel words formula "The government is facing a backlash from MPs" as cover for trumping up the story. In fact, their report quotes two Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems still think we should be doing things jointly with the EU, shock horror) and the limp and ineffectual John Ashworth, who to be fair to him is Labour's heath spokesman for at least the next few weeks until his boss shuffles off to the allotment so we'll cut him some slack.
Again, the EU issue generates a lot of heat but very little light. There are still plenty of people who think anything done in concert with the EU must on a point of principle be better than anything we plan and execute for ourselves. They would have us believe that they are prepared to tolerate Brexit in normal times but they still think that in a crisis, our only hope is to go running back to Brussels.
HMG does not subscribe to that view and neither do I.