The Tories could do anything to the economy and the press would eat it up
The Sun has carefully maintained a pro-Conservative party sheen in reporting the government’s sell-off of its stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
The sale will leave the public, who bailed out the bank to the tune of £45 billion after the financial crash, with a £7 billion loss.
But chancellor George Osborne’s magical ability to conjure money from the air has provided the Sun with its news angle:
“£14BN SELL OFF BONANZA
Taxpayers will make a surprise £14 billion profit from the financial cirsis, George Osborne has revealed – as he unveiled a risky early sell of of RBS.
[…] a Rothschild report has revealed all the re-privatisations [of banks] will end up bringing a net £14 billion gain.”
The Telegraph’s coverage of the same story tells us more about this £14 billion:
“This RBS loss, however, will be more than offset by profits made on the ongoing return of Lloyds bank to full private ownership, as well as other government interventions, such as the sale of Northern Rock mortgage portfolios and the fees on liquidity support for numerous banks at the height of the crisis in 2008.”
In other words, the £14 billion has nothing whatever to do with RBS. The government has sold the bank at a loss, but made money from the sale of other banks.
This doesn’t ‘offset’ the loss – imagine if RBS had been sold for more money. Then net profit would be more than £14 billion.
The Sun’s report, nearly matched in other papers, chooses to lead with the irrelevant £14 billion and mention the RBS sell-off loss as a sideshow.
Yet again the paper acts as a propaganda sheet for the government, of the kind it rails against in its editorials.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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20 Responses to “The Sun spins Osborne’s £7bn loss into £14bn ‘profit’ in RBS sale coverage”
swat
Thats why we need to keep the Govts hands off the BBC, the only impartial News Media outlet in the country.
They must not introduce commercialisation into the BBC; neither must they sell it off.
robertcp
Why do us lefties have to be so negative? It is good that the nation will make a profit from saving the banking industry in 2008. It shows that Labour made the right decision in 2008.
Cat
The Right Wing Press trying to conveniently ignore something that will make their party look bad- shock!
David Lindsay
George Osborne should be made heritably liable, by primary legislation, for the loss to the State from the privatisation of RBS. And of the Royal Mail, come to that. That is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Any Conservative majority of less than 100 is really a hung Parliament. They hate each other that much. The present majority is a very great deal less than 100.
Sammy01
You think the BBC is impartial?