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When Oborne resigned from the Telegraph yesterday, he did so on behalf of millions of us

It may seem odd to tie events in Brussels, Athens, Asia and the British press together in one post, but as I hope to show, there is a very real connection. Let’s start with two pieces of ‘news’ today, one of which has been spun so far out of shape it’s painful to read, and another sharp dagger in the chest of neoliberal ideals that is being largely ignored in the West.

The first is that ‘Syriza is close to a humiliating climbdown, and will be forced to stay within the Troika programme’. It’s nonsense: Syriza is still asking for a loan extension, and still demanding it will only accept even that if all its changes to ‘the programme’ are accepted by Troika2. There is no climbdown and no compromise: this morning, I understand, the Greek delegation has retabled the Muscovici Paper, and said we will not be blackmailed or bullied.

But of course, that piece ran in the Guardian, where the big-State Trots around Rusbridger still believe in putting out as many good Brechtian lies as they can publish: they are Eunatic believers to a man.

The disfigurement of the news at the other end of the spectrum in the UK resulted in the spectacularly bloody resignation of Chief Reporter Peter Oborne from the Daily Torynaff yesterday. Today, looking at the paper’s content, it’s not hard to see why. You will look in vain for any mention, for example, of the dark storm clouds gathering around Singapore –  a far bigger player in the world economy than Greece. It already has the second largest debt to gdp ratio in the world, and now is suffering a property-bubble collapse.

One reason you won’t see this covered by the Barclays is because London Mayor Boris Johnson is “their boy”, and as his desired neoliberal future for London is based on precisely the same obscene wealth disparities that exist in Singapore, the Odd Couple don’t want anything suggesting that maybe BoJo doesn’t walk on water after all. Read this extract from a recent report, and spot the similarities:

‘In 2010, across Singapore the property market was booming. Interest rates were low, prompting buyers to take on more debt. Confidence was high. Banks built regional headquarters in Singapore and jobs were created. Singapore’s skyline changed drastically. A new financial district rose and Marina Bay Sands, a three-tower building housing a casino with a boatlike structure on top, was built for a reported $5.4 billion. With the government unable to contain the heated market, the growing presence of foreigners and the rising cost of housing became a flash point for discontent….’

Yup, sounds just like Londinium autem Borisconi to me. But things are changing in Singapore: new property sales across Singapore have plummeted: in 2014, the number of properties sold was half what it had been the previous year. Residential prices fell 4% in that year, and some analysts forecast double-digit declines during 2015. Borrowers are in big trouble as well. In a recent lawsuit, the lender testified that 37 out of 38 borrowers have defaulted on plush development mortgages worth $181m Singapore.

But in the Barclygraph, there’s plenty about Greece….and most of it wrong. ‘Athens will submit a request for a loan extension breaking temporary deadlock in negotiations with Europe’s creditors’ asserts the economics lead. No,Greece has resubmitted the Muscovici Paper, and Tsipras went out of his way in Athens to say that the conditions of further lending will still apply. All of them. Later, the subeds changed the header on this one to “Greece blinks first”. Utter codswallop.

But I thought this one a cracker in the madness stakes: ‘FTSE 100 hits highest level in 15 years on Greek debt hopes’. Aaaaahahahahahaha.

Yesterday at The Slog: FRACKING – Ed Davey joins the long cast of Ministers above the Law