Morrissey has launched a new website called Morrissey Central. One of the earliest postings is a long message from Morrissey himself about how much he dislikes the British news and opinion site the Independent. The essay was penned in response to a story the Independent published on 3/17 titled “This Charmless Man: How Morrissey’s Big Mouth Struck Again … And Again.” Morrissey refers to this op-ed as “Hate Piece.”

“Telford grooming gangs? Hardly worth a whisper in The Independent. Instead let’s demonize Morrissey – who deserves our indefatigable abuse since he appears to be saying some things that many people are actually thinking,” he writes. “To truthophobics, I am apparently worse than useless.”

Morrissey goes on to criticize Independent editor Christian Broughton, who he describes as an “editor/dictator.”

You see, The Independent ‘newspaper’ isn’t actually a paper with news, and it will express only the views of their editor/dictator, whose name is Christian Broughton. What he will tell us is happening and what we see is happening are two entirely different things. In order to find out the truth of anything, you must take note of what Christian Broughton does not allow into print.
My manager (Peter Katsis) spoke to Christian Broughton after the Hate Piece had appeared, and he asked why Broughton had sanctioned such a diabolically contrived and bitterly inaccurate mess. Broughton pointed out that “it would be difficult to find anyone at The Independent
who agreed with Morrissey’s views.” This almost- illiterate reply fully reveals The Independent’s dog-yapping will to destroy anyone with a view that doesn’t match their own. The Independent, you see, must supervise and censor art – that is their function.

Morrissey then says that the Independent is “willing to lie to its readers in order to create a skewed truth, and to hell with any principals of justice.” He continues: “If the newspaper is willing to take such silly risks with very basic facts then what on earth could they report that you would actually believe? They tell their readers that I ‘loathe Nicola Sturgeon’ (which is untrue), and they explain by way of sneering slur how I am ‘loving Brexit.'”

On the topic of Brexit, Morrissey insists that he has only mentioned Brexit twice in his “entire life, and neither comment expressed love.”

I had explained how Brexit had been a strike for democracy because of the disgust that the political elite had shown towards the people who did not vote the way that they were warned to by media bullies. But why attack anyone who loves Brexit? Almost two years on from the result, the EU still has not allowed the UK to leave its clutches – which simply explains exactly why the Leave campaigners voted as they did in the first place. Doesn’t it twig?
However, any Brexit loathing by The Independent does not reflect majority opinion, and this lends them no independent thought whatsoever, but blind bureaucratic arrogance instead. This is symptomatic of a modern, shredded British society, where free speech no longer exists. When the print media are lost for a reply, they simply change the subject by naming their
opponent as ‘racist’, which is the perfect ploy because most people are naturally appalled to be called racist, and they step back in silence, and the debate collapses unresolved. Use of the word often only ever comes from people who themselves are intolerant. It works. Even though England introduced the world to democracy, great art and great literature, it is now leading the way with a dark and largely hidden agenda where no one is entitled to disagree; only one interest and opinion must prevail within the print media. Art is now fully outside tabloid journalism, and the gaping hole shrieks at us via the commercial arena with its automatic laughter and the impotent emotion of reality TV.

Morrissey proceeds to discuss something William Burroughs once said, and then states the following:

I am neither Loony Left nor Far Right. I am a humanitarian. I have not ever once voted in a British election because I have not ever discovered a party that represents my views. My main social concern is the abolition of the abattoir, the continued existence of which in modern times is beyond sane belief.
I confess that my life in music has been stunted by shyness, and this remains. I am too interior, and this can often seem like bone splitting arrogance. But it is not. I do not want to be like anyone else in music because there is no point. I want to bring something different into view. When I attempt to clarify, I will admit that it often sounds like an attack. I believe England can look after itself. It does not need the EU to police its laws, its thought, its borders or its liberty. It does not take a genius to arrive at this viewpoint.

Morrissey ends on a note of resignation.

I have been criticized in the UK for so long (nowhere else!) that anything said about me no longer strikes me as a threat because I am still, after all, here. We should, I think, be striving for something more morally useful than whatever The Independent vomits out by way of spite.

In other news, Morrissey recently recorded a cover of the Pretenders’ 1982 song “Back On The Chain Gang.” Read the Independent essay in full here.