The front pages
Photograph: Anthony Upton
More concerns about invasion of privacy in the Guardian and Independent: the Guardian leads on the news that the Inland Revenue - or HMRC is it is now - plans to sell our financial profiles to outside bodies, rather as our health records were to be sold to insurance and drug companies. If you remember, the health plan was put on hold because of the widespread worries that even though the material was supposedly anonymous, it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to identify us from our dates of birth, postcodes and ethnic background. There were at least good reasons for the nation's health to share this data. The idea of passing our tax details to third parties, however "anonymously", gives new meaning to Macmillan's disdainful assessment of privatisation as "selling the family silver".
The Independent is worried about the proliferation of cameras on the roads - and not just speed cameras that supposedly have a safety, rather than cash cow, justification. This is about the "automatic number plate recognition" cameras all over the place, which don't seem to be doing their job in helping to prevent or detect crime, but which do - according to the surveillance commissioner - pose a "very real" threat to our privacy. The thing SubScribe finds most alarming about that sentence is the notion that our country has such a thing as a surveillance commissioner.
Kate is again everywhere and again in the 4" wedges that caused such consternation when she was up on a cliff. This time she was attempting a Pamela Anderson Baywatch run on Manly beach in Sydney. Even the Guardian put her on its front - although here she was a face in a crowd of beach bums (in the physical rather than derogatory sense).
The Independent also went for a water's edge scene - this one in Berwick where pilgrims marked Good Friday by carrying crosses over the causeway to Holy Island. Nice picture, but not sure about the Life of Brian heading.
SubScribe's favourite picture of the day is of the Archbishop of Canterbury in another cross-carrying ceremony yesterday, sadly used only as part of a composite in the Telegraph.
Here he is, the leader of 77 million Anglicans across the globe, in sports jacket and Barbour looking for all the world like an ordinary bloke heaving a lump of wood home for a bit of Easter DIY.
This is a man who is getting down to business and only by looking more closely do we see the dog collar that tells us that the business is God.
The business is also trying to keep together a vast congregation with widely differing views of what the Church should be. The Telegraph splash, based on Cole Moreton's interview with Justin Welby, focuses on his dilemma over gay marriage - which he opposes - and the extreme hostility to homosexuality among African Anglicans. At first sight it looks as though the Telegraph is coming to the party a day late after the Guardian's extended profile of Welby yesterday. But Andrew Brown's essay and Cole Moreton's interview are quite different beasts and both well worth a read.
The Independent is worried about the proliferation of cameras on the roads - and not just speed cameras that supposedly have a safety, rather than cash cow, justification. This is about the "automatic number plate recognition" cameras all over the place, which don't seem to be doing their job in helping to prevent or detect crime, but which do - according to the surveillance commissioner - pose a "very real" threat to our privacy. The thing SubScribe finds most alarming about that sentence is the notion that our country has such a thing as a surveillance commissioner.
Kate is again everywhere and again in the 4" wedges that caused such consternation when she was up on a cliff. This time she was attempting a Pamela Anderson Baywatch run on Manly beach in Sydney. Even the Guardian put her on its front - although here she was a face in a crowd of beach bums (in the physical rather than derogatory sense).
The Independent also went for a water's edge scene - this one in Berwick where pilgrims marked Good Friday by carrying crosses over the causeway to Holy Island. Nice picture, but not sure about the Life of Brian heading.
SubScribe's favourite picture of the day is of the Archbishop of Canterbury in another cross-carrying ceremony yesterday, sadly used only as part of a composite in the Telegraph.
Here he is, the leader of 77 million Anglicans across the globe, in sports jacket and Barbour looking for all the world like an ordinary bloke heaving a lump of wood home for a bit of Easter DIY.
This is a man who is getting down to business and only by looking more closely do we see the dog collar that tells us that the business is God.
The business is also trying to keep together a vast congregation with widely differing views of what the Church should be. The Telegraph splash, based on Cole Moreton's interview with Justin Welby, focuses on his dilemma over gay marriage - which he opposes - and the extreme hostility to homosexuality among African Anglicans. At first sight it looks as though the Telegraph is coming to the party a day late after the Guardian's extended profile of Welby yesterday. But Andrew Brown's essay and Cole Moreton's interview are quite different beasts and both well worth a read.
Friday 18 April, 2014
Congratulations to the Independent for its scoop on the death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and its complete coverage inside: news story, appreciation and double-page obituary. SubScribe is out in the sticks, so that may explain the story's absence from other papers*, although there was a perfunctory page 7 lead in the Telegraph with an xref to an online obit.
It's a strange one to get as an exclusive, even if it's only for an edition, so extra well done to the Indie's mini team. The paper's little sister, the i, shared the story and ran it as an inside lead, while both splashed on the Treasury minister Andrea Leadsom and her financial arrangements, which seem to fly in the face of her boss's latest pronouncement on offshore accounts. She tidied them up before joining the Government, however, and with so many other political horrors around, this story may not get much of a following wind.
The Times and the Telegraph share concerns about the qualifications of doctors from overseas, and the Mail has a new story to add to its NHS whistleblower files. The paper puts the cost of NHS action against Dr Raj Mattu at £10m, against £6m in the Telegraph and Guardian. These figures always have the feel of having been plucked out of the air - but one that is hard to dispute is the £500,000 it cost to keep Mattu suspended on full pay for seven years.
In other health matters, the Mail and the Mirror front pages both feature the little girl who caught meningitis from her cat. The Mirror is easily the more dramatic, but SubScribe votes for the Mail as having made the better picture choice. Heart-rending as they are, one picture of a baby tubed up on a hospital bed is much like another. The Mail picture is more honest in that it tells us that the story is three years old - and, of course, that it has a happy ending.
In the old days (there she goes again) Maundy Thursday was one of three days in the year that every journalist was guaranteed off, publication on Good Friday - for some the holiest day of the year - being regarded as unthinkable. It was the first to go, with Christmas Day and Christmas Eve following soon after. The broadsheets have tended to maintain respect for the day with a religious element on their front pages. Today the Telegraph looks to Spain for a huge picture of the Cristo de las Injurias brotherhood's procession of silence, the Times goes for the Pope and the Guardian has an excellent profile of the Archbishop of Canterbury by Andrew Brown, which starts on page 1 and continues to a beautifully designed spread inside.
When you look at Justin Welby and Pope Francis, you can't help but feel that at last there is hope for the Christian Church.
* The Times iPad edition has a front-page nib, a full news story and a five "page" obit.
It's a strange one to get as an exclusive, even if it's only for an edition, so extra well done to the Indie's mini team. The paper's little sister, the i, shared the story and ran it as an inside lead, while both splashed on the Treasury minister Andrea Leadsom and her financial arrangements, which seem to fly in the face of her boss's latest pronouncement on offshore accounts. She tidied them up before joining the Government, however, and with so many other political horrors around, this story may not get much of a following wind.
The Times and the Telegraph share concerns about the qualifications of doctors from overseas, and the Mail has a new story to add to its NHS whistleblower files. The paper puts the cost of NHS action against Dr Raj Mattu at £10m, against £6m in the Telegraph and Guardian. These figures always have the feel of having been plucked out of the air - but one that is hard to dispute is the £500,000 it cost to keep Mattu suspended on full pay for seven years.
In other health matters, the Mail and the Mirror front pages both feature the little girl who caught meningitis from her cat. The Mirror is easily the more dramatic, but SubScribe votes for the Mail as having made the better picture choice. Heart-rending as they are, one picture of a baby tubed up on a hospital bed is much like another. The Mail picture is more honest in that it tells us that the story is three years old - and, of course, that it has a happy ending.
In the old days (there she goes again) Maundy Thursday was one of three days in the year that every journalist was guaranteed off, publication on Good Friday - for some the holiest day of the year - being regarded as unthinkable. It was the first to go, with Christmas Day and Christmas Eve following soon after. The broadsheets have tended to maintain respect for the day with a religious element on their front pages. Today the Telegraph looks to Spain for a huge picture of the Cristo de las Injurias brotherhood's procession of silence, the Times goes for the Pope and the Guardian has an excellent profile of the Archbishop of Canterbury by Andrew Brown, which starts on page 1 and continues to a beautifully designed spread inside.
When you look at Justin Welby and Pope Francis, you can't help but feel that at last there is hope for the Christian Church.
* The Times iPad edition has a front-page nib, a full news story and a five "page" obit.
Thursday 17 April, 2014
A rare coming together for the Independent and Express, which both lead with Cancer Research UK's work with two drug companies on testing personalised treatments based on the patient's genetic make-up. We journalists are far too ready to use the word "breakthrough", but today's story is certainly encouraging. Clinical trials on people with advanced lung cancer are to start in the summer and Cancer Research UK chiefs have gone so far as to describe the development as "a very exciting step" and one that could "rewrite the rulebook".
The Guardian adds value to the Ukraine reporting with its first-person splash by Luke Harding. SubScribe is a fan of this practice as a means of bringing home the minutiae of foreign stories that might not capture the general imagination - so long as the writer avoids the trap of putting themselves centre stage.
Cameron's evangelism finds a home in most places, but as a splash? Well, each to its own.
The Sun's "own" is yesterday's exclusive on the 12-year-old mum; today everyone is talking to her father - who was all of 17 when she was born.
Calm down alert for the Mirror - it isn't a bombshell and the Government isn't going to come looking with hood and scythe. The idea is to ask insurance companies to give people some idea of their life expectancy when they retire, based on whether they smoke, take exercise and so forth, so they can "budget" their pension pots. This is one of those proposals that may sound reasonable in a committee room, but plain daft when transferred to real life. It would be invidious to presume to predict the lifespan of every (or indeed any) individual, so the best the insurers are likely to come up with is a sort of ballpark "people of 65 who don't drink or smoke are likely to live to 196, people of 65 who smoke, take no exercise and are more than 20% overweight are more likely to die before the age of 77" type of thing. In other words, about as useful as those 2%, 4%, 6% investment indicators they're required to issue - but a great deal more stressful for the recipient.
SubScribe is on the tail of the Star's giant rats - more of these later - but for now, you just can't help but laugh at the heading "Eat them before they eat you".
The Guardian adds value to the Ukraine reporting with its first-person splash by Luke Harding. SubScribe is a fan of this practice as a means of bringing home the minutiae of foreign stories that might not capture the general imagination - so long as the writer avoids the trap of putting themselves centre stage.
Cameron's evangelism finds a home in most places, but as a splash? Well, each to its own.
The Sun's "own" is yesterday's exclusive on the 12-year-old mum; today everyone is talking to her father - who was all of 17 when she was born.
Calm down alert for the Mirror - it isn't a bombshell and the Government isn't going to come looking with hood and scythe. The idea is to ask insurance companies to give people some idea of their life expectancy when they retire, based on whether they smoke, take exercise and so forth, so they can "budget" their pension pots. This is one of those proposals that may sound reasonable in a committee room, but plain daft when transferred to real life. It would be invidious to presume to predict the lifespan of every (or indeed any) individual, so the best the insurers are likely to come up with is a sort of ballpark "people of 65 who don't drink or smoke are likely to live to 196, people of 65 who smoke, take no exercise and are more than 20% overweight are more likely to die before the age of 77" type of thing. In other words, about as useful as those 2%, 4%, 6% investment indicators they're required to issue - but a great deal more stressful for the recipient.
SubScribe is on the tail of the Star's giant rats - more of these later - but for now, you just can't help but laugh at the heading "Eat them before they eat you".
The commentators...on food banks and sexist Britain
Leo McKinstry (Express) The idea that the Tories have brought our country to the verge of mass starvation is absurd. Such extreme claims illustrate how politicised the issue of food banks has become. What started out in 2004 as an excellent initiative to provide support to those in trouble has been transformed into a giant stick with which to beat the Tory-led Government.
Stephen Glover (Mail) It’s terrible that some people go hungry, but there isn’t any evidence that there are more of them as a result of the Government’s innovations, or even that the spread of food banks is a sign of growing hunger. The truth is that the Government has barely touched the welfare budget. And the reforms it has introduced will lead to more people being in work, and better able to feed themselves and their children.
Edwina Currie (Sun) Food parcels are a hand-out not a hand-up. If something worth having is being handed out free there will always be many willing takers.
Tanya Gold (Guardian) We have a well-trod response to a woman telling truths about the failures of our country, particularly if she is so unfortunate as not to resemble the women in the Bravissimo catalogue, who have their own struggle? It is to ignore her professional expertise and paint her as insane. It is very difficult to imagine Manjoo or Rolnik enduring quite the same reception if they were not, in this order, female, foreign, ageing and right.
Stephen Glover (Mail) It’s terrible that some people go hungry, but there isn’t any evidence that there are more of them as a result of the Government’s innovations, or even that the spread of food banks is a sign of growing hunger. The truth is that the Government has barely touched the welfare budget. And the reforms it has introduced will lead to more people being in work, and better able to feed themselves and their children.
Edwina Currie (Sun) Food parcels are a hand-out not a hand-up. If something worth having is being handed out free there will always be many willing takers.
Tanya Gold (Guardian) We have a well-trod response to a woman telling truths about the failures of our country, particularly if she is so unfortunate as not to resemble the women in the Bravissimo catalogue, who have their own struggle? It is to ignore her professional expertise and paint her as insane. It is very difficult to imagine Manjoo or Rolnik enduring quite the same reception if they were not, in this order, female, foreign, ageing and right.
Wednesday 16 April, 2014
There's a social conscience abroad today with four papers highlighting the food bank milestone of a million users, two looking at young pregnancy, and the Telegraph leading on a hospital bed shortage. These aren't issues you expect to dominate the front pages of an economically strong and stable society. Of course, each paper has its own agenda: the Express is setting out to shame the mother who encouraged her teenage daughter to "get pregnant for benefits". The quotes are stark, but the idea isn't new. The Sun's 12-year-old mother and 13-year-old father is of a different order altogether and more sad than shocking.
The Mirror aims to shock with its food bank front - though the "Oliver Twist" boy is a step too far. We assume he must be a model as no child of that age would have his photo published without pixillation. The Independent, too, is judgmental with its "scandal that shames Britain" heading. It is a scandal and it does shame us. But SubScribe wonders if at least some of the huge increase in the use of food banks is down to increased publicity. How many of us had been aware of them until last year? That is not to say that the people using them are climbing on a bandwagon, rather that many people may have been going hungry for years without knowing that there was somewhere to turn to.
The Times and Mail continue to plough their political furrows and Ukraine makes it to six of the ten fronts. The Daily Star has reclaimed its ratcatcher uniform from the Mirror, which has switched to killer prawns (page 28). The Star newsdesk is doubtless on the case already. The Mirror says it was duped over its front page rat picture on Monday and that it intended to put the record straight with readers. It did so this morning in a blue panel at the foot of page 2 that said: "We were given incorrect information and apologise for the confusion." Not so much confusing as wrong.
The Mirror aims to shock with its food bank front - though the "Oliver Twist" boy is a step too far. We assume he must be a model as no child of that age would have his photo published without pixillation. The Independent, too, is judgmental with its "scandal that shames Britain" heading. It is a scandal and it does shame us. But SubScribe wonders if at least some of the huge increase in the use of food banks is down to increased publicity. How many of us had been aware of them until last year? That is not to say that the people using them are climbing on a bandwagon, rather that many people may have been going hungry for years without knowing that there was somewhere to turn to.
The Times and Mail continue to plough their political furrows and Ukraine makes it to six of the ten fronts. The Daily Star has reclaimed its ratcatcher uniform from the Mirror, which has switched to killer prawns (page 28). The Star newsdesk is doubtless on the case already. The Mirror says it was duped over its front page rat picture on Monday and that it intended to put the record straight with readers. It did so this morning in a blue panel at the foot of page 2 that said: "We were given incorrect information and apologise for the confusion." Not so much confusing as wrong.
The commentators...on Ukraine
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Dmitri Trenin (FT) Moscow’s recent actions, from Crimea on, have released a historical paranoia in eastern Europe. Elsewhere, they have revived ideological clichés that date from the battle against Soviet communism, and helped fuel a still older fear that the west will for ever try to hold Russia down. Ukraine is a test. If it is allowed to break up – or made to do so – Russia and the West will spin into a confrontation from which both will emerge the losers.
Edward Lucas (Mail) Deep in the flat and featureless landscape of eastern Ukraine, it is all too possible that the outline of World War III is taking shape. Whipped up by the Kremlin propaganda machine and led by Russian military intelligence, armed men are erecting road blocks, storming police stations and ripping down the country's flag. Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West. |
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Roger Boyes (Times) At some stage Putin will trigger a war. The rational cold-blooded Putin has to rein in the mad cold-blooded one who thinks he can rip up European borders and somehow save Mother Russia.
Volodymyr Ishchenko (Guardian) There is little doubt that Russian security services were in some way involved in the recent escalation of violence in several towns in eastern Ukraine. The seizures of administrative buildings on 12 April were well co-ordinated between different towns, the armed men were well equipped and showed high levels of military training. |
Tuesday 15 April, 2014
The Times stirs the pot with its exclusive on Nigel Farage's European expenses - and there's a classic Peter Brookes cartoon inside to complement it. The Mail is also scrutinising politicians, this time Nick Clegg over what he knew about the rather nasty Cyril Smith. Perhaps Mr Clegg could ask Ms Harman, Ms Hewitt and Mr Dromey for advice on how to respond to the SEVEN QUESTIONS HE MUST ANSWER.
The Mirror and the two Independents are worried about the NHS. Basically both stories come down to cash: the Mirror focuses on staff shortages and the Indies report a King's Fund prediction that most trusts will be in deficit by next year. Mirror heading is hard to justify though - more likely than what? Than if you aren't ill and you stay at home? Than if you are ill and stay at home? The maiin point of the story is the inadequacy of night cover on the wards - a subject that has been tackled at length by the Sunday Times. There are good case studies on the inside spread, but there appears to be no statistic or quote to back up the headline. The Guardian can be excused its self-promoting hamper, given that the Pulitzer is the most prized prize, but generally readers aren't much interested in gongs for journalism.
Where does the Express find its bottomless pot of house-price stories? Well, there are three monthly reports and a couple of quarterlies, but this one comes from a few chats, an Item Club interest rate prediction and a look forward to today's ONS report. This is the second housing market splash this month and the sixth so far this year. Unless you're struggling to get on the ladder, you'll be pleased to know that in five of the heads, prices were soaring. They hit a record in the sixth.
An even more regular visitor to the Express's front is there again today in red, playing cricket against her husband, who is preferred by the Telegraph. How refreshing to see Matisse making a couple of covers.
The Mirror and the two Independents are worried about the NHS. Basically both stories come down to cash: the Mirror focuses on staff shortages and the Indies report a King's Fund prediction that most trusts will be in deficit by next year. Mirror heading is hard to justify though - more likely than what? Than if you aren't ill and you stay at home? Than if you are ill and stay at home? The maiin point of the story is the inadequacy of night cover on the wards - a subject that has been tackled at length by the Sunday Times. There are good case studies on the inside spread, but there appears to be no statistic or quote to back up the headline. The Guardian can be excused its self-promoting hamper, given that the Pulitzer is the most prized prize, but generally readers aren't much interested in gongs for journalism.
Where does the Express find its bottomless pot of house-price stories? Well, there are three monthly reports and a couple of quarterlies, but this one comes from a few chats, an Item Club interest rate prediction and a look forward to today's ONS report. This is the second housing market splash this month and the sixth so far this year. Unless you're struggling to get on the ladder, you'll be pleased to know that in five of the heads, prices were soaring. They hit a record in the sixth.
An even more regular visitor to the Express's front is there again today in red, playing cricket against her husband, who is preferred by the Telegraph. How refreshing to see Matisse making a couple of covers.
The commentators...on UK politics
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Polly Toynbee (Guardian) Why is the Department for Work and Pensions plunging ahead with the Help to Work Scheme at a cost of £300m a year when it knows it doesn't work?
Janan Ganesh (FT) Unionists should stop fretting about their campaign. Their predicament is much worse than that. Whatever happens in September, it takes a feat of self-deception not to see that Scotland has become a very different political culture from England, if not also the rest of the |
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UK, and that the future is one of gradual estrangement.
Philip Collins (Times) As neither of the main parties look capable of winning the next election outright there is every chance that Nick Clegg will remain Deputy Prime Minister. Benedict Brogan (Telegraph) David Cameron will resign if he loses Scotland. A Prime Minister who allows the break-up of the United Kingdom cannot suffer such a statement |
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of no confidence and continue in office. That much is understood in Downing St, where a gnawing doubt about the referendum gets worse by the day.
Alex Brummer (Mail) The Chancellor is right to seek tax cuts where he can, as the evidence stacks up that cutting levies on income and enterprise does invigorate the economy and make a real difference to national wellbeing. It could be the masterstroke that wins next year’s election for the Tories. |
Monday 14 April, 2014
Well there's a surprise! Kate drinking wine, Kate on the jet boat. Kate being not pregnant. There's nothing like building them up to knock them down. At least the three most serious papers recognise the most serious issue: Ukraine is turning decidedly ugly. The Telegraph has a good splash, but the headline doesn't quite get the message across. The i, which doesn't publish on Sunday, leads with the GP story that dominated the Sindie's front yesterday. The Mirror has stolen the Star's clothes with its giant rats, but the Star is today more grumpy about that dancing granny. SubScribe thinks the e-cig granny is more worrying..
The commentators ...on Ukraine and sex abuse
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James Meek (Guardian) Putin has put Ukraine’s weak transitional government in an impossible position: fail to resist and I will invade. Resist and I will invade more, and there will be corpses. Although they would never admit it, the authorities in Kiev are resigned to the loss of Crimea.
Christopher Granville (FT) The trouble for Russia is not the oil price. Rather, the problem is that the Ukraine crisis has arisen just at the moment when economic growth in Russia has come to depend more heavily than ever on capital-intensive industrial investment. Leading article (Independent) The lesson for the West from the Yugoslav tragedy is that we should not go easy on Russian aggression in Ukraine. A warlike response to a possible invasion is out of the question. But at the four-way talks in Geneva this week – if they go ahead – the West’s words must reflect a recognition that what Mr Putin is attempting |
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has no justification and must be resisted by every other means available.
Owen Jones (Guardian) After a series of high-profile rape trials that have delivered “not guilty” verdicts, it is the acquitted who are seen as the new victims. This represents a troublesome loss of perspective. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (Independent) Support groups for rape and abuse are right to be concerned that this mood of scepticism and blame will deter victims from coming forward. And may make the police and CPS more cautious, even afraid, of moving against alleged high-profile perpetrators. Dominic Lawson (Mail) One reason Cyril Smith was so protected was that he had a pudgy finger in every local pie: he had done countless favours – and they could be called in. He was a formidable vote winner: and for the Lib Dems that is what counted. Read more from Editorial Intelligence here |
Sunday 9 February 2014
Oh dear. The Star's "Royal world exclusive" isn't (and Kate is almost certainly not pregnant).
Oh dear. The Independent's GPs exclusive isn't.
Oh dear. The People's Costa killer exclusive isn't.
Meanwhile, the Independent nearly produced a great front page. The picture is really imaginative,but it could never work with the puffs above, especially with Russell Norman in shirt and tie mismatched with the T-shirted body below. Exclusives aside, it's a good paper, well presented.
The Mail, too, has done a much better job with its "sleazy sex" spreads than its daily sister managed yesterday.
The Observer shuns the royals and goes for Mo Farah. But, oh dear, he didn't win his first marathon - he came eighth - and nor did he take the British record. He missed it by a minute. But Steve Jones, the holder, is Welsh. So at least Mo can claim an English record.
Oh dear. The Independent's GPs exclusive isn't.
Oh dear. The People's Costa killer exclusive isn't.
Meanwhile, the Independent nearly produced a great front page. The picture is really imaginative,but it could never work with the puffs above, especially with Russell Norman in shirt and tie mismatched with the T-shirted body below. Exclusives aside, it's a good paper, well presented.
The Mail, too, has done a much better job with its "sleazy sex" spreads than its daily sister managed yesterday.
The Observer shuns the royals and goes for Mo Farah. But, oh dear, he didn't win his first marathon - he came eighth - and nor did he take the British record. He missed it by a minute. But Steve Jones, the holder, is Welsh. So at least Mo can claim an English record.
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