The front pages week beginning May 11

Saturday 17 May, 2014
Betrayal, kidnap, beatings and a shooting: the Times splash is a riveting read from Anthony Loyd on how he and photographer Jack Hill were carjacked in Syria. The Independents focus on the British man who has been arrested on suspicion of orchestrating deadly Boko Haram bombings in Nigeria. More immigration hysteria from the Mail and Express and a strange basement from the Guardian. The Sun and Star seem to have had a personality swap, with the Sun going for an offputting picture of Kerry Katona in a bikini and the Star running a proper story with a cheeky head. Puffs are taking over the world.
See the rest of the week's papers here
Friday 16 May, 2014
At last! After more than a month we finally get to read a report from Chibok that includes interviews with the families of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren. Hats off to the Guardian, but, boy, it's been a long time coming. Encouraging news from the Telegraph for students contemplating years of debt for lectures that work out at £300+ a go: a university degree is one of the key elements in becoming a millionaire. Or put another way, if you got a degree 20 years ago, you have a one in five chance of having assets of more than £1m. Considering your house is likely to account for a great chunk of that "wealth" and that there are rather fewer fortysomething graduates than there are twentysomething BAs and BScs, perhaps the view isn't quite that rosy. If you're a royal, of course, you can take a shine to a pub and offer to buy it there and then. The Mirror, meanwhile, is busy capturing ne'erdowells on camera for the second time in a week.

The commentators...on Europe

Ross Clark (Express) Not everyone in Britain wants to leave the EU. There are some genuine arguments for membership as well as a good many arguments for leaving. Trouble is, you are not going to hear good arguments from Nick Clegg. He and his party have chosen a line of trying to scare the British people and, if they don’t respond to that, insulting them. He may think he is patriotic. I think he is just patronising.

Philip Stephens (FT) Europe is bracing itself for a howl of rage. Populists promise to steal the show in elections to the European Parliament next week. Unashamedly anti-EU parties – mostly of the extreme Right, but joined by a handful from the Left – may well garner 30 per cent of the vote. The result will probably be read as a damning verdict on European integration. This is a mistake.
Philippe Legrain (Guardian) The EU as a whole also needs to be more open, accountable and democratic. Europeans need a much greater say over the very political decisions that the EU takes – and the right to change course. To save the EU, we need to fix it.

Jeremy Warner (Telegraph) Europe is taking for ever to grip its insolvent banks. The longer it prevaricates, the greater the risks of “Japanisation”, a seemingly permanent state of banking paralysis and economic stagnation.

Frederick Forsyth (Express) Nigel Farage is a maverick and mavericks are always hated by the establishment – and on the EU question all the conventional parties are dancing in lock-step despite their denials.
Thursday 15 May, 2014
The death of Stephen Sutton and the dignity of his mother's statement gave most of us pause. He's a worthy splash for the Mirror and Sun, but it's a pity neither could refrain from passing judgment on him, however positive. Odd to see the Guardian put Nicole Kidman above the titlepiece. Yes, it's the start of Cannes, but her Grace Kelly biopic  is not only rather poppy for the highbrow Guardianistas, but also by all accounts a dreadful film. The Express and Star ought to talk to each other and come to an agreement about how hot it's going to be (and which sunshine resorts we'll beat in the temperature league). Most dramatic  front page comes from the Times with the attack on Anthony Loyd and Jack Hill in Syria. 

The commentators...on Google 'right to be forgotten' ruling

David Aaronovitch (Times) I would place my faith in the increasing ability, helped by the democratisation of information provided by the internet, of people to make reasonable judgments and cope with knowledge. Freedom of expression in the end is about trusting people. Privacy fetishism, such as that displayed by the court, is about trusting no one.

Martin Kettle (Guardian) To judge by some of the reactions to the ruling you would think that the court's wish to protect personal data and privacy – principles which are embodied in legal codes across the world – were holding a dagger to the throat of civilisation. The widely voiced claim that this ruling was a blow to freedom of expression should be treated with icy scepticism. And as for the argument that this ruling poses a commercial threat to the internet companies – well, just get over it.

Jane Merrick (Independent) Everyone has a right to
a second chance - there are plenty of things we have all done in our youth that we would be embarrassed to admit now. But in our digital age, we cannot expect to simply press Control Z and undo the past. We can try to remain private individuals. Yet we are all members of society, and in that society we should account for our own actions.

Stephen Glover (Mail) How the judges of the European Court could come to their conclusion is mind-boggling. Their ruling is certain to encourage censorship, though we can’t yet know the extent to which it will undermine our notions of free speech. This begs the question as to why judges in a foreign court should be able to deliver far-reaching judgments that are binding on us. The answer is that European law as interpreted by the court is paramount in this country because of our membership of the EU.
Wednesday 14 May, 2014
How appropriate, with the European elections a week away, that there should be a continental flavour to the 'serious' front pages. First we have the Independent and the minor issue of privacy v freedom of speech: Goodness knows how the European Court judges think their ruling that people have the "right to be forgotten" by search engines can or will be put into practice. Other European arbiters are to consider whether British troops were guilty of war crimes during the Iraq war, as we learn from the Guardian and Independent. Then there's Ukip being accused by the Times of a 'scandalous' donation clause in return for financing its wannabe MEPs' campaigns. SubScribe reckons the party will be rather more concerned about the young lady on the front of the Guardian who has come out and said what so many have hinted at: that it is consciously going for the racist vote. For the tabloids, the arrest in the case of the missing chef Claudia Lawrence is a boon out of the blue
SubScribe Protecting privacy or airbrushing history?

The commentators...on British politics

Dominic Sandbrook (Mail) If he wants to win next year’s election, the Prime Minister urgently needs to find a way of reaching the vast majority of voters who are sick of hearing the polished tones of yet another Old Etonian. No wonder, then, that Ed Miliband refuses to panic about Labour’s lead evaporating. He knows that unless the Tories improve their game, he is still the favourite to claim the keys to No 10 next year. David Cameron may shudder at the thought. But he really needs to find the common touch.

Sanya-Jeet Thandi (Guardian) As a British-born Indian supporter of Ukip I should be proud that the party I joined at 18 has grown to challenge the Conservatives and Labour so strongly. In reality, 
however, the direction in which the party is going is terrifying: Ukip has descended into a form of racist populism that I cannot bring myself to vote for.

Mary Riddell (Telegraph)  David Cameron is fighting on a presidential platform. If he fails, the party has no obvious second string – George Osborne, once booed at the Olympics, is unlikely to shine as a shopping mall messiah. Ed Miliband, however, has an ally with electioneering in his blood. On the Sunday after Labour crashed to defeat in 2010, Ed Balls was back on the stump in Morley, where he holds a hairline 1,000-vote majority. He has not stopped since. 
Tuesday 13 May, 2014
A straight split between the serious crew, who go for politics and the Nigerian schoolgirls, and the pops, who opt for celebrity and health. The Independent produces the stand-out front, going for a one-subject hit. The  opinion poll showing the Tories back in the lead confirms what we suspected: it's going to be a long haul to the general election. The Star's Beyonce splash is far and a way the best celeb story. The Geldof break-ins are sad, distasteful even, but those shouty Sun heads are a bit over the top. There's also a bit too much meeting death half way for SubScribe's taste, what with Cilla saying she's quite happy to go in another four years and Richard and Judy's suicide pact. 
See the SubScribe papers review here
SubScribe Nigerian kidnap

The commentators...on Gary Barlow's tax affairs

Grace Dent (Independent) It’s interesting that so many commentators believe that in this case they would leap from their padded, swirly office seat yelling, “How dare you suggest a tax reduction scheme? Yes, you say it’s legal but it’s ETHICALLY DUBIOUS! Let me pay more money than I need to! I need to know that the children’s wards of Britain have enough heart monitors.” Meanwhile, there is no stigma attached to a self-employed person registering themselves as a Limited Company purely for the affable tax breaks and that yummy VAT kickback.

Hugo Rifkind (Times) Fundamentally, it should not be possible to avoid millions in tax and still consider 
yourself a good person. But it is, and as a result, somebody such as Gary Barlow — whose charity work is genuinely impressive, and who is almost certainly a good person in all other respects — avoids it like anything.

Max Hastings (Mail) The right place to hit Barlow is through his wallet, with a whacking cash penalty. Did I hear you say something about loving his music; about giving the nice lad a break? Just remember that every time the legion of stars and bankers dodges a tax bill, the rest of the country must take up the slack and pay their rightful share.

Read more from Editorial Intelligence here
Monday 12 May, 2014
Thank heavens for the set-piece. Manchester City came to the rescue on a news day so quiet that the Sun and Star had to revert to Saturday night's Eurovision for their splashes. The Times, Express, i and Mail retread old - or at least familiar - ground and the Guardian has picked up on a report from Combat Stress whose publication must have been timed to coincide with the start of Mental Health Awareness Week. The Mirror is the one paper to craft a lead from original journalism. But the Independent is SubScribe's favourite with its free pass for soap-dodgers.

The commentators...on the EU and local elections

Christina Patterson (Guardian)  People who are planning to vote for the joke politicians fielded by Ukip, whose names they don’t know, just because they are feeling a bit fed up are doing it because no one has made a good case for Europe. Someone has to make a good case for Europe. Someone, that is, other than Nick Clegg.

Kevin Maguire (Mirror) The people elected on May 22 who will have a real say over our lives are the councillors. So let’s acknowledge their importance. They may be at the bottom of the democratic pile, forever in the shadow of the local MP. But we need good councillors much more than we need MEPs.
Melanie Phillips (Times) The group trying to reform EU lobbying was hobbled by pro-lobbyist lobbying. When decisions are stitched up behind closed doors by officials working hand in glove with vested interests, this vitiates the elections.

Leo McKinstry (Express) From now on the pronouncements by the politicians are just empty noise as postal voting has turned the political battle into a charade. The traditional democratic process of an election campaign leading up to the climax of polling day has been completely lost.

Read more from Editorial Intelligence here
Sunday 11 May 2014
See last week's papers here 

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