The nationals week beginning May 4, 2012
Not so much star-struck as star-strike Showbusiness rules on the front pages today, but there's nothing fluffy about it. The Times is back on the tax trail with its splash on the national treasure caught trying to outfox national Treasury. A judgment that a music "business" was nothing more than an avoidance scheme will cost Take That's Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald and their manager some £20m. Only three papers shun the opening of Rolf Harris's sex abuse trial; the Times is busy with Barlow, the Guardian is in Eurovision mode and the Star is speculating on how much it would be worth to Katie Price to spill the beans on her latest marriage break-up. There is nothing to stand up the head, but if it were true Ms P had best remember the taxman will want at least £400,000.
The Telegraph and Express have both Harris and the Queen on their fronts, a sorry contrast to their previous joint appearance. Three tabs splash on a letter Harris is said to have written to the father of one of his alleged victims in which he apparently tells of his shame and asks for forgiveness. The i has its eye on shame of a different kind: photographs of British Servicemen posing with the bodies of Taleban fighters. The men came from RAF Lossiemouth, so the story is the splash for the Glasgow Herald and Scotsman.
The Telegraph and Express have both Harris and the Queen on their fronts, a sorry contrast to their previous joint appearance. Three tabs splash on a letter Harris is said to have written to the father of one of his alleged victims in which he apparently tells of his shame and asks for forgiveness. The i has its eye on shame of a different kind: photographs of British Servicemen posing with the bodies of Taleban fighters. The men came from RAF Lossiemouth, so the story is the splash for the Glasgow Herald and Scotsman.
Friday 9 May, 2014
Belated Budget news from the Mail, Express, Telegraph and Times, with dire warnings for dutiful wives who share joint accounts with profligate or irresponsible husbands. Yes, the examples given are that sexist - and on the day when women are preparing to fight on the frontline, a move that makes the splash in the i and a few pars everywhere else. SubScribe finds it hard to be too shocked or horrified by the Mirror's gran who died in hospital, sad though it obviously was for the family. The Sun is still on the Katie Price divorce trail, the Star is still chasing rats and almost everyone is in love (again) with Angelina Jolie. Madeleine makes an appearance on only one front page - but she comes complete with cops in sunglasses and helicopters inside most of the tabs. More on this here. For the moment, let's just say Kate and Gerry aren't best friends with the newspapers this week. And after that heartfelt Sun exclusive chat last week. Ah well. No Friday would be complete without a house price story, but the Times has gone well downmarket. Last week we had a £140m penthouse, today we can snap up a semi for £5m.
SubScribe the taxman and Madeleine McCann
SubScribe the taxman and Madeleine McCann
The commentators...on British politics
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Philip Collins (Times) The Tory Right are making a mess of defining Ed Miliband. Rather than draw up fantasies of the madcap Red Ed that they wish he were, the Tories would be well advised to read Michael Ignatieff’s manual of a man who crossed the frontier from political ideas to political practice.
Leo McKinstry (Express) Ed Miliband has failed to show real political intelligence, courage or insight. Instead of forcing his party to confront the realities of a changing world or the dismal, debt-laden record of the last Labour government he has presided over a headlong slide into a left-wing comfort zone where anti-Tory insults and class-war slogans become substitutes for genuine debate. |
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Richard Littlejohn (Mail) Free party political slots should be scrapped altogether. If the politicians want to advertise their wares like soap powder, let them buy the airtime at commercial rates.
Mark Steel (Independent) The overwhelming sentiment of the age about party politics is “they’re all the bloody same”. That can’t be true as, for example, two of them introduced the bedroom tax, and the other one wants to abolish it. And there can’t be many who’d say that “introducing, abolishing, scrapping, trebling – all these words mean the bloody same, bloody adjectives, sod the lot of them”. |
Thursday 8 May, 2014
The commentators...on the Nigerian schoolgirls
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Max Hastings (Mail) Britain's days of playing world's policeman are long gone, as even the Prime Minister at his most boy-scoutish must recognise. It is right for the Government to join cries of outrage about the schoolgirls' plight. But Africa can be saved from itself only by Africans, not by heroes from Hereford.
Douglas Murray (Express) Across the world millions of Muslims continue to abhor the barbarism of Boko Haram and other such groups. However, too many then spend their time simply denying any connection between the extremists and the religion or trying to ignore it in the belief that communities shouldn't air their dirty linen in public. |
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Michael Burleigh (Times) Nigeria’s army commanders need to swallow their pride, accept western tactical advice and team up with their comrades from the Economic Community of West African States if they are to stand a chance of defeating a malign presence that not even the most purblind post-colonial apologist would make excuses for. Slavery is evil, no matter the colour or faith of who is responsible for it.
Chibundu Onuzo (Guardian) Mr President, it's not too late for you to become the leader we elected you to be. Take your eyes off the 2015 elections and focus on the matter at hand. Bring back our girls. Bring back our money. Bring back our country |
Wednesday 7 May, 2014
The commentators...on Alan Bennett
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Dominic Sandbrook (Mail) High-minded left-wingers such as Mr Bennett, who love nothing more than flagellating their own country, often try to defend the Communists of the Thirties as lofty, do-gooding idealists in their own image. But this is utter nonsense. As a well-read man, Mr Bennett really ought to know that by 1934, when Kim Philby was recruited by Soviet intelligence, Stalin's Communist tyranny had already killed millions of ordinary Russians, created a terrible man-made famine in Ukraine, and sent hundreds of thousands of people to the Siberian labour camps.
Allan Massie (Telegraph) I suspect Alan Bennett may agree with the Cambridge liberal E M Forster, who said he would rather betray his country than |
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betray a friend. One may place a high value on friendship, but George Orwell gave the best answer to this. He remarked that in betraying your country, and doing it damage, you must surely betray many friends.
John Sutherland (Times) Alan Bennett tells us that he doesn’t believe the fiction being written in Britain nowadays “can tell me very much”, adding that he is a bigger fan of American literature. Yet he doesn’t see any signs of terminal illness or even any sinister American takeover of one of our most successful cultural products. In many ways fiction is on an upward trend, with an admitted shift towards globalisation, and all the better for it. |
Tuesday 6 May, 2014
The commentators...on British politics
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Christan Wolmar (Times) The advantages for Ed Miliband in going for a policy of gradual rail renationalisation outweigh the risks. He has been brave in taking on both energy companies and private landlords. Taking on the train companies fits in with the zeitgeist. Go for it, Ed.
Richard Littlejohn (Mail) Ed Miliband seems to think there's a Soviet-style, statist solution to every problem. Housing costs too high? Rent controls. Energy charges exorbitant? Freeze bills by law. Train fares a bit steep? Renationalise the railways. Never mind that all these 'cures' have been tried and have failed spectacularly. |
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Janan Ganesh (FT) A Tory tax on property, one that lightens the burden on workers and entrepreneurs, has the potential to shock and impress. Mr Cameron recently suggested that he would honour an old promise to ease inheritance tax. A Conservative in the age of Thomas Piketty should do the opposite.
Melissa Kite (Guardian) Cameron needs to demonstrate he understands that the rise of Ukip in the well-heeled Tory shires is because parts of Middle Britain feel woefully under-represented. Until he begins to acknowledge the reasons for their reluctant choice of Ukip, he cannot begin to earn himself a hearing with these people. |
Monday 05 May, 2014
Sunday 04 May, 2014
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