The front pages
Saturday 29 March, 2014
The Sun headline writers are back in tip-top form as the TB-in-pets scare switches to dogs. The Mail tugs at the heartstrings with its kitten headline, but the story is serious. This young lady was apparently very ill. The kitten, Onyx, is thought to have caught TB from - guess what? - a badger bite or a herd of cattle with bovine TB, which is, of course, widely blamed on Mr Brock. It's surprising this story hasn't had more traction. (Now there's a digital age phrase from the old girl.)
The Star is much more concerned about immigrants; goodness knows how it managed to avoid calling them Nazi rats, since the inside story says these mega-rats with blood-red fangs come from Halle, home of a lower-order Nazi chief. Still at least Reinhard Heydrich was well enough known to justify the headline 'Furred reich". These coypu - for that is what they are, well known in East Anglia where they used to be resident in the Norfolk Broads - are not to be mistaken for yesterday's concrete-munching Viking super-rats that were heading our way. They came from Sweden. Do try to keep up.
Happy Saturday
The Star is much more concerned about immigrants; goodness knows how it managed to avoid calling them Nazi rats, since the inside story says these mega-rats with blood-red fangs come from Halle, home of a lower-order Nazi chief. Still at least Reinhard Heydrich was well enough known to justify the headline 'Furred reich". These coypu - for that is what they are, well known in East Anglia where they used to be resident in the Norfolk Broads - are not to be mistaken for yesterday's concrete-munching Viking super-rats that were heading our way. They came from Sweden. Do try to keep up.
Happy Saturday
Friday 28 March, 2014
You just can't trust those energy companies - or even the family pets. Let's hope the cats with TB hadn't been chasing the giant mutant rats (or killer spiders from a couple of weeks back) or we'll all be doomed. All in all, a bright set of Friday papers. It's always good to see a tiger on a front page, even when there's no real reason for it other than that it has recently been born (editor's note: tigers, poppies and jose mourinho are exempt from the usual rules of newsworthiness). Even the Independent is getting into the act with its zebra warship.
...and thoughts on energy prices, savings and the political landscape...
Ross Clark (Express) An energy price freeze and an investigation into anti-competitive practices is good news, but in the longer term the only thing that can save us from rocketing prices is an energy policy focused on providing the power the country needs and not green energy at any cost.
Graham Hiscott (Mirror) The sad truth is that trust in the energy sector has plunged so low that customers don't believe what they say any more. Customers need answers now, but face yet another long wait.
Philip Collins (Times) As children do not earn their inheritance, it is right for a fair society to tax it. We need to be braver about how we tax. The State we have needs close to £600bn in funds. That has to come from somewhere.
Martin Wolf (FT) George Osborne's plan to reduce the excess of savings over investment by households is a centrepiece of his programme. Whether it a sensible counterpart of a wise programme is another matter.
Ken Loach (Guardian) the Labour left has all but disappeared. A Miliband government will not reverse any of the privatisations in the health service or elsewhere. The Labour party is part of the problem, not the solution. The Greens have many admirable policies, but we look in vain for a thoroughgoing analysis for fundamental change. We need a new voice, a new movement – a new party.
Graham Hiscott (Mirror) The sad truth is that trust in the energy sector has plunged so low that customers don't believe what they say any more. Customers need answers now, but face yet another long wait.
Philip Collins (Times) As children do not earn their inheritance, it is right for a fair society to tax it. We need to be braver about how we tax. The State we have needs close to £600bn in funds. That has to come from somewhere.
Martin Wolf (FT) George Osborne's plan to reduce the excess of savings over investment by households is a centrepiece of his programme. Whether it a sensible counterpart of a wise programme is another matter.
Ken Loach (Guardian) the Labour left has all but disappeared. A Miliband government will not reverse any of the privatisations in the health service or elsewhere. The Labour party is part of the problem, not the solution. The Greens have many admirable policies, but we look in vain for a thoroughgoing analysis for fundamental change. We need a new voice, a new movement – a new party.
Thursday 27 March, 2014
Yet more pressure on the police - still further allegations of corruption at the Met and the failure of 35 of the country's 43 forces to take domestic violence seriously. It is now 43 years since Erin Pizzey opened the first refuge for battered wives in Chiswick, and 41 since Jack Ashley told the Commons that "the whole nation has come to appreciate the significance of the problem".
The whole nation - apart from those paid to protect its citizens. All these years later, the police still don't get it. The Guardian's splash is based on a report from the Inspector of Constabulary that accuses police of alarming and unacceptable weaknesses, poor attitudes and lack of empathy. The Times gives the story a single on page 17, the Mail - the paper that is supposed to be for women - puts it on page 20. So much for empathy.
Compare and contrast the Express and the Telegraph. The big six energy companies have been told today that they are to face an investigation into suspected profiteering. One of the six, SSE, announced yesterday that it would be freezing prices "unconditionally" until 2016. A strange move, perhaps, from the company that was the first to lift its prices last year - by 8.2% - and one that had previously asserted that price freezes would lead to unsustainable loss-making. Or was it an eleventh-hour gesture to try to ward off the competition inquiry? The Telegraph reports Ofgem figures showing that every one of the six increased prices by up to 11% last winter, when wholesale prices rose by only 1.7%. The paper concludes that millions are being ripped off and paying too much to heat their homes and cook their meals.
For the glass-half-full Express, though, the SSE freeze is a bold move that could create a price war that would bring energy costs down for everyone. Today's Ofgem report is mentioned only at the end of the turn.
Pictorially the papers are largely concerned with mismatched couples - Farage and Clegg in the Times, Guardian and i; Chris and Gwynnie in the tabs. The end of the Coldplay marriage is a rich seam and we can be confident that there will still be miners looking for nuggets come Sunday. The Telegraph shows its age with a picture of Diana Dors in her pneumatic prime. The excuse: Max Clifford says he went to her "sex parties".
She is in no position to argue, but she can still be a token woman from the grave.
The whole nation - apart from those paid to protect its citizens. All these years later, the police still don't get it. The Guardian's splash is based on a report from the Inspector of Constabulary that accuses police of alarming and unacceptable weaknesses, poor attitudes and lack of empathy. The Times gives the story a single on page 17, the Mail - the paper that is supposed to be for women - puts it on page 20. So much for empathy.
Compare and contrast the Express and the Telegraph. The big six energy companies have been told today that they are to face an investigation into suspected profiteering. One of the six, SSE, announced yesterday that it would be freezing prices "unconditionally" until 2016. A strange move, perhaps, from the company that was the first to lift its prices last year - by 8.2% - and one that had previously asserted that price freezes would lead to unsustainable loss-making. Or was it an eleventh-hour gesture to try to ward off the competition inquiry? The Telegraph reports Ofgem figures showing that every one of the six increased prices by up to 11% last winter, when wholesale prices rose by only 1.7%. The paper concludes that millions are being ripped off and paying too much to heat their homes and cook their meals.
For the glass-half-full Express, though, the SSE freeze is a bold move that could create a price war that would bring energy costs down for everyone. Today's Ofgem report is mentioned only at the end of the turn.
Pictorially the papers are largely concerned with mismatched couples - Farage and Clegg in the Times, Guardian and i; Chris and Gwynnie in the tabs. The end of the Coldplay marriage is a rich seam and we can be confident that there will still be miners looking for nuggets come Sunday. The Telegraph shows its age with a picture of Diana Dors in her pneumatic prime. The excuse: Max Clifford says he went to her "sex parties".
She is in no position to argue, but she can still be a token woman from the grave.
...and a taste of what the political commentators have to say...
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Paul Goodman (Guardian) Boris Johnson, the Tory with the biggest personal electoral mandate in the country, deserves the chance to make his leadership pitch if his party loses, or to serve in cabinet if it wins. But whatever his decision, it must be made one way or the other by next May. He may be stubborn, but time is stronger – as it is for all of us.
Peter Oborne (Telegraph) George Osborne’s Budget, with its tax cut for beer and bingo and permission for people to take charge of their own savings, has caught a wider mood of national rebellion against bossy government...It’s time to loosen the laws against smoking in pubs. It’s time to treat smokers as grown-ups and not pariahs. |
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Leo McKinstry (Express) The Tories have shown a welcome faith in financial freedom through the radical pensions reforms. Now they need to do the same with inheritance tax. The end of socialist robbery is the right policy and it will prove a vote winner.
Jenni Russell (Times) Many sympathisers who find themselves excluded from the Labour leader’s inner circle are losing faith in his ability to win. The greatest danger now for Miliband is detachment and complacency. Rod Liddle (Sun) I'm surprised that only four in ten British voters think Ed Miliband is either "weird" or "somewhat weird". Have you ever met anyone who thinks Ed is normal? |
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Macer Hall (Express) Clegg was given a serious verbal pummelling by a punchy Farage. The Lib Dem leader looked rattled as his Ukip opponent comprehensively ripped apart his pro-Brussels arguments and ridiculed his cossetted Establishment background.
Anne Perkins (Guardian) It sometimes sounded as if Farage and Clegg were engaged in separate conversations, one discussing wine production in Spain, the other ruminating on the merits of Speckled Hen. They were talking to different audiences, mainly their own supporters, in language that resonated comfortably with their prejudices. Read more from Editorial Intelligence here |
Wednesday 26 March, 2014
Bernard Hogan-Howe is let off amazingly lightly after his inept appearance before MPs. The Mail and Independent splashed on the story, but it barely featured anywhere else - a page 2 lead in the Times, a downpage single in the Telegraph and a couple of pars at the end of a legal aid story in the Guardian. Have we reached the point where nothing the Met and its commanders do has the power to shock any more?
The Chris Martin-Gwyneth Paltrow "uncoupling" broke late, so the Express missed the story altogether (or at least in the edition SubScribe saw). The Times put the pair on page 3, which made some sense as that allowed the story the sort of space that wouldn't be available on page one. The Telegraph did the same, but this was less understandable on a number of counts. It was a true breaking news story of a different measure from most showbiz stories; there was plenty of room on the front; and the picture of Mick Jagger and family that it should have supplanted not only related to a week-old story, but was also of preparations for a funeral that was supposed to be private.
The Sun naturally splashed on the separation, while the Mirror changed up through the evening. Just as well. It's exclusive on the Madeleine McCann investigation was not exactly new. The News of the World published much of this story in November 2006, as the Anorak website forensically points out. Indeed, the People also wrote about Irish Dave six months later, and it featured again on the webweavers website in 2008. Any reporter who believes he or she has found a vital clue to Miss McCann's whereabouts would be well advised to spend a few minutes on Google before venturing into print.
The Chris Martin-Gwyneth Paltrow "uncoupling" broke late, so the Express missed the story altogether (or at least in the edition SubScribe saw). The Times put the pair on page 3, which made some sense as that allowed the story the sort of space that wouldn't be available on page one. The Telegraph did the same, but this was less understandable on a number of counts. It was a true breaking news story of a different measure from most showbiz stories; there was plenty of room on the front; and the picture of Mick Jagger and family that it should have supplanted not only related to a week-old story, but was also of preparations for a funeral that was supposed to be private.
The Sun naturally splashed on the separation, while the Mirror changed up through the evening. Just as well. It's exclusive on the Madeleine McCann investigation was not exactly new. The News of the World published much of this story in November 2006, as the Anorak website forensically points out. Indeed, the People also wrote about Irish Dave six months later, and it featured again on the webweavers website in 2008. Any reporter who believes he or she has found a vital clue to Miss McCann's whereabouts would be well advised to spend a few minutes on Google before venturing into print.
...and what the OpEd writers say about Ukraine...
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Simon Jenkins (Guardian) We know where this is likely to end. We will accept Russia's sovereignty over Crimea. Sanctions will be quietly dismantled, Moscow will reassure Kiev with a deal on neutrality. Nato will agree no further eastward expansion. The G7 will again become G8; and Crimea will join Tibet, Kosovo, East Timor, Chechnya, Georgia and other territorial interventions which history students will struggle to remember. But how do we get from here to there?
Roger Boyes (Times) Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, runs conventional Western wisdom, is the Devil in disguise. There is, though, another way of looking at him: as the man who is almost single-handedly saving the moribund Atlantic alliance. Frederick Forsyth (Express) Since the ruthless Russian annexation of a chunk of Ukraine, a new iron curtain has descended to make clear that Moscow regards the Russian sphere of influence east of the new line as sacrosanct. We in the West may pontificate and posture – which is about all we can do – but intervention east of the new curtain will be a cause for triggering the Third World War. |
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Michael Levi (FT) Calls are mounting for the US to export shale gas to Europe to help to free the continent from Russian influence. Observers are right to focus on Moscow’s energy leverage but they are prescribing the wrong response. The most useful thing that Europe could import is not American gas itself but the open economic model that has enabled the US natural gas industry to thrive.
Con Coughlin (Telegraph) If Nato wants to be fit for purpose in the 21st century, it should regard Mr Putin’s Crimean adventure as a wake-up call to get its act together. Otherwise, as the Russian leader no doubt hopes, we will soon be sounding its death knell. Zalmay Khalilzad (International New York Times) Russia’s annexation of Crimea is unlikely to lead to a new Cold War; Russia is simply too weak to compete on a global level. But there is a serious risk that the UN could revert to Cold War-era gridlock. |
Tuesday 25 March, 2014
...and some thoughts from the political commentators...
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Rachel Sylvester (Times) To deal with the threat from Ukip, the mainstream parties need to explain what is good about change. The answer to fear is hope, the challenge to nostalgia is progress. You can’t counter the argument that we are all going to hell in a handcart just by jumping on board.
Janan Ganesh (FT) From the fiscal squeeze to the liberation of pensioners, coalition neutralises incendiary ideas into common sense. If Tory critics of the coalition believe there are streams of radical ideas blocked up by the Lib Dems, they should cite examples. Rufus Hound (Mirror) The Coalition is undermining the NHS, underfunding it and demonising it. It is deliberately creating a set of problems that – coincidentally – the companies that have given them millions of pounds will profit from. But it’s not theirs to sell. It’s ours. Polly Toynbee (Guardian) Oppositions fall in love with localism because they control most |
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councils but once in power governments lose that local control. How would Labour feel about all this freedom devolved in future to swaths of newly elected Tory councils to cut, privatise or ignore Westminster egalitarian social policies?
Steve Richards (Independent) More power should be given to local government. But it will not happenInstead we have the worst of both worlds, where oppositions affect support for local democracy and then never deliver – partly on the solid grounds that they are far too busy trying, often fruitlessly, to make central government work for them. Benedict Brogan (Telegraph) The subject the Prime Minister is desperate to avoid is, of course, Europe. That’s why the Tories are parading such indifference to the week’s more intriguing - and potentially more significant - confrontations. Tomorrow night Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage will argue the case for and against Britain’s continued membership of the EU. Read more from Editorial Intelligence here |
Monday 24 March, 2014
...and what the commentators say about Ukraine, the Budget and Twitter
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David Owen (Guardian) Territorial disputes are solved usually after long, hard negotiations. Tit-for-tat sanctions are no substitute.
Wolfgang Munchau (FT) The best policy is to exhaust Mr Putin politically and economically through policies of targeted and variable sanctions that persist until there is a broad-based political agreement. Cristina Odone (Telegraph) The possibility of sanctions against Russia affecting oligarchs in the UK means that the burly men and blingy women who were toasts of the town are now toast. |
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Boris Johnson (Telegraph)
Not many people will blow their pensions on Italian cars. The vast majority will want to put their pots into the market with the greatest yield over the past 40 years – and that is property. The pensions change is not a social disaster, but a wonderful opportunity. Mary Dejevsky (Independent) If the new system means more pensioners can choose, and pay for, purpose-built accommodation – in retirement villages, for example, subsequent care costs may be lower than feared, and the quality of life for elderly people a good deal more agreeable. |
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Kevin Maguire (Mirror)
Only an aloof Tory Party peering down its nose at hard-working Britons could calculate an offer of a free pint if you buy 300 or a subsidy for bingo hall owners – not players – would bring the house down. David Aaronovitch (Times) Mr Erdogan has been in power for 12 years and is in one of those situations where he may be able to keep winning elections, but really he shouldn’t. After a while it gets to a man and last week it was obviously getting to him. |
Sunday 23 March, 2014
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