Sunday, December 29, 2013

'Maternity tourism' fears make news

Front pages: 'Maternity tourism' and mortgage debt fear

Sunday Telegraph front page 29/12/13 Every paper splashes on a different story on Sunday. The Sunday Telegraph says "hundreds of pregnant, foreign women are flying to Britain just days before they give birth to receive free care on the NHS". Staff at one London hospital, the paper says, refer to the flow of women from west Africa as the "Lagos Shuttle".
Mail on Sunday front page 29/12/13 There is another immigration-related story in the Mail on Sunday, which says it has uncovered "a secret report" that predicts "Bulgarians and Romanians will flock to Britain in far greater numbers than forecast as our economy races ahead of the rest of Europe". It warns "community tensions could rise" due to the influx.
Observer front page 29/12/13 The Observer leads with a "bombshell analysis" which it says shows "more than a million homeowners" will be at risk of defaulting on their mortgages "in the wake of even a small rise in interest rates". The paper's main image is of its reporter on board MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which is stuck in the Antarctic.
Independent on Sunday front page 29/12/13 Every woman who has breast implant surgery will have the procedure recorded on a national register, the Independent on Sunday says. The aim of the register is "to help prevent a repeat of the cosmetic surgery scandal which affected tens of thousands in the UK and 400,000 worldwide".
Sunday Times front page 29/12/13 According to the Sunday Times, senior Tories fear Alex Salmond "could defy the odds and pull off a shock victory" in the Scottish independence referendum "as the campaign to save the union founders". Among those worried are London Mayor Boris Johnson and former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth, it says.
Sunday Express front page 29/12/13 The Daily Express front page is extremely critical of the handling of the weather problems of recent days. It feels "the government's poor response to the storm chaos exposed alarming gaps in emergency planning". The paper says "no help came" when a heavily pregnant woman was trapped in her home.
Sunday People front page 29/12/13 The Sunday People says it can reveal that TV star Ant McPartlin lost his 29-year-old sister-in-law to ovarian cancer on Christmas Eve. The paper also says Chancellor George Osborne has gone on holiday to Venice "to enjoy la dolce vita... as thousands of us struggled with deluges and no electricity".
Daily Star Sunday front page 29/12/13 The Daily Star Sunday says Simon Cowell "is poised to marry his pregnant fiancee Lauren Silverman 'imminently' - and could even tie the knot today". It adds: "Rumours are rife he will wed Lauren in Barbados."

No two papers leads with the same story on Sunday, with front page topics ranging from new breast implant regulations to Scottish independence.

Several papers do share an immigration theme though, including the Sunday Telegraph, which raises fears about "maternity tourism", and the Mail on Sunday, which says it has seen a report warning of the negative impact of Bulgarian and Romanian arrivals.

Elsewhere, the Observer warns of the possible impact even a very small rise in interest rates could have on Britain's mortgage payers.

The Sunday People, meanwhile, says it can reveal a family tragedy which has struck TV star Ant McPartlin.

Discussing the papers for the BBC's News Channel, Jeremy Cliffe, political correspondent at the Economist, said he was "getting pretty tired of the fear-mongering" about immigration in recent weeks, "both from ministers and in some of the headlines".

"Very, very rarely does anyone even so much as suggest that a Romanian or Bulgarian immigrant coming to Britain would be a good thing, and yet countless academic studies tell of the cultural, and more to the point, economic benefits they bring with them," he said.

But Craig Woodhouse, political correspondent at the Sun, said people were "genuinely worried" about the issue and wanted to talk about it, but weren't sure how to.

And he added: "There's a very fine line to be trodden here between, 'Is it racist to worry about this? Can we talk about this?'"

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