Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Hayley Cropper and Hollande in headlines

Hayley Cropper's farewell, Francois Hollande's moped ride and fracking

Daily Mirror front page, 14/1/14 The Daily Mirror reports fears expressed by the Samaritans charity that people could copy the Coronation Street storyline in which terminally ill Hayley Cropper kills herself with a drugs overdose.
The Sun front page, 14/1/14 Meanwhile, the Sun reports the result of a poll it commissioned which suggests that 73% of Britons believe terminally ill patients "like Hayley" should have the right to end their lives.
Guardian front page, 14/1/14 It's TV current affairs leading the Guardian, which says police want Channel 4 to hand over documents about a "whistleblower" who claimed officers spied on relatives of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager killed by a racist gang.
Daily Mail front page, 14/1/14 The Daily Mail focuses on films, saying age ratings are to be relaxed because swear words are "so commonplace" among teenagers. It quotes campaigners as saying parents are being let down by regulator, the BBFC.
Daily Star front page, 14/1/14 And the Daily Star focuses on Channel 5 which, it says, could "axe" its reality show Celebrity Big Brother after complaints "flooded in to telly watchdogs" from viewers "outraged by the sexiest scenes in the show's history".
The Times front page, 14/1/14 Millions of pounds - equivalent to 1,000 soldiers' salaries - has been wasted on an IT "fiasco" that had been intended to enable the Army to recruit online. The £1.3bn scheme is already two years behind schedule, the paper says.
Independent front page, 14/1/14 The Independent suggests that an EU-US trade deal currently under negotiation could result in Britain being sued if it tried to impose laws - such as introducing plain tobacco packaging - deemed to "discriminate" against free trade.
Daily Express front page, 14/1/14 Immigration leads the Daily Express, which quotes the prime minister as saying it ran "out of control" in the last decade. The paper sees this as a rebuke to cabinet colleague Ken Clarke, who described mass immigration as "exciting".
Financial Times front page, 14/1/14 The Financial Times reports how Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has bought a £50m stake in struggling High Street giant Debenhams. It describes him as loving a "big, contrarian bet".
Daily Telegraph front page, 14/1/14 Labour leader Ed Miliband is quoted by the Daily Telegraph, which reports him saying that the foundations of middle-class life - good pay, strong pensions, the housing ladder and university - have been "undermined".
The i front page, 14/1/14 The i describes prime minister David Cameron's pledge to allow councils to keep all the business rates derived from shale gas "fracking" schemes as a "bribe". It says oil and gas licences for "40% of Britain" will go on sale this summer.

A fictional TV plot finds its way onto the front of two national newspapers.

Both the Sun and the Daily Mirror use Coronation Street's latest storyline - which sees long-standing character Hayley Cropper use a drugs overdose to end her life - to highlight serious issues.

The Sun has commissioned research suggesting that 73% of Britons support changing the law to give terminally ill people, like cancer-stricken Cropper, "the right to end their suffering". Some 38% of respondents said they'd help a relative take their life, according to the paper.

Labour peer Lord Falconer writes in the Sun in favour of his private member's bill, advocating a change in the law to allow help to be given, while Bishop of Carlisle James Newcome says such a move would "place vulnerable individuals at risk".

In the Daily Mirror, Dignity in Dying campaign group boss Sarah Wootton praises ITV's "sensible and sensitive" handling of the subject, while Alistair Thompson from pressure group Care Not Killing says the soap should have shown "how people can access good palliative care".

For the Samaritans, a bigger concern is the risk of "copycat suicides".

The charity, which advised the show's producers, tells the Mirror that "portraying an overdose... as a gentle and peaceful way to die, can be be very dangerous and bears no resemblance to the reality of slow liver failure afterwards".

line break
Foreign affairs
Francois Hollande wearing a motorcycle helmet

Claims that French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair - and was seen being transported to his secret rendez-vous by moped - provide inspirations for cartoonists.

The Daily Telegraph's Matt pictures a wife eyeing her pipe-smoking husband wearing a motorbike helmet and asking: "Are you seeing someone else?" Pugh, in the Daily Mail, varies the theme by picturing a couple peering through a window at a motorcyclist arriving at the house opposite. The husband remarks: "I'm not sure if 34's having a pizza delivered or a tryst with President Hollande."

The Times, which declares the president "a laughing stock", has a cartoon with two women examining a newspaper with a headline including the words: "First lady". One turns to the other and says: "And she won't be his last."

"All the President's Women," is the Daily Express headline, as it profiles the characters said to be involved in Mr Hollande's "tangled love-life".

The Independent is not impressed by the fuss. "The amount of media coverage devoted to the affair, if such it is, is quite disproportionate to the vastly more important issues he and his nation face," it says. On the same topic, the paper's columnist, Grace Dent, reckons: "It's of some comfort to us Brits that the French really aren't so blase and evolved about infidelity after all."

line break
Gas panic
David Cameron visits the Total Oil Depot shale drilling site in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

"Frack the environment, feel the votes," is Independent cartoonist Dave Brown's take on the prime minister's attitude to the environmental arguments against shale gas extraction. He sketches David Cameron in a hard hat, looking on proudly as a tremor rattles Labour leader Ed Miliband's teeth.

Sister paper the i uses a photograph of Mr Cameron - again in protective headgear - under a front-page headline reading: "Fracking bribes for all." And a number of papers take this view of the PM's decision to allow councils to keep all the business rates derived from shale gas, instead of the usual 50%. The Daily Mail's editorial asks: "By bribing councils to accept fracking before properly making the case for it, doesn't the government risk inflaming the suspicions of communities worried about its impact?"

The Guardian agrees the financial incentives "look suspiciously like bribes" and says: "This feels more like an ambush than an attempt to woo a public that is still uncertain what it's being sold."

For the Daily Telegraph, "the only problem is that they are not bribing them enough", adding: "As it stands, the amounts on offer are so small that they threaten to stifle the shale boom at birth. Ministers must learn - as Mr Cameron once put it - to share the proceeds of growth."

line break
Language barrier

The Daily Mail is outraged by the British Board of Film Classification's decision to be "more flexible about allowing very strong language" in films rated 15, characterising its members as "censors who refuse to fight for decency". Its editorial asks: "Is it any wonder the battle for decency is being lost?"

Reviewing the papers for the BBC News Channel, Guardian diary editor Hugh Muir said: "Every so often the censors have a process where they ask the public 'what do you think we should do'. I'm not sure much of that consultation happened in the offices of the Daily Mail."

Times defence editor Deborah Haynes added: "Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times. There seems to be a tolerance of swear words [in society] that there wasn't 30 years ago."

The Telegraph reports that the consultation led to the censors being told to "get tough on sex scenes" amid fears that young girls are "being sexualised by what they see on screen and in pop videos". The BBFC has promised to pay "close attention" to the matter, the paper says.

The Guardian reports that the body will pilot an age-rating system for music videos in the near future and runs down shocking examples of the past, from the sex-charged Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Erotica by Madonna, to MIA's Born Free which depicted a genocide of red-haired people.

line break
Paint job
Portraits of former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown, Labour MP Diane Abbott and ex-Conservative Prime Minister John Major

Artist Stuart Pearson Wright's portrait of Labour MP Diane Abbott makes an impact on the Guardian's front page. It was commissioned by MPs to record those who had made a "significant contribution to public life", the paper says, but - noting the £11,750 cost - uses the headline: "The art of annoying the taxpayer."

The tabloids are even less impressed at the total of £250,000 spent on "vanity" portraits. "If there's one thing we've seen more than enough of, it's politicians' ugly mugs," says the Daily Star.

The Daily Mirror describes the subjects as "Easel weasels", noting that the £10,000 spent on a picture of Work and Pensions Secretary - or "welfare slasher" - Iain Duncan Smith is "equivalent of three years' dole for an unemployed worker".

To the Sun, it's a "Framin' liberty". It adds: "Perhaps the public should get some use out of them. As dartboards."

line break
Making people click

The Times: Microsoft on the threshold of deleting 'appalling' Windows 8

Guardian: The off-putting things we (almost) overlooked at the 2014 Golden Globes

Daily Mail: Prince Edward's daughter Lady Louise, 10, has surgery to correct her sight

Daily Mirror: Mum who drank 24 cans and seven pints a day begs to die at home - aged just 35

Financial Times: Credit Suisse tells junior bankers to stay home on Saturdays


No comments:

Post a Comment