Daily Mail front pages show drastic 24-hour escalation in UK coronavirus stance: A tale of two headlines

RT
Fri, 13 Mar 2020 18:51 UTC

© The Daily Mail

No tailored propaganda here . . . .

Life comes at you fast, especially in the midst of a global pandemic, and nowhere was this more evident than the front pages of the Daily Mail newspaper, which displayed a neck-breaking 180 in mood in less than 24 hours.

Thursday's front page was devoted to extolling the virtues of "New Tory star" Chancellor Rishi Sunak aka "Dr Feelgood" and his £30 billion cash economic stimulus package, dubbed a 'vaccination,' which would stave off the worst economic effects of the coronavirus.

"Cash for sick workers" and "Shops' taxes slashed" were the breathless (pardon the pun) yet genius solutions to the coronavirus threat to the economy thanks to the "biggest budget splurge in 30 years." A regrettable choice of words perhaps, given the scenes of panic-buying from across the world, as the global citizenry struggles to come to terms with the new reality in post-corona capitalism.

Alas, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoiled it all by saying something stupid like "many loved ones will die" in what was a dire, yet direct assessment of the realities of the current crisis and its likely evolution over the coming months.

There was no sugar coating the situation from Johnson, which was rather fortuitous as Friday's Daily Mail featured both a Cheltenham and a diabetes pullout.

Thursday's unbridled optimism was apparently vaporized overnight as the grim and "chilling" reality of the UK's rather precarious situation dawned on the Daily Mail, as the paper relayed that "Up to 10,000 in [the] UK 'have [the] virus.'"

"I've got whiplash reading those," one commenter rather succinctly put it after comparing the front pages side-by-side.

A wistful cynicism washed over the online commentariat, as some pointed out the stark contrast between the British and Irish prime ministers' comments about their respective countries' responses to the coronavirus crisis, and the coverage thereof, courtesy of the Daily Mail.

Comment: Johnson, not one to let an opportunity go wasted, has postponed London's mayoral election in which liberal immigration advocate and political irritant Sadiq Khan, was up for re-election:

Voters in England were scheduled to go to the polls on May 7 — including for the London Mayoral contest — but just hours after the PM's spokesperson said they were "working to facilitate" the elections, they have now been taken off the 2020 political calendar.

Responding to the move, London Mayor - who was up for re-election - has taken to Twitter to insist that he "will continue to work with the Government and experts to help London manage coronavirus over the weeks and months ahead."

While Independent candidate for London Mayor Rory Stewart claimed that was the "right decision," adding that the government should be moving more quickly to "close gatherings and schools."

• Brexiteers serenade mayor Sadiq Khan with chant: 'We need a new Mayor of London'
• London mother tells Mayor Khan: "We don't feel safe, do something about it!"
• London mayor Sadiq Khan thinks Silicon Valley should be forced to censor 'hate speech'

Johnson came in for some Twitter mocking when he invoked the image of Dunkirk at a meeting of tech companies asking for help.

The meeting on Wednesday night in Downing Street saw around 30 different big tech firms in attendance, including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon. Johnson reportedly used his speech - described as Churchillian by one guest - to try to encourage the tech industry in the UK to provide useful resources to contain the outbreak.

The description of Johnson's summit as a "digital Dunkirk" riled many on Twitter, who took issue with yet another war analogy to characterize the prime minister's approach to a major issue.

There were also sarcastic takes on the attendee evoking the War.

Other critics of the PM's meeting also took a swipe at reports that Dominic Cummings - Johnson's chief adviser - asked tech bosses what they could commit to in the fight against the deadly virus. "Have they tried all paying their taxes?"another cheekily asked.

It comes after Johnson emerged from a COBRA meeting to tell reporters assembled at No 10 on Wednesday afternoon that the Covid-19 pandemic is "the worst public health crisis for a generation" and warned Britain that the worst of the crisis is still weeks away.