Newspapers

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Alan Ruddock, 1960-2010

I suppose that relatively few people in England knew Alan Ruddock, who died from a heart attack on Sunday aged just 49, but in Scottish and Irish journalistic circles he was a considerable figure. As Kevin Myers reminds us, he defied the IRA as editor of the Sunday Times’s Irish edition. Later, as Stewart Kirkpatrick remembers, he was a very fine editor of the Scotsman, presiding over the paper and its coverage of the first elections to the new Scottish parliament in 1999. Later still, and foolishly, the Irish Times declined to give Alan the chance to edit the old lady of d’Olier St. Their loss. Instead he wrote a

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

The media helps the coalition's fiscal cause

This feels like a watershed moment: a national newspaper devoting its cover to an image of the country’s “debt mountain,” with a small shaded-off area showing how little of it is covered by yesterday’s cuts.  The paper in question is today’s Independent.  And while the cover may not perfectly depict what’s going on with our public finances – yesterday’s cuts will reduce the government’s annual overspend, not the overall debt burden which will keep rising for years to come – it is still a powerful reminder of Brown’s toxic legacy. In some respects, the coalition might not appreciate this kind of focus: after all, politicians don’t much like mentioning the

Alex Massie

The Times Goes for Broke

  Rupert Murdoch is scarcely infallible and there’s a sense abroad that he doesn’t really understand the internet. But even if that’s true it doesn’t mean that his decision to take the Times behind a paywall is necessarily a mistake even if, naturally, it’s inconvenient for bloggers and other news-grazers. So journalist me sort of hopes that Murdoch’s gamble, beginning today with the launch of a new and sleeker Times website, works; blogger and consumer me is less optimistic and not just because the Times paywall is an upfront charge, not the metered system favoured by the Financial Times and, soon, the New York Times. In one sense £2 a

Sunday

Alex Massie

Great Moments in Sub-Editing

Am cricketing today, so talk amongst yourselves. Or stay silent if you prefer. Meanwhile, here’s a reminder that the Murdoch press reaches parts their competitors can’t…

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Why the Guardian should have backed the Tories

The Guardian missed a trick today. It should have endorsed the Conservatives. As a regular reader of that great newspaper, I can diagnose the ailment: it is confusing intentions with outcomes. It wishes for a more progressive society, greater equality and the betterment of the most vulnerable. But it has not quite worked out that these aims cannot be achieved by a powerful government: and that state-directed attempts at promoting a “progressive” society actually make it less equal, more regressive and end up empowering a bureaucratic elite. The Guardian lets itself down here: it has focused on what is said – not what is done. In doing so, it does

Friday

Alex Massie

The Guardian Comes Out for Clegg

As so it has come to pass: even the Guardian has abandoned Labour and endorsed the Liberal Democrats. I expect the Independent will do the same and that the Mirror may be the only (London) blatt to support Gordon Brown. Meanwhile and for the first time since 1992 the Times is backing the Tories. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Guardian’s editorial is not its decision to support Clegg (this was predictable) but its repudiation of Labour’s central charge against the Conservatives: that they have not changed. The paper disagrees: This election is about serious choices between three main parties which all have something to offer. David Cameron has

Thursday

Alex Massie

Operation Kneecap Clegg Begins

Ah, the majesty of the British press! The Telegraph splashes on the fact that various Lib Dem donors funded a researcher and that these funds were paid into his own bank account.  A curious, perhaps even sloppy, arangement that may do Clegg some damage but that does not seem to be especially venal not least beacuse the contributions were declared to the fees office and the Electoral Commission. “Stuff and nonsense” declared Paxman on Newsnight and I doubt the story, while not good for Clegg, has anything more than dwarf legs. Then the Mail splashes on Nick Clegg in Nazi slur on Britain as he claims ‘our delusions of grandeur’

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

How Whelan & Co. exploit Britain's libel laws

The Charlie Whelan problem is intensifying for Labour, with more revelations in the Mail on Sunday today taking on from our cover story in this week’s magazine. Whelan’s behaviour may be no worse than that of Ed Balls and Gordon Brown – but he is more careless. Like McBride, he was actually caught: and his tactics documented in a formal seven-page report. Not the sort of document you want surfacing during a campaign. So it’s little wonder why Whelan used Carter-Ruck to try and deter The Spectator from any further investigation in the bullying case: it threatens to expose Gordon Brown’s entire modus operandi and the methods which he uses

Alex Massie

Is* the Mail on Sunday Nick Clegg's Recruiting Sergeant?

Is the Mail on Sunday’s back-bench trying to persuade voters to think about endorsing the Liberal Democrats? I assume so, otherwise you’d have to wonder what they meant by writing this headline for the dead tree edition of this story: “His wife is Spanish, his mother Dutch, his father half-Russian and his spin doctor German. Is there ANYTHING British about Lib Dem leader?” I mean, my explanation is the only one that makes sense, right? *No. But it might as well be with this kind of tripe.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

The Times is wrong about the Tories' marriage tax break

Since The Times moved its leaders on to page two, they’ve also taken on a new vitality. For years, they were the voice of solid good sense. It was pretty difficult to disagree with them. Now, they are more polemical, more risk-taking – and more wrong. But I’m not complaining: I far prefer reading a fiesty opinion with which I disagree, than boring opinion that I nod quietly along with. And I could not disagree more with the leader today denouncing Cameron’s marriage tax break. Let’s kick off: “This is surely no time to be giving money away so that people can just carry on doing what they are already

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Where the Mail's cover story came from

It’s always gratifying to see Coffee House posts followed up in the newspapers, and I almost admire the way the Daily Mail has just splashed the newspaper on one of our posts without mentioning the source. CoffeeHousers will recognise the story on the Mail’s front page (left) – some 99 percent of jobs created since 1997 are accounted for by immigration. But the reader is left wondering where this figure came from. Was it released by the ONS? Erm, no. The only source for these figures is an email I was kindly sent by the ONS after specifically requesting the data. I used it in a line from The Spectator’s

Monday

Alex Massie

President Petraeus Watch

Not much news came out of Washington last week which doubtless explains why my old chum Toby Harnden used his Telegraph column to chew over the Petraeus 2012 “speculation” one more time. This won’t be the last we hear of this, I assure you. Alas, as Toby laments, the good General stubbornly refuses to play along: The problem is that Petraeus appears to have no desire to be commander-in-chief. His denials of any political ambition have come close to the famous statement by General William Sherman. The former American Civil War commander, rejecting the possibility of running for president in 1884 by stating: “I will not accept if nominated and

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Wayne Agonistes

  Who knows how bad Wayne Rooney’s ankle injury is? Not since Metatarsal Watch in 2006, however, has there been such troubling news for the England camp. One mobs’ rain is another lots’ sunshine however and the Agony of Wayne’s Ankle is a gift to our never under-excited press. We can expect Fleet Street to move into battle with its customary brio. All weapons will be deployed including, but not limited to: 1. Ankle Correspondents. No serious paper can cover this crisis without a specialist Ankle Correspondent. Just as old Afghan hands were hauled out of retirement in the winter of 2001-2002, so their Ankle brethren will return to prominence

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Explaining the NotW endorsement

The News of the World’s endorsement of the Conservatives today is worth reading. It has taken some time and much soul-searching for the paper to make this decision. Papers, even under the same proprietor, have different readerships with different outlooks on life. The Sun came out for the Tories on the last day of the Labour conference last September, but its stablemate has taken far longer. It has been firm in its denunciation of Brown’s failings but – like many voters – it has looked long and hard at just how a Tory government would correct them. The reason for its endorsement now is laid out in the leading article.

Thursday

Alex Massie

You'll Never Beat the British Journalist

American readers may (or may not!) be comforted to know that the newspaper responsible for this masterpiece (written, I’m pleased to see, by Andrew Malone) is one of the two most powerful papers in the country. Even by the Daily Mail’s lofty standards, this is a classic, and I’m indebted to John Rentoul for bringing it to my attention. As is his wont he concludes that the answer is – as tends to be case with any headline that ends in a question mark – ‘No’. But surely this shows a sad lack of imagination upon his part? Then again, I’m also pleased to see that Mr Malone was able

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Let us now praise Simon Hoggart

Simon Hoggart remains a treasure. His sketch in today’s Guardian begins thus: It’s going to be an awful campaign, awful. Yesterday we were at Labour HQ (they still have a smart new building in Westminster, but after the election they may move to a scout hut in Streatham) to see a video. It was introduced by the home secretary and by Harriet Harman, glossier than ever. Her eyes were like French-polished lentils. I spoke to colleagues afterwards, and we agreed that she seemed to be staring balefully at each of us. Like a very cross Mona Lisa, her eyes follow you round the room. Alan Johnson has been buried deep

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Towards the End of the Night

Isaac Chotiner has a nice piece at TNR on Michael Frayn’s classic Fleet Street novel, Towards the End of the Morning. Among his observations: The most astonishing aspect of Frayn’s novel [published in 1967] is that so many of the dilemmas and complaints of the characters are easily recognizable today. “He looked anxiously at the rack of galley proofs behind him. He had only seven ‘The Country Day by Day’ columns in print, and he had sworn never to let the Countries drop below twelve. He had a ‘Meditation’ column for each of the next three days—unless Winters had made a cock-up about immaculate conception, in which case he had

Monday

Alex Massie

Honoring an Embargo

Ah, the glories of the endless contest between hacks and PR flacks. Pretty mch every journalist will enjoy this, I think. This is a very true: “I will honor the embargo for the rest of my life because I have no intention of writing about it.” [Hat-tip Media Bistro and SA and SM via Twitter. My Twitter feed is here.]

Saturday

Alex Massie

Huge Earthquake in Chile, Not Many Dead*

Not to trivialise the story too much, but if this ain’t the headline** in every British newspaper tomorrow then, damn it, the subs should be ashamed of themselves. *So far & thankfully & given the size (8.8) of the quake anyway. UPDATE Sunday 7pm: It seems, sadly, that more lives have been lost than had first been thought. So, consider this flippancy withdrawn. **And no, it doesn’t matter that it may be based on myth. As another man said, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Newspapers, Mrs Rochester and a Presumption of Literacy

Sometimes, you know, stuff appears in the newspapers that offers just a smidgen of hope. Consider this tidbit from the Guardian’s account of the oh-so-entertaining revelations in Andrew Rawnsley’s new book. At the time of the botched 2006 attempt to topple Tony Blair: In the middle of the coup, the former welfare minister Frank Field went to No 10 to plead with Blair not to give way to Brown. “You can’t go yet. You can’t let Mrs Rochester out of the attic,” he said. Rawnsley writes: “Blair roared with laughter.” The grounds for hope, you see, lie in the fact that the Guardian doesn’t feel it necessary to explain the