OK – I’ve been tempted away from the straight and narrow again. The Daily Mail is running a free DVD promotion at the moment, and it’s just too easy to stop off at the WH Smith in the tube station each morning and pick up The Ladykillers for 45p. I’ve already had other Ealing classics including Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Cruel Sea. There are quite a few other decent ones coming up too.
Of course my pact with the devil involves me ending up with a copy of the Daily Mail. And today’s edition reminds me of why I really hate the paper.
The government, as I think we’re all aware, has a few cabinet ministers who’re facing one or two spots of bother. Most importantly, Charles Clarke is fighting for his career since it was revealed that the Home Office released 1,000 prisoners who should have been deported after serving their sentences.
Then there’s Patricia Hewitt and the repeated barrages she’s been facing at various speeches she’s given this week.
Finally, there’s John Prescott. He’s had an affair with his secretary.
Which of these three things gets the most coverage? Prescott of course. Big front page picture (courtesy of yesterday’s Mirror – the photos bear a coy “MGN” picture credit indicating that whatever the Mirror paid for them, has been recouped again and again by selling the photos on to the Mail), pages 3 & 4, pages 8 & 9, pages 10 & 11, pages 12 & 13, leader highlighting all three on 14. The other two stories get 5 & 6 and 7 & 8 respectively.
It’s one thing spending lots of time and space on the Prescott story if there was nothing else going on, but there are serious issues with the Home Office story, with resignations surely the order of the day.
Still, I’ll console myself with the fact that every DVD I pick up is costing Associated Newspapers more cash.