Even as the UK had the highest coronavirus (Covid-19) death rate in the world across seven days, the tabloids were falling into line to prop up the Tories’ chaotic pandemic plans. But you know the mainstream media has utterly lost the plot when even the Mirror joins in the mayhem.
Where’s Cliff Richard when you need him?
As The Canary previously reported, the government is thinking about relaxing quarantine rules for travellers entering the UK. Afroze Fatima Zaidi wrote:
These discussions, believe it or not, haven’t been prompted by ‘the science’ or expert advice, but by concern for potential damage to the travel industry. While seeing the risk to human life get weighed so casually against business interests is infuriating, it’s also entirely on brand for this government.
But now, not content with risking a second wave of the virus, the tabloids want the Tories to go further. Because the front pages on Wednesday 3 June were awash with cries of ‘save our summer hols!’
Enter the tabloids
The Daily Mail was predictably screechy in its calls for the Tories to let us Brits fly off to foreign soil; making sure that coronavirus was tightly packed into our suitcases along with our Union Jack shorts and beer goggles:
TOMORROW: The British #coronavirus death toll passes 50,000 people and America burns under the leadership of an insane demagogue but the Mail decides the most pressing story of the day is their editors desire to go on a foreign holiday…#TomorrowsPapersToday #MailFrontPages pic.twitter.com/svrCrpRWqW
— The DM Reporter (@DMReporter) June 2, 2020
Although one person wryly pointed out:
I thought after Brexit we were all going to take our holidays in the UK?
— shmon lee (@shmon2001) June 2, 2020
The Mail was insistent that the Tories need to relax the rules around foreign trips. Not just for our own good, of course, but also to save the travel industry. Meanwhile, the Sun took a similar line but also ran with a “tipple whammy” of pubs getting ready to open and coronavirus death rates “at zero soon”, according to one academic. Oh, and the obligatory scantily-clad celebrity, of course:
Tomorrow's front page: 'Britain is heading for a triple victory over Covid-19. Brewers will deliver 250million pints to pubs in the next fortnight' https://t.co/MHAdlHmWsg pic.twitter.com/yfpGZsSLKC
— The Sun (@TheSun) June 2, 2020
The Daily Star was ‘pun-tastic’, as ever:
Tomorrow's front page: Don't forget your toothbrush! #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/k9DAPoJ9H2 pic.twitter.com/BLJ18jOo3s
— Daily Star (@dailystar) June 2, 2020
And the Daily Express also nodded to the potential explosion in people going abroad, probably coupled with an explosion in coronavirus infection rates:
Wednesday's Express: "Extra penny on tax to fix care crisis" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday (via @hendopolis) pic.twitter.com/5ltGhFOKQU
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 2, 2020
But it was perhaps the Mirror that was most infuriating among the tabloid treachery. Because it too decided that allowing us Brits to holiday abroad was crucial:
Tomorrow's front page: Lifeline for summer hols abroad #tomorrowspaperstoday https://t.co/a8xy2EiWLK pic.twitter.com/QFKuHCgAq2
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) June 2, 2020
Essentially, the thrust with all these stories was that infection rates are lower in popular holiday destinations like Spain and France. Therefore, the travel industry wants the Tories to allow UK holiday makers to be able to go there. And this is perhaps the most British tabloid response to a pandemic ever.
Peak British arrogance
Because it would mean that the chances of us catching coronavirus in a foreign country was technically lower. But with even the Sun admitting the UK has one of the highest infection rates among many comparable countries, we could spread it around holiday hot spots like wildfire, and cause these countries’ infection rates to go up. Not that that notion was on the tabloids’ agendas. Because we all ‘deserve‘ a holiday? right?
But the glaring omission from all these front pages was the question of who can actually afford to go on holiday this year anyway.
Nothing ‘left-wing’ about the Mirror
The push to ‘save our hols’ came on the same day that the Trussell Trust said that foodbank use had rocketed by 89% in April, compared to the same month in 2019. Within this, food parcels for children had almost doubled. Nearly nine million workers are currently furloughed, and over two million people are now unemployed. Just who the tabloids think will be going on holiday is unclear. But it’s unlikely to be most working class people.
It’s this which sticks in the throat most about the Mirror‘s front page. Because while some of the poorest people in the UK, including millions of children, continue to suffer – it chose to throw them under a bus by falling into the ‘end lockdown’ brigade. It was almost rubbing people’s noses in it. And that, from a supposedly left-wing paper, is unforgivable.
Featured image via YouTube – Channel 4 News / Wikimedia – Trinity Mirror
