Alternative Views

Notoriously I go on about the virtues of The Guardian, so I’m not surprised when people suggest that maybe I should look to other sources to give myself a wider range of viewpoints. I do this at regular intervals, by buying copies of the Daily Express, the Daily Mail and The Sun when there’s been a significant political event. This week it was the confidence vote in which a substantial number of Conservative MPs decided that actually no, they did not have confidence in the Prime Minister.

I know what I thought about this, but I was still gobsmacked by the way in which the tabloids covered it. Inside their pages, it wasn’t hard to find the view that to a great extent Johnson was the architect of his own downfall, and that both the events of Partygate and his handling of it confirmed that he wasn’t up to the job. But in terms of impact and headline, he morphed into a saintly heroic leader who’d been suddenly and treacherously deceived, by self-serving narcissists who were putting narrow personal considerations ahead of the national interest. My favourite bit was where these Tory rebels (many of whom have been extremely reluctant to commit themselves) are wonderfully compared with Mad Vlad Putin and his taste for bombing civilians. Like they say, you cannot make it up. (But if you really can bear to stand more detail like this, have a look at ‘Tabloid Treachery’ in my Poems from the News. )