The stance of British newspapers on Lisbon

[PrinceMax]

Maybe this has already been discussed but I've just been looking through the stories from the different UK newspapers with Irish editions on LexisNexis - such as the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Sun. What I noticed was, the Daily Mail and the Sun have no headlines which portray the Yes side in a favourable light, while the Mirror is the opposite.Just wondering if anyone knows if the Mirror is generally regarded as a pro-European paper? Does anyone have any ideas why they seem to have a blatantly pro-Lisbon agenda while the other two tabloids have a blatantly anti-Lisbon one?

[ibis]

Maybe this has already been discussed but I've just been looking through the stories from the different UK newspapers with Irish editions on LexisNexis - such as the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Sun. What I noticed was, the Daily Mail and the Sun have no headlines which portray the Yes side in a favourable light, while the Mirror is the opposite.Just wondering if anyone knows if the Mirror is generally regarded as a pro-European paper? Does anyone have any ideas why they seem to have a blatantly pro-Lisbon agenda while the other two tabloids have a blatantly anti-Lisbon one?

The Sun is anti-EU generally, reflecting the agenda of its owner, Rupert Murdoch (as do his other titles), which is why it's anti-Lisbon. The Mirror is against whatever the Sun is for, and vice-versa (note that the Mirror has a Science Editor...and has done since the 1950s). The Daily Mail is staunchly right-wing.

The two most-popular newspapers are The Sun and The Daily Mirror. Bitter rivals, the papers until recently held very differing political views - The Sun being Conservative (right-wing) since the early 70’s, while The Mirror being Labour (left-wing). Both now appear to support Labour. Historically, The Sun appears to support the current government.

The middle-market tabloids, the Daily Mail and The Daily Express are (possibly thankfully) concerned with a very different readership - that of affluent women. Weekend supplements and carefully-placed sponsorship ensure that these titles are a cheap alternative to a magazine, while sports supplements aimed at the husband aim to broaden their readership. The Daily Mail has a staunch right-wing agenda, and is lampooned by some for their over alarmist headlines, particularly about political asylum seekers. However, its formula, said by former owner Lord Northcliffe to give his readers a "daily hate", has made the Daily Mail one of the most popular newspapers in the UK.

Those are from this article.

[west'sawake]

The Sun is anti-EU generally, reflecting the agenda of its owner, Rupert Murdoch (as do his other titles), which is why it's anti-Lisbon. The Mirror is against whatever the Sun is for, and vice-versa (note that the Mirror has a Science Editor...and has done since the 1950s). The Daily Mail is staunchly right-wing.


Those are from this article.

Ibis,

Agreed, but the the Mirror is also pro Labour, or should I say pro New Labour and for two decades now has been anti the Bennite or leftwing of the party, (virtually gone now),thus it will toe the Brown line on Lisbon.

There's a bit of hyperbole there re classifying the Mail as staunchly right wing and might reflect your own idea of what right wing is. I think, rather it is sensationalist libertarian organ, thus Melanie Philips in the British edition. Generally it is stridently against an invasive and over nannyish State and big Govt. The Telegraph too but in a more quality broadsheet manner.

The Irish Daily Mail is a bit of a contradiction and not as clearcut, what with socialist fire brand Joe Higgins, Aine Ryan, Mary Carr, etc; contrasting with Mary Ellen Synon, Hermann Kelly, Mark Dooley and Richard Waghorne, also the Irish edition campaigning over the cervical cancer vaccine (while the British edition warned of the dangers).

The Mail is clearly anti FF, anti Labour, Pro Richard Bruton F.G. (anti Enda Kenny), and anti Green. It seems to be doing the Independent's old job, siding with F.G. the Indo having gone into bed with F.F. for the past three general elections.

I welcome the British tabloids because the Irish papers are incapable of being objective on the Lisbon Treaty, the exception being the odd columnist, all the editorials are on board the yes side, so only collectively (Irish and British), can we see a balanced debate since all seem to be agenda driven on one side or the other.

[PrinceMax]

Interesting article. Thanks.

[Freeborn John]

Maybe this has already been discussed but I've just been looking through the stories from the different UK newspapers with Irish editions on LexisNexis - such as the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Sun. What I noticed was, the Daily Mail and the Sun have no headlines which portray the Yes side in a favourable light, while the Mirror is the opposite.Just wondering if anyone knows if the Mirror is generally regarded as a pro-European paper? Does anyone have any ideas why they seem to have a blatantly pro-Lisbon agenda while the other two tabloids have a blatantly anti-Lisbon one?

Hi PrinceMax.

I would say the Mirror is closely associated with the Labour party and has been since 1945.

The Daily Mail has long-history of supporting the Conservatives, but has a slightly different readership (more middle-class and more female) than the Mirror or Sun. The Daily Express is similar to the Daily Mail but possibly less female orientated.

The Sun had a record of supporting the Conservatives during the 1980s and early 1990s but switched to Tony Blair before the 1997 election. It supported Labour in the last general election (2005) but MAY back David Cameron and the Conservatives in 2010. It has long been opposed to the EU. Rupert Murdoch also owns the Times, which also has broadly opposed the EU but has backed the Conservatives in recent elections.

The Daily Telegraph staunchly supports the Conservatives and opposes the EU. The Guardian and Independent staunchly support the EU and back Labour while being sympathetic to the Liberal Democrats. The Financial Times is the most pro-EU newspaper of them all. It supported the Conservatives under Thatcher but has backed Labour since then. I would be very surprised if they did not support Labour in 2010.

The owners of the Financial Times (Pearson) have a 50% stake in the Economist which is an influential weekly. The Economist is broadly supportive of the EU but not unquestioningly.

[The Lighthouse Keeper]

Frankly I'm quite fed up of the interference the "Oirish" editions of the British tabloids carry on with in the political life of this country.
For the life of me, I can't see how it is going to add a fortune to a newspaper group's bottom line producing for example the "Oirish Daily Mail", an edition with a circulatation of 50,000 copies approx. per day. One could probably sell the same amount of copies in a large UK city.
There seems be some other agenda at hand (social/political) and I don't think its a benign one like trying to "entertain" us with their rubbish.

[SamVimesBoots]

Frankly I'm quite fed up of the interference the "Oirish" editions of the British tabloids carry on with in the political life of this country.
For the life of me, I can't see how it is going to add a fortune to a newspaper group's bottom line producing for example the "Oirish Daily Mail", an edition with a circulatation of 50,000 copies approx. per day. One could probably sell the same amount of copies in a large UK city.
There seems be some other agenda at hand (social/political) and I don't think its a benign one like trying to "entertain" us with their rubbish.

I generally agree, it's all part of the creeping re-Anglicisation process that's been going on since the late 90s.

But in fairness to the Oirish Daily Mail they've been the only newspaper available in ireland that actually unfavourable printed stories and went after the likes of Ahern and all his cronies for their corruption.

It's just a shame you have to wade through all the right-wing Little Englander subtly neo-Unionist rubbish to get to the corruption stories though.

[eurosceptic]

I agree the british papers are the only counterweight to the pro-establishment groupthink in the irish media.

[forest]

The thing about these news paper (in relation to Lisbon and other issues) is they dont give a rats ass about Ireland or irish politics
The Sun is concerned with getting the UK out of Europe
They dont really care if we become the 17 state of Germany or for that matter are ruled by Moldova
Some might even want us back in the United Kingdom.
Dont think for one second its concerned about Ireland Irish values or Irish democracy
Look at the way they reported on the economic crisis here in the 1st quarter

The "irish"Daily Mail is a contradiction in terms

The worse example I found though was a paper Called the "Irish" People I believe it to be another Irish edition of a UK paper
I saw it in a café looked through it and inside there was not one story from Ireland in it not one

Personally I don't think these papers should be allowed operate here

[ibis]

There's also this summary, of course:

British Newspapers can be neatly categorized thus:

* The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
* The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
* The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;
* The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country and think Hitler was rather a nice chap.
* The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
* The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
* The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it already is.
* The Sun is read by people who don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.
* The Daily Sport is read by people who don't know what a country is. But they like tits!
* The Star is read by people who think that everyone should run their own country, with girls with BIG TITS!
* The Express is read by people who hate their country, everybody else's country and themselves, and everything in general.
* The Independent is read by people who own the newspapers.

It's not a million miles from the truth, either.