Today’s UK headlines, summarised and analysed.

Friday 20th October, 2017

Good morning

Brief overview: Oxford comes under criticism today after it emerged that ten of it’s colleges didn’t take in a single black A-level student in 2015. Abortion is on the front covers of the Daily Mail. Brexit negotiations edge towards a no-deal outcome.

Outside of the headlines: President Trump continues to come under fire for his poor handling of a phone call to a military widow, during which he reportedly told her that her husband ‘knew what he signed up for’.

Via Steve Bell

Kurdish and Iraqi troops continue to fight north of Kirkuk city. The reasons for the fighting are complex, and I won’t do them justice by trying to summarise the issues here. Further reading here, here and here.

via the BBC

Cartoon of the day:

via Peter Brookes

Graph of the day:

via World Bank

The Daily Mail

Owned by: Daily Mail and General Trust, owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere

Editor: Paul Dacre

Political leaning: Right / far right

Daily circulation: circa 1,490,000 (10 million views per month from personal computer and 20 million from mobiles)

Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Clinic ‘paid its staff bonuses for abortions’

The Mail leads with a scoop that one of Britain’s largest abortion providers appears to be offering incentives for its staff to encourage women to have an abortion. The paper quotes a report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which found that staff felt ‘encouraged’ to make women go through with their abortions, as for them it was linked ‘to their performance bonus’. The watchdog says the policy was present at all 70 Marie Stopes Clinics — the company firmly deny the allegations.

Afterthought: Abortion remains an extremely emotive topic across the UK; to this end, it is worth noting here that a ‘trial by press’ format rarely reveals useful information on the issue. Whilst companies such as Marie Stopes need tight scrutiny and continues assessments, it needs to be impartial. The Daily Mail has had a long running campaign against Marie Stopes; in the last six months, the company has published five hit pieces concerning the company.

The CQC found: