Wednesday 4th October, 2017

Good morning

Brief overview: The Conservative conference features prominently across many of today’s papers, particularly Boris Johnson’s rousing speech and May’s expected call for unity.

Outside of the headlines: A homemade explosive device was found outside the home ground of PSG, the French football club: five men have been arrested. Yahoo said that a 2013 data breach had compromised all of its 3bn accounts, almost triple the number it had previously estimated. If you have an account, close it down now and change your passwords.

Article of the day: In 1973, I invented a ‘girly drink’ called Baileys.

The story of the creation of everybody's favourite liqueur.

Video of the day: Pro-separatist video celebrating the Catalonian independence vote (link)

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

Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Posties’ threat to Christmas

Today’s Mail says that ‘Christmas shopping could be thrown into chaos’ following a proposed postal strike by union bosses. The proposed strike comes amid anger over inadequate pensions, pay and working conditions for the workers. Although not confirmed yet, the paper notes that the strike may take place on the 24th and 25th of November, known in the retail industry as ‘Black Friday’.

Afterthought: The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has pushed on behalf of its 110,000 members for better working conditions, pay and pensions. 73.7% (around 81,000) of its members turned up to vote on industrial action, and of those 89% supported striking over this busy period. Threatening strikes during this time of the year is a powerful tool often used by unions to get their demands taken seriously. In reply to the looming strikes, the Royal Mail stated:

“There are no grounds for industrial action. We want to reach agreement.’

Further meetings are due to take place between the CWU and the Royal Mail later this week.

The Daily Telegraph

Owned by: Telegraph Media Group, owned by Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay

Editor: Chris Evans

Political leaning: Right

Daily circulation: circa. 460,000

Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: The roaring lion

The Telegraph leads with a complimentary piece on Boris Johnson and his speech at yesterday’s Conservative conference. The paper states that Johnson channelled ‘Churchill with [a] call for Britain to be bold and seize [the] opportunities of Brexit’. The Foreign Secretary used his 29-minute speech to cover a range of issues, from the unjust framing of Brexit — like a ‘plague of boils’ - to Corbyn, who he described as a ‘zombie’.

Afterthought: It’s often hard to get past the fawning praise of Johnson in the Telegraph. Whilst his speech was received positively by supporters in the room, all was not as it seemed. The Times journalist Hugo Rifkind reported that Johnson deliberately gave the autocue team a different speech before reading out his own thoughts on the matter:

Later during the day Johnson came under fire for his comments about Libya. Talking about the need for optimism, the Foreign Secretary stated:

“I look at Libya, it’s an incredible country. Bone-white sands, beautiful sea, Caesar’s Palace, obviously, you know, the real one … incredible place. It’s got a real potential and brilliant young people who want to do all sorts of tech … There’s a group of UK business people, actually, some wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte on the coast, near where Gaddafi was captured and executed as some of you may have seen…they have got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai…the only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away”.

The Times

Owned by: News UK, Rupert Murdoch’s company.

Editor: John Witherow

Political leaning: Centre right

Daily circulation: circa. 446,000

Brexit stance: Neutral / slightly pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Stop fights and do your duty, May tells Tories

The Times also chooses to cover Tory infighting, today focussing on May’s rallying plea for her party to ‘shape up’. Factional squabbles have engulfed the Tory party since the resignation of David Cameron in July of last year. The paper reports ‘the prime minister will close the gathering in Manchester with a plea for her colleagues to set aside their own ambitions and ‘do our duty by Britain’’. This is one of several recent pleas from May to her party asking for unification.

Afterthought: Theresa May continues to have a hard time uniting her Conservative party, stemming from a variety of issues. These include practical issues such as ministers differing in opinion as to how Brexit negotiations should be handled and a lack of confidence in May following the snap election to clashing characters such as Johnson, Davis and Rudd contemplating launching their own leadership bids.

On top of this, there is the question of how to attract young voters back from Labour which currently haunts the Conservatives.

Polling shows that age itself is one of the biggest pulls to voting Conservative: YouGov has found that for every 10 years older a voter is, their chance of voting Tory increases by around 8% and the chance of them voting Labour decreases by 6%.

The Guardian

Owned by: Scott Trust Limited, run by a board with a policy of non-interference.

Editor: Katharine Viner

Political leaning: Left

Daily circulation: circa. 161,000

Brexit stance: Anti-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: May: time for infighting over Brexit to stop

Similarly, today’s Guardian also reports on the May’s rebuke of her colleagues infighting. May is set to tell her Cabinet to focus on the security of ‘ordinary working people’ over their own job security and to get together to approach Brexit from the strongest position possible. This comes in wake of a string of cabinet ministers sharing their frustrations with the press over Johnson’s recent behaviour.

Afterthought: Recent polling conducted on the public by Ipsos MORI found Brexit has overtaken the NHS as the most important issue facing Britain.

May will need the full strength of her team behind her to approach the EU — to this end, Johnson’s continued and deliberate undermining of her leadership is negative both for the party and for Brexit negotiations as a whole.

The i

Owned by: Johnston Press, whose CEO is Ashley Highfield

Editor: Oliver Duff

Political leaning: Centre

Daily circulation: circa. 264,000

Brexit stance: Neutral

Today’s leading headline: Debt help for poorest students

Today’s i reveals an exclusive scoop, reporting that university maintenance grants may be set to return for the poorest students. The programme has been put forward by the Education Secretary Justine Greening as a way of both helping those with crippling student debt and potentially bringing young voters back to the Conservative party. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that the return of grants will cost £500m.

Afterthought: The Institute for Fiscal Studies has long been respected as a leading voice on economic outlooks and predictions. The choice now for the Conservative party is as follows: is the price tag of £500m justifiable for the potential chance of winning back younger voters?

Financial Times

Owner: The Nikkei, which is based in Tokyo.

Editor: Lionel Barber

Political leaning: Centre

Daily circulation: circa. 193,211

Brexit stance: Neutral/slight anti-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Cabinet tensions rise as ministers defy Johnson’s ‘red line’ on Brexit

Today’s Financial Times also chooses to cover the rising tensions within the Conservative party in light of Johnson’s recent behaviour. The paper reports that despite Johnson receiving an ovation after his speech, many ministers chose to ignore his ‘red line’ over Brexit released earlier this week via The Sun.

Afterthought: While various ministers have shared their anger over Johnson’s actions on the condition of anonymity, many pundits have been trying to pin their finger on what the Foreign Secretary’s end game is. Most believe that Johnson thinks Brexit will be a disaster. He is reported to have told friends:

“nobody ever beats the EU in a negotiation”. (source)

As such he is looking to be fired rather than resign so he can distance himself while saving face. From here, he may launch his own leadership bid with the support of various media moguls. However, this is merely speculation.

The Sun

Owner: News UK, owned by Rupert Murdoch

Editor: Tony Gallagher

Political leaning: Right / far right

Daily circulation: circa. 1,611,464

Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit

Today’s leading headline: Killing machine

The Sun today covers the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre. The paper refers to Paddock as a ‘loner’, and bears a picture of the weapon he used to kill 59 festival goers and wound over 500 more.

Afterthought: The use of the ‘loner’ narrative is frustrating and frankly just lazy.