Political bias is rife in the Mail and Telegraph, thank God for The Times

RELENTLESS: One doesn’t have to look far for a biased headline in the Daily Mail — this egregious example is from yesterday’s issue

The demise of the South London Press, which breathed its last two weeks ago, saddens me. Not because I had worked for it, or in fact never knowingly read it, but because it was one of the classic gateways into Fleet Street for good, properly trained journalists. Its alumni prove the point; the brilliant John Twomey, Anna Pukas, Jonathan Buckmaster (all fotp), one-time BBC politico John Pienaar and the Mail's great crime reporter, the late Peter Burden. 

Once there were three evening newspapers in London (the cry was Starnoostandard) and hundreds of local weeklies dotting the capital, now the greatest city in the world has none, unless you include a weak Standard website and the freebie Metro. But my biggest concern is for the state of the national press and their way of political reporting (for which read Tory Party pamphleteering). 

From 1966 until 1995 I was inordinately proud to work for two great newspapers, the Express in Manchester (oh happy days), the Mail in London and finally the Express again, this time in London. Both were Conservative-supporting but they were never slavishly, mindlessly so. How times have changed. Today the Mail is so biased in its hatred of Labour, and particularly Keir Starmer, that every political news story and its heading is skewed in a way that do not reflect the reality.

Its opinion pages are relentless; they are graced with great talent but only Stephen Glover and the brilliant Andrew Neil attempt to show some balance while flying the Tory flag. As for the hugely expensive others, like Boris Johnson, the ridiculous Nadine Dorries and aging bovver-boy Richard Littlejohn, the aim is simple: forget what went before in the 14 years of Conservative government and just kick Labour hard. So we have Johnson treat Middle England Mail readers to his description of Starmer as the 'orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels'. 

You can imagine the breakfast conversation in Budleigh Salterton: "Boris says the prime minister is a ball-chewing gimp, what does he mean Howard?" "I really don't know Barbara but Boris is very experienced so he'll know what he's talking about. Probably something they teach you at Eton.”

As for Littlejohn, try this for balance: "We're dealing with a PM who hates Britain" or "No world wars, no World Cup, vegan-only grub... welcome to Britain's Woke Wonderland theme park".  

It's utter rubbish isn't it and what would my mentor and journalistic hero, the greatest Mail editor, David English, have made of that. He was a Tory through and through and starry-eyed about Thatcher but never afraid to criticise Conservative governments. And he would have seen Johnson for what he is, an out-and-out shameless chancer who cares for nothing but himself.

The Telegraph, once so great under Max Hastings, has just the one tone: We're all doomed under Capt Starmer! As for the poor old Express, it is so short of resources that Conservative HQ appears to have supplanted the editor (whoever that is today) in setting policy.

Thank God for The Times and Sunday Times, no Labour cheer-leaders they, but they are balanced and analytical and have an enviable roll-call of columnists, serious and otherwise. In recent days Tory grandee Michael Gove, now editor of The Spectator, has been praising Peter Mandelson and Wes Streeting. William Hague and Matthew Parris are also in the same bracket of being fair.

I am not alone in despairing of the current state of the Press. I was at the recent inaugural meeting of the Beaverbrook Forum, at which Jonathan Aitken and Randolph Churchill gave addresses, and there were murmurings of disquiet among the audience which included more than a smattering of former Tory cabinet ministers. The Telegraph was described as 'a disgrace' and while Quentin Letts put up a spirited defence of the Mail, it was clear that our noble profession is no longer seen to be what it once was. 

Three days later I was the guest speaker at my old school's London reunion dinner and was proud to talk of my time in newspapers. But I left Fleet Street in 1995; what would I have said were I still there?

Thank God (or rather Bingo) for the Daily Drone; it really is the World's Greatest Online Newspaper.

*****

May was Birthday Month for the Chief of Staff (she rightly argues that just the one day isn't enough to fit in all the celebrations). Rounding it up, we set off for a trip from Putney Bridge to Canary Wharf by Uber Thames Clipper. It has to be the best value in town, 90 minutes of sightseeing the capital for a tenner and a wonderful way to view London from a different perspective, in the middle of the river.

It is the simplest way to understand just why London really is the greatest city in the world; the history, the architecture, and the transformation of Docklands from grim poverty where police would never patrol alone, to some of the most expensive and fashionable postcodes anywhere. 

Canary Wharf, once forecast to be a white elephant, is astonishing, at least to me who hadn't been there for almost 20 years. It's like Hong Kong or Shenzhen on steroids, skyscrapers growing like beanstalks ever larger. More than 250,000 people work there with the average salary topping £100,000. And the station is more like an international airport. In other words, all shops and restaurants as well as the odd train.

The highlight of the day? Leaving the Thames Clipper for dry land at Canary Wharf I did what i always do; looked behind me to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. All appeared well until I realised my phone and I had been parted. By which time the boat was departing and moving out for its journey to Greenwich.  

I rushed back pleading my case, lots of frantic hand-waving  from the lovely Ella, the Clipper's lady on the pier, to her colleague Lucy on the boat. And with that, a great thrusting of propellors being reversed and my trusty iPhone was on its way back. They probably broke all the rules, but I'll vouch for Ella and Lucy and Thames Clippers at any Port of London inquiry.  Simply brilliant!

*****

Footnote on the sorry Express: its blurb on Facebook last week talked of Exeter as 'The amazing Roman city as beautiful as York or Bath but with less crowds.' As 451 comments pointed out "It's Fewer!"  To make it worse, it wasn't amended despite the alerts.

ALAN FRAME

3 June 2025