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THE THINGS THEY SAY
Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure
— US author Earl Wilson
TODAY’S PAPERS
CARTOON OF THE DAY
Chris Riddell, The Observer
HERBERT OF THE WEEK
SILLY ARSE: Gyles Brandreth, a man with little discernible talent
It’s all gone a bit Lord of the Flies over at The Sun. Theft of hot commodities (like USB-C cables) have led senior execs to send out an email plea for hard-up reporters to stop nicking them from their desks.
But they’re more concerned about the epidemic of vaping in the newsroom. Someone dobbed in the worst offenders to the bosses, who sent out yet another, more strongly worded email telling them off.
Bad news at Reach too (is there ever good news at Reach?), says Popbitch. Some of their hacks have been banned from attending PR events outside working hours as one or two are deemed to have given the company a bad name.
A few intrepid reporters tried to find a secret work around, but were caught out after posting drunken snaps on their private Instagram. Seems some of execs had created fake accounts to follow them and caught them red-handed.
Stop the thieving and vaping, Sun bosses tell news staff
Compton Miller dies at 8o
Richard Compton Miller, the last of the gossips from the great days of Fleet Street has died at the age of 80. He had been in hospital with pneumonia when he caught an infection and had also been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
Mail jobs cull as it tries to find £500m to buy the Telegraph
The Daily Mail Group’s desired £500m buyout of The Telegraph is so ambitious that the Mail is massively scaling back operations to save enough cash for it, writes Popbitch.
In the last couple of days every department at the paper has been informed of heavy cuts and redundancies — yesterday it was the Femail team blindsided. Journalists still there are telling each other they’re employed “for today”, without holding out much hope for tomorrow.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she will review any buyer, and it seems inconceivable that a Labour government would willingly allow an even bigger, rabidly anti-Labour consolidation to form.
But just in case, some Telegraph journos are getting their Plan B’s together. The latest journalist reportedly being tapped up for a future Reform MP run? Congratulations to Allison Pearson!
Mind the steps…
MALCOM TATTERSALL says that if Justice Secretary David Lammy really wants to end the long delays in our judicial system, he should bring back “the police station steps”.
Express sales plunge after puzzles redesign cock-up
SALES of the Daily Express have haemorrhaged after an ill thought out redesign of its popular puzzles pages.
Frustrated readers deserted the sinking ship after changes to bring puzzles in line with the Mirror to save cash.
Bosses were forced into an about-face and published a grovelling apology promising to restore puzzles into their old format.
What the powers that be have failed to understand that readers hate redesigns, taking the view that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
The Express has undergone many rejigs over the years, including a switch from broadsheet to tabloid which did little to stem the relentless plunge in circulation.
Meanwhile they can’t even get the Page One blurbs right with one reading: “FREE Family size bottle at of Coca -Cola.”
An insider told the Drone: “Everyone is struggling with this new regime. The subs are swamped.”
NEW
Guess who said: ‘Jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement.’ Guess who wrote a Telegraph article on the thesis: ‘Jury trials are fundamental to our democracy. We must protect them.’ Guess who said: ‘Juries being replaced by judges and magistrates is effectively the establishment, rather than your peers who live in your community, deciding what justice should be.’ Guess who said: ‘It would be wrong of the Government to abandon this valuable tradition for short-term benefit.’ Answers: Justice Secretary the Rt Hon Calamity Lammy, who now proposes cancelling jury trials for all but the most serious criminal cases although massive opposition from the legal mafia may force him to u-turn or water down his plans.
Rachel Reeves had a framed portrait of her idol, Gordon Golden Bollocks Brown, on her bedroom wall when she was a student, says the Mail’s Ruth Sutherland. See, I told you things were bad.
A third of Labour voters regret voting for Labour in 2024, according to a Survanta poll of 2,297 adults for the Institute of Research and Reforms International. But just 13% of Tories and 4% of Reform voters say they made the wrong choice at the ballot box. Some 58% of Labour voters say Budget discussions have been handled badly; 31% think they’ve been handled well.
TheThingsTheySay: ‘Rachel Reeves has been speaking to the newspapers trying to sell her Budget, which, given her communication abilities, is a bit like asking King Herod to do your babysitting.’ — Madeline Grant in The Spectator.
Following my recent note on how Greens are wooing — and winning — young voters, Aaron Bastani in UnHerd says people outside Westminster don’t realise just how much support Zack Polanski’s party is gaining. It has polled above Labour several times, and research by YouGov found that if only under 50s were allowed to vote, ‘Polanski would be the next prime minister’.
Black Friday? May I say bollocks. Not all the ‘deals’ were as you would expect. Take family favourite John Lewis. According to Hannah Walsh in Which? magazine, 94% of home, tech and health appliances ‘on sale’ were cheaper or the same price at other points in the past year. For instance, a Samsung robot vacuum cleaner, advertised for £350 on Black Friday, was available for £299 in May and June. Suddenly it cost £500 in October – just in time to make £350 look like a bargain.
To Yorkshire and a pleasant visit to Sowerby Bridge, a nice enough town but once denounced, by no less a Yorkie than Sir Larold Lamb, as ‘a glum pimple on the face of the Pennines’. He pretended to be grumpy when local councillors banned The Sun after the introduction of Page 3 lovelies in 1970. But what publicity! It also led to the classic Lamb headline: The Silly Burghers of Sowerby Bridge. (Many years later this was adapted to The Silly Burghers of Tunbridge Wells by someone I know but, to be honest, it didn’t have the same alliterative impact).
New winter weather cliché alert: ‘White hues’ and ‘white splodges’ — Mirror.
Don’t all rush but the 2026 Vladimir Putin calendar has hit the shops. And it’s as weird as ever, warns Sarah Hooper in Metro. January has a picture of the strongman on a snowmobile with the quote: ‘Russia’s border never ends.’ He’s flipping a judo partner in February (caption: ‘I am a dove but I have very powerful iron wings’). And in July he’s sitting at the piano with a dreamy look in his eyes. Then in August he is (Enough — Ed).
Crossing London by boat has always been more pleasant than by, horse, foot, bus or cab. Development of the Tube hit passenger numbers, it’s true, and the last paddle steamer firm went under (financially) in 1884, says The Economist. Now, though, more people commute by river than ever. Uber Boat operates 21 vessels and carries 15,000 passengers a day between Barking and Putney. From 2019 to 2024, traffic rose by 23%; last year, 5.2 million people made a journey by river bus.
Classical education? Locare debes, Horace! Fewer than 1,000 pupils sat A-level Latin and under 200 took Classical Greek in 2024, says Charles Moore in the Telegraph. Only a quarter of those aged 18 to 24 know anything about Nelson compared with 91% of over 65s; only 36% have an clue about the Battle of Waterloo, compared with 88% of the oldies.
A couple who painted their £2.6 million Islington townhouse black have been ordered by the council to repaint it white, The Londoner reports. The makeover on the property in Gibson Square, one of the neighbourhood’s most desirable (and expensive) addresses, really pissed off neighbours, apparently.
If you have tears…Alice, the organist in the Simpsons since 1991, has been killed off by heartless TV bosses. Executive producer Tim Long said: ‘In a sense, Alice will live for ever, through the beautiful music she made. But in another, more important sense, yep she's as dead as a doornail.’ Rat.
Any Bazball failure by our cricketers gives former players (and SCCs) the chance to put the boot in. Cue Geoffrey Boycott Eeh By Gumming all over the place. He had his bad patches, though. Once he was dropped halfway though an overseas tour, recalls Popbitch. Ian Botham, feeling sorry for his team mate, took a bottle of consoling whisky to his room where he found Boycs ‘stark bollock naked except for his pads.’ He got out his bat and insisted that Botham watched him practising his forward defence, saying: ‘Now, tell me: what’s wrong with that stance? Nothing! That’s what!’
As mobile thefts reach epidemic proportions, especially in London, here’s how to avoid having your iPhone stolen: don’t have an iPhone. Get an Android instead, advises London Centric. There are growing reports of thieves even handing them back to their owner when they realise it’s not an Apple. As one would-be mugger explained: ‘Don’t want no Samsung.’
TalesFromTheBackwoods: An expert rushes to offer advice on what to do if you are cornered by a grizzly bear following an attack on a group of about 20 on a school picnic in remote British Columbia. Four people, including three children, were hospitalised, some in critical condition. He said: ‘The best thing is to stand together, stay calm and talk to the bear.’ Best of luck with that.
UntouchedByHumanSub: Express online runs a story about a young British couple on a cruise to the Caribbean attacked and robbed in St Lucia. In 17 pars there is no mention of what ship they were on.
OldJokesHome: A new biography of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is about to be published. Title? It hasn’t got one.
It’sOnlyMoney: The Department for International Development spent £21.2 million on a road maintenance project in Bangladesh. It was later pulled because of ‘fiduciary irregularities’ after it emerged that less than 10% had actually been spent on roads. Durham Council funded a £12,000 clothing allowance to allow councillors to wear ‘Geordie Armani’.
Hearst is cutting 26 roles at the Dallas Morning News, a paper it acquired less than two months ago. Union The Dallas News Guild says the entire copy desk, including sports, is being eliminated. (D Magazine)
Manchester Mill is launching its first membership campaign, handing out 50,000 copies in the city in hopes of adding 1,000 pay-what-you-want subscribers in the coming weeks. (Linkedin)
A news reporter has been fired after requesting an investigation into their editor’s AI use. Florida nonprofit Suncoast Searchlight had four reporters tell the board their editor-in-chief was using AI editing tools and inserting hallucinations into drafts. (Nieman Lab)
Peers are calling on the government to block UAE-backed RedBird IMI from overseeing any sale of The Telegraph. Lord Fox said the group’s failed takeover attempt left “financial wreckage” and urging the investment group does not drive any new sale process. (The Telegraph)
The New York Times has severed its professional relationship with former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers after the disclosure of his extensive email correspondence with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (Brit Brief)
Broadcaster Nexstar is seeking to acquire Tegna for $6.2bn, a deal that would make it the largest owner of local TV stations in the US. In its filing, Nexstar praised President Trump while urging regulators to relax ownership rules and fast-track approval. (Poynter)
The BBC has upheld 20 impartiality complaints after presenter Martine Croxall changed a script she was reading live from “pregnant people” to “women”. The BBC complaints unit said her “exasperated” facial expression gave an impression of her personal view. (BBC)
Hickey ed sacked for his addiction to lunch
FORMER William Hickey editor CHRISTOPHER WILSON remembers his predecessor Richard Berens, friend of royalty, habitué of Boodles, who was seldom spotted at his desk.
NIBS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Stand and Deliver
By Hermione Orliff
NEW
This week Team Orliff (Eh? — Ed) was tempted to allow Starmer, for once, to escape our usual forensic, inquisitorial scrutiny. Then a Times top leader dropped. It queried the fact that, as the Budget approached and Britain lurches towards the abyss, our premier has once again been out of the country. We weren’t going to mention that Starmer has racked up a total of 159,000 miles of jet travel in his 35 international trips since taking office — three quarters of the way to the moon or around the world six times. Let’s leave it to The Thunderer: Too often, it says, Starmer has been ‘missing in action — clocking up the airmiles with carbon-splurging abandon.‘ It adds: ‘The prime minister too often gives the impression of being a man on the run. He should stay at home more and fight his corner.’ There’s only one way this is going to end, don’t you think?
You can usually tell how No.10 rates each Cabinet member by the number of times they are allowed on morning broadcast rounds where ministers answer questions and publicise policies. It’s not looking good for Darren Jones or Calamity Lammy and Heidi Alexander needs to raise her game judging by her appearance on the Laura Kuenssberg show. Jones hasn’t featured since July 14 and Lammy not since a week later. Top performer in a survey by Guido Fawkes is the hatchet-faced Bridget Phillipson. I can’t understand why but she’s obviously considered one to watch.
A study of BBC headlines since the October 7 attacks by an outfit called the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis has found three times more were critical of Israel than of Hamas. References to the proscribed terrorist organisation committing possible war crimes appeared once in the Beeb’s coverage, while those featuring claims of Israeli genocide, famine and starvation appeared 45 times. Just saying.
Happy birthday to Press Gazette which has just turned 60. Some of us remember its first edition as a weekly printed magazine called UK Press Gazette on November 22, 1965. Now it has more than 25,000 active daily email subscribers and reaches more than 200,000 unique users a month with its website. Initially, it was posted to more than 4,000 journalists, mainly, execs, throughout Britain. UKPG was launched by former Express features supremo and Daily Sketch editor Colin Valdar. Other editors have included the Express’s first female news chief, Philippa Kennedy.
They’re so wearisome, who-does-what trade union disputes. Very last century. The opening of a new £7 billion railway line has been delayed while the brothers argue about who should operate the trains’ doors. East West Rail is one of the Government’s flagship schemes, creating a corridor that will eventually link Oxford with Cambridge and reopening a rail route not used since the 1960s. Empty passenger trains have been using the new line for months but they are not available for public use. As shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew says: ‘Only in Labour’s Britain could a £7 billion railway be held up because the unions can’t agree over who presses the door button.’
The BBC online reporter covering a trial in Cambridge involving a sex worker and her husband blackmailing clients was … Katy Prickett.
Thought you’d like to know that 57% of Muslims, aged 15 to 24, in France believe Islamic law should outrank existing legislation in areas such as ritual slaughter of animals, marriage and inheritance. This compares with 36% of French Muslims who felt that sharia should take precedence 30 years ago. It suggests that younger people are driving a process of re-Islamisation.
The effective use of drones in the Ukraine war has led to the development of a sophisticated British laser weapon to counter their threat. DragonFire is to be fitted to two Royal Navy destroyers — five years ahead of schedule. In recent trials it shot down drones travelling at more than 400 mph. The laser system costs just £10 a shot and is accurate enough to hit a £1 coin from a kilometre away. In contrast, traditional missile systems can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of pounds a shot.
In the interests of inclusivity I report, straight-faced and, believe me, I’m not spinning a yarn (SWIJDT?) that Rainbow Wool, a German non-profit organisation that produces knitted clothing from the fleeces of rescued gay rams, has put on a fashion show in partnership with the dating website, Grindr, titled: ‘I Wool Survive.’
It would be interesting to know what Nelson Mandela would have made of the bizarre opening of the Ashes series. He was obsessed with cricket, says Tim Wigmore in UnHerd, in particular the great Australian batsman Don Bradman. Mandela’s first question to Malcolm Fraser when the former Aussie premier visited him in prison in 1986 was: ‘Is Bradman still alive?’ When he was finally freed after 27 years, Fraser presented him with a bat, inscribed: ‘To Nelson Mandela. In recognition of a great unfinished innings — Don Bradman.’
A tale of our times…a £250,000 Lamborghini belonging to a Labour councillor has been pictured parked in disabled spaces at Hounslow council offices, apparently without a blue badge on display. Councillor Farhaan Rehman has not responded to requests for comment from the BBC’s Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Nearly 82 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles to celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s a record. Most will drive, of course, but, because the just-solved US government shutdown disrupted airport security, many travellers are taking what, for them, is a novel form of transport. Thus bus passenger count is expected to rise 12% year on year while Greyhound reports that bookings are already 17% higher than last year.
As we excitedly prepare for the World Cup in North America next summer, Drone Sport congratulates tiny Curaçao, which has qualified for its first finals. It has only 150,000 inhabitants and a smaller land area than the Isle of Man. Well done, also, to Haiti, which has reached the finals for the first time since 1974. The team has not played at home in four years because of civil unrest and its French manager, Sebastien Migne, has never stepped foot in the country.
ThisSportingStrife: Tennis stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have played 3,302 points against each other. Alcaraz has won 1,651. Maths geeks will know what that means.
UntouchedByHumanSub: ‘allegations of bias, which led to three high-level resignations, including director-general Sir Tim Davie’s ‘ — Katie Hind, MoS.
TheThingsTheySay: ‘Mine is only a small one but it went up at the weekend.’ — Veteran TV presenter Peter Levy shares with BBC Look North viewers the best time to erect a Christmas tree.
HeadlineOfTheWeek: China May Be Using Sea To Hide Its Submarines — South East Asia Newspaper
InUdderMoos: The number of milk cows in the US is now 9.54 million, the most since 1998.
It’sOnlyMoney: The Government is granting £20 million in aid to Ethiopia to train tax collectors and help them simplify the system to make it more ‘business-friendly’. This is in addition to £19 million to Pakistan to crack down on illegal migration and child sexual exploitation issues. Other initiatives include support to stop ocean plastic pollution in landlocked African countries, backing for the Nigerian oil industry, and the distribution of free condoms in the Congo. The aim? To stop deforestation by slowing population growth.
ONLY IN THE DRONE
Our top columnists
Gaiety at Eighty for Tony
IT was nosebags all round for the Class of 1970 when former Expressman Tony Boullemier took his old friends out to dinner to celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday.
Adding to the entertainment was Kelvin MacKenzie, who got married for the third time earlier this year. He confided that each time he marries he moves a junction or two of the M25. He is currently at Junction 11 and he confessed that he is currently considering Junction 16.
Pictured at the Queen’s Head in Weybridge, Surrey, are Kelvin MacKenzie, Julia Boullemier (Tony’s daughter-in-law), Alastair ‘Bingo’ McIntyre (appearing by kind permission of Lord Drone), Chris ‘Lady Bingo’ McIntyre, Craig Mackenzie, Lesley MacKenzie (Kelvin’s wife), Tony ‘Monsewer’ Boullemier, and his son Richard ‘Ric’ Boullemier.
The Drone is particularly sad to announce the death of one of the funniest men in Fleet Street, Express sub-editor John Mulcock.
Mullers, as everyone called him, died on 18 October at the age of 81.
Drone editor Alastair McIntyre said: ‘Mullers was a great and dear friend and our joint insanity helped to keep us both sane during crazy and stressful days on the Express in the Noughties. I grieve for him.’
Tony Boullemier said: ‘A top sub and an extremely funny man. If he wasn't firing off a quip, he was saying something that you just knew was leading up to one.
‘And when political correctness spread over newsrooms in the 90s, he was one of the last journos to ignore it.’
John Mulcock
TIMES READERS’ LIVES TRIBUTE
Lord Drone is honoured for 20 years of his Fleet Street organ
LORDING IT: Drone as imagined by Scott Clissold of the Sunday Express
THE Daily Drone is 20 years old? Shurely shome mistake. Believe it or not it is true and to mark the anniversary His Worship Lord (Bingo) Drone was presented with a magnificent caricature hand-tooled by Scott Clissold, talented cartoonist of the Sunday Express.
The ceremony took place in front of disinterested diners at the Boulevard Brasserie in London’s Covent Garden, the venue for numerous drink-sodden gatherings of the World’s Greatest Lunch Club.
The brasserie is a favourite with WGLC members not just for the excellent cuisine but also for the fact that Le Patron provides old-age pensioners with half-price food.
Lord Drone gave a long address of thanks to gently sleeping members which can be summed up as “thanks awfully chums”. He left shortly afterwards in a sedan chair after proffering his fondest thanks to Roger Watkins (chairman), Terry Manners, Dick Dismore, Alan Frame and Pat Pilton for their generous gesture. (Will that do M’Lud? — Ed)
DX lawyer Stephen Bacon dies at 79
Stephen Bacon, one of the great Daily Express lawyers and a thoroughly nice man, has died. He was 79 and had been suffering from prostate cancer.
Stephen practised for 11 years in Manchester chambers before joining Express Newspapers from where he retired as head of legal. He later became a media law consultant mainly for The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun.
Stephen leaves a wife, Felicity, who is a retired Express features sub, and a daughter, Cleo.
Hot metal, hot off the press
PETER PHEASANT, pictured, who retired as night editor of the Nottingham Post five years ago, has turned his talents to writing.
His debut novel, Manfishing, is about the exploits of an ambitious young reporter on a weekly newspaper in the dying days of hot metal.
Manfishing is set in the fictional Midlands town of Brexham when stories were bashed out on typewriters in smoky newsrooms, long before the age of the internet.
It follows the exploits of Simon Fox, a small-time reporter with big ideas. Anything that’s fit to print makes the pages of the broadsheet Brexham Bugle, from court cases and council reports to weddings and whippet racing.
As Fox seeks out the next front-page scoop, he meets a cast of colourful characters, including a disabled pensioner who is being terrorised out of his home and an Auschwitz survivor pleading for help to save her sick grandchild.
But he knows nothing of the secret alliance between a corrupt detective and a violent skinhead.
Meanwhile, Fox is grappling with tragedy at home. And when the Bugle’s century of independence ends with a takeover, he is on a collision course with the new owners.
Friends pay tribute to Maurice Hibberd ‘one of the good guys’
WE are sad to report that Maurice Hibberd, a former picture editor on the Daily Express and a noted photographer, has died at the age of 88.
His daughter Kerry Robinson posted on Facebook: “It is with sadness that I share the news of the passing of Maurice Hibberd.
“He introduced and helped many young photographers and reporters find their feet in Fleet Street and always considered himself to have the best job in the world.
“He had been suffering from ill health for sometime and died this morning.
“Mo”, dad, will be missed by his extended family and friends. He leaves behind his wife Margaret who cared for him through difficult times.
The funeral will be held on Friday 29th August at St. Mary’s Church, Horsell, Surrey, at 10.30am, followed by a reception at the Gorse Hill Hotel, Woking.
Mark Bourdillon said: “Such sad news. I’ll be always indebted to that lovely man for the introductions he gave me as a newbie in my very early days in Fleet Street. Maurice really was one of the good guys.”
Jim Steele wrote on Snapperweb: “In 1986 l was in my final year at photography college, I wrote to every picture editor on Fleet Street asking for advice.
“Maurice was the only one to respond, phoning me direct. We chatted for about an hour, talking about the business, finishing with him inviting me to visit with my college portfolio which I duly did.
“I’m sure dropping his name to my first boss, Tommy Hindley when I went to apply for a job at his agency didn't do me any harm and I got the gig that set me on my way. True gent.”
The Fens, where crime goes to the dogs
Police are to be praised for their swift reaction to the Huntingdon train stabbings, but it’s outrageous that the cops have allowed so many crimes such hare coursing to go undetected
Before there were subs …
A dust-covered TERRY MANNERS has emerged blinking in the sunlight from the depths of the British Library after unearthing this gem from the Huddersfield Chronicle, September 3, 1853.
It was clearly before subs were invented — the story is in the final sentence and the headline? Words fail.
A glass and a halfwit in every Tory bar
BONFIRE OF THE WRAPPER WRITERS: This chocolate bar masquerading in Cadbury livery was available at the Conservative conference in Manchester. What a pity Kemi Badenoch didn’t check the spelling before she signed it.
A MONOCLE-POPPING MOMENT AT THE EXPRESS
Do you mean us, Annie?
WHAT-HO! Express subs Alastair ‘Bingo’ McIntyre, Bob ‘Algy’ Smith and John ‘Bertie’ Brooks enjoying a refreshing glass of supper some time in the 1980s
MUCH has been written on these pages about the madcap Dronery on the Daily Express during the 1980s and 90s and our man TERRY MANNERS has found more evidence.
He writes: While browsing yet more publishing archives I came across this revealing quote from an interview with a local councillor for Salisbury, named Annie Riddle, pictured, in the December issue of the digital magazine Inside Salisbury.
Sounds fascinating, eh?
Talking about her time as a sub-editor in Fleet Street, she says: “When I was at the Express. There were a bunch of young lads there, four of them, they were very good, but they used to push it.
“They had this thing called the Drones Club and would pretend to be characters out of Bertie Wooster with the monocles and this would go on for the whole shift…
“Fleet Street was very male-dominated then. Heavy drinking was the norm but there was a lot of fun and I worked with some really clever people.”
Who could she be talking about, I wonder?”
(Drone editor dives under nearest desk)
SAVED FOR THE NATION
How our man Wilson rescued the only monument to UK journalism from being ground into powder
You may never have seen this magnificent sculpture but the fact that you can still visit it is down to one man — former Hickey editor CHRISTOPHER WILSON.
The monument, confusingly called The Three Printers, was sculpted by Wilfred Dudeney in 1954 and represents not three printers but one.
It stood for years in New Street Square, off Fleet Street, until Wilson noticed it had disappeared.
Some swift detective work located the statue in a Watford builder’s yard awaiting the crusher.
HOW PRESCIENT DO WE HAVE TO BE?
Just a day after we asked why there were so many black people in TV adverts it makes the national news
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has criticised Reform MP Sarah Pochin for what he called "racist" language after she complained about adverts being "full of black people, full of Asian people".
The Runcorn and Helsby MP apologised for her remarks, which were made during a TalkTV phone-in on Saturday, saying they were "phrased poorly" but maintained that many adverts were "unrepresentative of British society".
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Streeting claimed Pochin had only said sorry "because she's been caught and called out".
The Right-wing MP was speaking after Drone columnist HELENA HANDCART first brought the matter up.
This is positive proof that your Non-Stop Super Soaraway Drone sets the big agenda!*
That’s enough superlatives — Ed
WHAT AN INSULT
Reach journalists who tuned into staff meeting to learn their fate are instead urged to buy a ‘beauty box’
Morale at the Reach national newspapers have plunged to rock bottom as the few remaining journalists fear for their jobs.
The publisher of the Express, Mirror and Star titles has announced it will cut hundreds of jobs as it pivots to video and plans to share more content across its titles.
There will 321 redundancies and 135 new roles in the shake-up.
One worried staffer told the Drone: “Those of us still currently employed at Reach were invited to a Town Hall with [Reach CEO] Piers North to update us on ‘Q3’.
“Someone called Emma popped up to tell us about ‘brand diversification’ including advent calendars and something called a ‘TikTok Viral Beauty Box’ which apparently are all selling fast — so staff who had tuned in to find out if they would be homeless by Christmas were urged to put our orders in straight away.
“Apart from anything else we have such a huge workload now we don’t have time to listen to such guff — I logged off the ongoing meeting to contact the Drone instead but my nose isn’t far from the grindstone. It’s so insulting.”
All Assistant Chief Sub-Editors on the Express have been put into a pool with downtable subs on both papers and a committee of chiefs are deciding who stays and who goes.
Only the Deputy Chief Subs from both titles (including the Sunday Mirror) are in a separate pool of six and two were going to be culled, but two volunteered and one was promoted to replace the Mirror chief who has taken voluntary redundancy.
Our contact said: “We’re not expecting to have much longer even if we don’t get the elbow this time.”
THE POWER OF DRONE
Palace acts TWO DAYS after we called for Prince Andrew to be stripped of all his daft titles
Alan Frame’s column on 14 October
Here’s proof that the Daily Drone is read in the highest social circles — including the King.
Just two days after our columnist Alan Frame suggested it was time to remove Prince Andrew’s titles the Palace acted — and did just that.
Fleet Street caught up last night …
NAMES WHO MADE THE DAILY EXPRESS GREAT
TOM BROWN reports: Cleaning out old files including some historic newspapers, I came across the attached memo. The subject matter — expenses in 1977 — is of course important. But the real interest is in the list of names — some of the most outstanding journalists ever who every day made the Express the marvellous paper it was in those days.
The memo is signed by the late, great Morris Benett.
WHEN THE EXPRESS USED ITS LOAF
Fleet Street: The artists’ view
'Amongst the Nerves of the World' (1930) by Christopher RW Nevinson
(London Museum)
The modern world in old Ladybird books. ‘Fleet Street — the Street of Ink’ (1969)
Artist: Ron Embleton
The things they used to say on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
By PAT WELLAND
With nothing better to do, I’ve been re-reading a couple of books about the Boulevard at a time now seen – as one of the authors remarks – “as remote as the Byzantine empire”.
From political commentator Alan Watkins’ excellent A Short Walk Down Fleet Street, two conversations between Jack Nener, “a foul-mouthed bow-tied Swansea boy” who was Mirror editor 53-61, and his deputy, Dick Dinsdale:
1. “What we need on this paper, Jack, are a few Young Turks.”
Nener: “I can see we could do with a few new faces about the place, but why in fuck’s name do they have to be Turkish?”
2. “The sub-editors, like most people who work long shifts in unchanging company, had a number of catchphrases, or joke sentences. One of them – it comes from the film of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, rather than from the book itself – was: ‘Flashman, you are a bully and a liar, and there is no place for you in this school.’
Nener was overheard asking: ‘Who’s this Flashman, then, Dick?’
‘Flashman? Flashman? I don’t think we’ve got any one of that name on the paper, Jack. Is he a reporter or a sub?’
‘I don’t give a fuck what he is, but get rid of him fucking quick. He’s a bully and a liar’.”
3. From Matthew Engel’s equally enjoyable Tickle the Public – 100 years of the popular press: “There is a story that around 1926 John Logie Baird went into the Express office anxious to show his new invention (TV, as any fule kno) to the editor (Beverley Baxter). Baxter, in keeping with the paper’s reputation for percipience, sent down the message ‘Get rid of that lunatic. He may have a knife'.”
KELVIN SPIKED MY SPLASH
(Another case of F for you know what)
CHRISTOPHER WILSON was elated. He had a great story about Selena Scott replacing Anna Ford as ITN News At Ten’s token woman. Big news in 1980.
Trouble was, Daily Express night editor Kelvin MacKenzie didn’t like the story and a row ensued. But Kelvin being Kelvin they were pals again by the following day.
YOU MUST BE JOKING!
Reach bosses boast about their ‘great journalism’ after sacking
all their most experienced staff
Who are they kidding? This absurd post has appeared on LinkedIn
A PLAGUE ON YOUR PLAGIARISM
Daily Express nicked our stories, say two writers
Two journalists have accused the Daily Express of plagiarising their stories and publishing the copy under another reporter’s byline.
Daniel Puddicombe, a freelance journalist, said he is livid after his Telegraph feature on a coast-to-coast train in Mexico was was apparently copied by the Daily Express site. The piece is under another journalist’s name, and was published six days after The Telegraph.
Puddicombe said he is certain it is his work that has been lifted as he is “the first and only non-Mexican journalist who travelled on that railway line and to have been in contact with the military and the Navy”.“There is absolutely no chance that anybody else could have done that,” he told Press Gazette.
He added another piece he wrote for the Telegraph about “Portugal’s Presidential Train” has also been “recycled” for the site, but it “at least references me and my original piece”. This second article did not appear to be written by AI, according to Pangram.
Both of Puddicombe’s articles lifted by the Daily Express were published on 18 October. He received an offer of £100 per article after reaching out to the Daily Express, which he declined and described as an “insult” as “less than one-third” of what he was paid per article.
Another journalist, who asked not to be named, claimed the Daily Express lifted their piece and published it under someone else’s name. It did refer to the journalist’s original work, but they were prompted to invoice the Daily Express by a journalist Facebook group. They were again offered £100.
GONG BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
AH, this fair takes a chap back to the old days when a bollocking from Sunday Express editor Eve Pollard earned the victim a medal.
This little gem was found in the effects of the late SX executive Phil Durrant by his widow Helen.
She said: ‘I have a lot of stuff to sort that was being stored. I found this with a safety pin on the back to wear as a badge, in Phil's stuff!'
Former Sunday Express exec Peter ‘Stewpot’ Steward told the Drone: ‘I don't know why everyone on the Sunday Express during Eve’s reign of terror didn't get one.’
Henry Macrory remembers that the 'badges' were created by the late Sheila Copsey.
LOOKALIKE? IT’S TRIPLY TROUBLING
GARCIA DISMORE SADDAM
WE Drones are no strangers to seeing double (Those were the days — Ed) but seeing triple is a new sensation.
Are these three chaps the same man? They could be but they are in fact separate individuals: Democratic Representative Chuy García of Illinois; Drone columnist Dick Dismore and our old pal Saddam Hussein.
Bet nobody’s seen them in the same room… (Closing one eye might help — Ed)
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