Will these Article 50 headlines come back to haunt them?
As Theresa May smashes a bottle against the good ship Brexit, it might be worth pausing to see how the country’s two biggest newspapers are hailing the news.
Triggering Article 50 and thereby formally launching Britain’s exit of the European Union is something of a historic moment.
Certainly the Prime Minister thinks so, having herself photographed writing the letter in question, apparently without fear the image might come back to haunt her.
For the Daily Mail and The Sun, it’s a moment of jubilation and triumphant chest-beating – a patriotic mardi gras of editorial subjectivity.
The Mail, (ever sensitive to potential Scottish readers), has splashed with:
“FREEDOM!
On a historic day for Britain, Theresa May signs the letter that tells EU: We’re OUT…”
Out and proud. Since the other two stories on page one – the release of Marine A, whose case the Mail has championed, and columnist Sarah Vine defending her latest piece of sexism against her critics – both amount to a battle cry of vindication and success, we can take this as a claim by the Mail to have helped secure the triggering of Article 50 now, and in this manner.
Never a paper for understatement, The Sun has projected the following on the White Cliffs of Dover:
“DOVER AND OUT”
It’s front page explains:
“Today, as our PM triggers Britain’s exit from the EU, we beam this message from the iconic White Cliffs to our neighbours…”
Note the words: ‘Our PM’. Does this mean the papers’ or the readers’?
Flashing back a bit, here’s how these papers greeted the EU referendum result last June:
And their celebrations the next day:
These are worth noting, since it’s not just the Prime Minister who will have to live with the images generated and positions taken at this ‘historic’ juncture.
As things turn pear-shaped, as they almost certainly will, people should remember who was responsible, (or who tried to claim responsibility), and who played the role of cheerleader.
Adam Barnett is staff writer for Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter @AdamBarnett13
See: Theresa May warned Brexit would make us less safe and prosperous. What happened?
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2 Responses to “Freedom! Daily Mail and the Sun boast of Brexit – will they live to Bregret it?”
Mike Stallard
We have done well to leave the EU. Good for Mrs May and her team.
We must remain in the Common Market.
Negotiations may start in June, or perhaps July… That is three whole months (at least out of the 24 before we get “third country” status. Off the computer systems of the EU. Chew on that!
We can remain in the Common Market by joining EFTA. We then get all the goodies which Mrs May thinks we are going to get from her “hard Brexit” pals. We can negotiate from there just as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein do all the time.
Why am I writing this? Nobody is listening.
Robert Levy
We will lose many employment and human rights eventually due to remaining outside of the EU .The hatred that many Tories and others on the rabid right have towards the EU intensified from the moment the EU introduced the Social Chapter .Without this protective dimension (and other EU employee and citizen protections ) we are more likely to be at the mercy of a market place in which employers hold all of the cards.This situation will be made even worse if we keep electing Tory governments .