The Daily Mail's reaction today to the tragedy of Michael Philpott's multiple manslaughter of his six children is not only quite disgusting, but it also shows the paper's double standards:
In his 1946 essay ‘How the Poor Die’ George Orwell documented the dreadful conditions in which the poor suffered in 19th century hospitals. Not only did the poor live in a worse state than their wealthier counterparts, but they also very often died in loneliness and squalor.
Fortunately times have changed – thanks in no small part to the welfare state.
Some, however – usually those who have never accepted the welfare state – still dish out wholly different treatment to the dead as well as the living, especially when wrongdoing is involved and when political arguments can be advanced using a tragedy to damn an entire class of people.
The Daily Mail’s reaction to the tragedy of Michael Philpott’s multiple manslaughter of his six children is not only disturbing in its attempt to capitalise on the deaths of six young children for political gain, but it also shows the paper’s complete double standards. Today it reports:
“Michael Philpott is a perfect parable for our age: His story shows the pervasiveness of evil born of welfare dependency. The trial spoke volumes about the sheer nastiness of the individuals involved. But it also lifted the lid on the bleak and often grotesque world of the welfare benefit scroungers — of whom there are not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands in our country.“
A cursory look at the paper’s treatment of another tragedy, however – this time involving a Shropshire millionaire rather than a family on benefits – shows that, in the eyes of the Mail the poor go about dying, or in this case killing, rather differently to the rich:
“The businessman who took his own life yesterday after murdering his wife and teenage daughter was heavily in debt, it emerged today…Detectives believe the mild-mannered family man snapped as he struggled to cope with spiralling debts…Last night his sister Claire Rheade said: ‘It’s unbelievable – he doted on his family, he would never harm them. ‘He was a gentle man who wouldn’t hurt a fly.'”
I’ve looked back through the DM archives but have so far been unable to find a front page damning Hugh McFall as a “vile product of millionaire Britain”. And rightly so, for that would be absurd. According to the Mail, the poor die differently though.
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98 Responses to “The Daily Mail: How the poor die and how the rich die”
tony blair
philpott was created by the welfare state. he is the classic core new labour vote.
AJL: Andrew Wilson
I see A.N. Wilson’s “re-discovery of faith” hasn’t given him any compassion for the poor then.
Duncan Stone
I used to work for a southern police force (very affluent county) in an operational capacity and I was disgusted at the disparity of attitudes and resources allocated to similar crimes.
Two ‘aggravated’ burglaries highlight this:
Case one: a mother bringing up a mentally disabled adult son on a council estate had their front door kicked in, both were beaten and what little they had stolen. Two days later their door was still hanging off as they couldn’t get the insurance to repair it as they were still awaiting a crime number.
Case two: ‘Millionaire’ five or six bedroom household (gated community) are broken into, male tied up and safe emptied (for second time in a year!?) of ’30k in cash’. I’m called out at 2am to find no less than approximately 10 CID officers, SOCO etc. (most like me on overtime) standing around, when the scene could have been sealed until the morning.
This country needs to look at attitudes to the poor urgently, for if you are not deemed to be one of life’s ‘winners’ (the rich, famous or powerful), you are a ‘nobody’ worthy of respect or listening to. The DM is just the public tip of a disgraceful iceberg.
Monkeydress
I concur Mr T!
Kirsty
The Daily Mail is such a terrible newspaper – it’s almost comical to flick through its pages.
“Vile Product of Welfare UK” – just imagine the breakfast rants of loyal DM readers when they encountered that headline this morning.