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.
98 Responses to “The Daily Mail: How the poor die and how the rich die”
just passing
“What concerns me is that now people who have been contributing all their
lives but hit a bit of bad luck perhaps through age are being treated
worse that foreign murderers who claim political asylum.”
Right, because we don’t put women and children in concentration camps while they await deportation back to the countries they were running away from, and we don’t force people waiting to hear whether the government considers them to have been sufficiently justified in fearing for their lives to live on £35 a week, which is only given to them on a card that prohibits them from using it to alleviate even the tiniest bit of misery in their lives – they are only allowed to ensure that they don’t go hungry, so that they can be thrown back to the wolves in their own country as nice juicy pieces of meat rather than unappealing skin and bones.
(Hint: the above paragraph was irony. We do both of those things. Doesn’t it make you proud to be Reichsvolk?)
just passing
You are hopelessly confused about so many things. Please reassure us that you refrain from voting.
kiku
well said Duncan, my stomach turns at reading the above and it worries me that some of my family in shires actually believe these DM lies.
SadButMadLad
So you are standing up for Michael Philpott then? A bloke who was jailed for 7 years for attempted murder of an ex-girlfriend. A bloke who was on bail for road rage at the time of the fire. A bloke who abused women. A bloke who didn’t work. Well done James Bloodworth, you have just dismissed all the things that progressives work hard for.
Philpott is an evil person benefits or no benefits. McFall was not an evil person. Yes they are both murderers but for different reasons. Suicide/Murders are situations we look at with pity when they happen as we try and imagine the strains and stresses the murderer went through before they took their own life. Murders of children for money, because that is what it boils down to, is pure evil. The money was from benefits, so he is a product of the benefits culture where he would do anything to get that extra £1,000/month from having all the children with him.
Just remember, the level of benefits Philpott was getting was the equivalent to £92,000 for a family that worked full time.
SadButMadLad
So you are standing up for Michael Philpott then? A bloke who was jailed for 7 years for attempted murder of an ex-girlfriend. A bloke who was on bail for road rage at the time of the fire. A bloke who abused women. A bloke who didn’t work. Well done James Bloodworth, you have just dismissed all the things that progressives work hard for.
Philpott is an evil person benefits or no benefits. McFall was not an evil person. Yes they are both murderers but for different reasons. Suicide/Murders are situations we look at with pity when they happen as we try and imagine the strains and stresses the murderer went through before they took their own life. Murders of children for money, because that is what it boils down to, is pure evil. The money was from benefits, so he is a product of the benefits culture where he would do anything to get that extra £1,000/month from having all the children with him.
Just remember, the level of benefits Philpott was getting was the equivalent to £92,000 for a family that worked full time.