Suddenly the Mail cares about the gap between rich and poor
In a head-spinning U-turn today, the Daily Mail is suddenly bothered about inequality.
For anyone who followed its coverage of the general election, this is extraordinary.
Commenting on how top CEOs now make 183 times what an average employee earns, the Mail says:
“…no wonder Labour activists demand radical solutions, when the High Pay Centre finds the bosses of our top 100 firms earn almost £5million a year each.
That’s a staggering 183 times the average worker’s annual salary of £27,000.
You don’t have to be a Bolshevik to find this huge disparity offensive.
For in most cases, it owes nothing to merit – and everything to the greed of mutually back-scratching remuneration committees.”
‘You don’t have to be a Bolshevik’? Can this be the same newspaper that accused Ed Miliband, then Labour party leader, of having a communist kitchen?
The same paper which, when he pledged to raise taxes on the richest, said he was practising:
“the politics of envy, spite and class war.”
The paper which, when Miliband criticised zero hours contracts, said:
“Listening to the BBC news, anyone might believe Ed Miliband is telling the unvarnished truth when he suggests ruthless employers are exploiting British workers on an epic scale. […]
But Mr Miliband has never allowed reality to interfere with his quasi-Marxist convictions.“
And the paper which, when Miliband pledged to tackle non-dom status, (a policy since adopted by the Tory government, to applause from the Mail), accused him of:
“pander[ing] to core Labour voters’ envy of the rich.”
‘You don’t have to be a Bolshevik to find this huge disparity offensive’.
Well, quite!
***
Labour made inequality a major plank of its general election campaign, and was attacked by the Tory papers for every proposal meant to address this.
It’s telling that though the Mail’s editorial today blasts ‘the boardroom pay racket’ – largely for giving ammunition to ‘the enemies of capitalism’ – it says nothing about doing anything to change it.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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9 Responses to “Daily Mail slams millionaire CEOs… but trashed Ed Miliband’s ‘politics of envy’”
Keith M
What do you expect from this paper. Both Dacre and Rothermere stinking rich and don’t give a toss.
Keith M
Should think all of them recruited for their nastiness.
Harold
Could not agree more, the Mail is very clever at convincing its loyal readers it is a serious newspaper, which accurately reports the news.
Harold
Are you taking the ++++?