Daily Mail ridiculed after blaming the EU for Brexit border checks
"If only they'd been warned..."
The Daily Mail has once again found itself on the receiving end of ridicule after publishing a headline howling about the very consequences of Brexit it’s spent years campaigning for.
Its headline read:
“Millions of British holidaymakers facing nightmare at airports and Channel ports due to new EU checks.”
The article blamed “bungling bureaucrats in Brussels” for travel disruption, claiming that:
“Holidaymakers dreaming of a quick start to their summer holidays abroad are facing a nightmare at airports and Channel ports thanks to bungling bureaucrats in Brussels.”
It went on to argue that millions of Britons are facing lengthy delays because of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which requires non-EU travellers, including British citizens, to register biometric data such as fingerprints when entering the Schengen Area.
What the article neglects to mention is the obvious reason Britons are now subject to these checks – Brexit. As citizens of a country that chose to leave the European Union and end free movement, UK travellers are now treated like visitors from any other non-EU country.
The irony wasn’t lost on readers, many of whom pointed out that the Mail spent years championing Brexit while now portraying one of its most predictable consequences as an injustice inflicted by the EU.
Campaign group Leeds for Europe summed up the mood on social media, writing:
“More Brexit chickens coming home to roost at the Daily Mail…”
And readers quickly agreed.
“Isn’t this what the Daily Mail wanted?” one commenter asked.
Another wrote:
“Good old Brexit… remember the Mail was all for it?”
A third mocked:
“If only they’d been warned…”
One user highlighted the paper’s double standard:
“Funny, isn’t it? The Daily Fail wants to secure our borders as it’s a sovereign right but, when other countries implement similar policies it’s ‘not fair’.”
The EU’s Entry/Exit System is, of course, not aimed specifically at Britain. It applies to travellers from all non-EU countries and is designed to strengthen border security by digitally recording entries and exits. The UK, having chosen to leave the EU, is now subject to those rules.
But, as we see time and time again, the Mail‘s coverage is another example of Brexit’s consequences being reframed as someone else’s fault, even when they stem directly from the political project the newspaper has spent years urging its readers to support.
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