THE Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings saga and a diverse Oscars ceremony were the topics discussed by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.
The Daily Mail
Dominic Lawson asked how dangerous the Boris Johnson scandal of getting Tory party funds to pay for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat was.
“Boris Johnson has said ‘[the public] doesn’t give a monkey’s’ — despite the fact that Mr Johnson clearly gives lots of monkeys, or he wouldn’t have earlier briefed newspaper editors about how disgraceful it was that[Dominic] Cummings had, allegedly, been leaking stories about the unorthodox financing of his domestic refurb,” he said.
“But these excesses were all funded by the taxpayer without us having known what had been going on, still less having any say in it.
“At worst, I suppose those not already ill-disposed towards the PM would see his behaviour as that of someone who doesn’t know how to live within his means, or who can’t say ‘no’ to his fiancée when she wants to break the household budget on interior decoration.”
The Daily Express
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said Covid, not Westminster sleaze allegations, was the topic most people were worried about.
“I don’t say that the issues about Ministerial and Civil service codes of conduct aren’t important, they are,” he said. “Government has in its hands vast sums of taxpayers money and has to be careful not to leave itself open to the charge that it favoured any business for personal financial or political reasons.
“But what we don’t want or need now, on top of all that Covid nightmare though is the eruption of personal settling of scores seen in the last few days, by advisors, ex-advisors and some ministers.
“As the successful vaccine roll out has shown, exemplified by other countries’ enormous struggles with new outbreaks of coronavirus, the UK is on a glidepath to unlock and get back to normal.
“That is what the public means when they say, the government should do their job and rise above Westminster.”
The Independent
Charles Arrowsmith said that the Academy found itself able to nominate and reward great work by a refreshingly diverse set of voices in this year’s Oscars.
“To hear Regina King, Travon Free, Tyler Perry, and Angela Bassett talk about the Chauvin trial, racial injustice, police brutality, and the Jim Crow South, lent the ceremony an urgency and authenticity it’s often previously lacked.,” he said.
“What’s possible is that this year will mark a genuine turning-point for the Oscars, as the art, politics, and personnel of a newly progressive Hollywood come into alignment.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel