Send for a psychiatrist

Abstract

Copyright © Petley 2023. In which we are plunged into the Tory psychodrama of the defenestration of Boris Johnson, the election of Liz Truss and the acclamation of Rishi Sunak, as filtered through 90 issues of the Daily Mail. From the day Johnson resigned to the day Sunak took office, with a week’s break for the Queen’s funeral, the paper ran more than 60 leading articles on the leadership contest, Truss and Kwarteng’s so-called “fiscal event”, and its sequel, six of which occupied an entire page. There were 45 front page leads, 300 inside news pages and 60 bylined opinion pieces, although, this being the Mail, it was frequently impossible to distinguish news provision from opinion-mongering. For example, the front page that marked Truss becoming prime minister headed “Cometh the hour, cometh the woman …”, the now-notorious headline greeting the “mini-budget” – “At last! A true Tory budget” – and, as Truss’s end approached, “How much more can she (and the rest of us) take?”.