Credit where credit’s due: today’s Express front page splash, which talks of information “emerging yesterday”, is correct. One may
allow oneself a brief period of rejoicing, as Winshton once put it. But what is
yet more interesting is that, once again, this story was first published
elsewhere, lifted, and recycled with the usual rent-a-quote talking heads,
before emerging as supposedly “real news”.
“Fury At Big Bonuses For Failed Border Bosses” screams the
headline. While the piece is factually correct, in that a number of Civil
Servants at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) received performance related bonuses
during the past year, what Dirty Des’ finest don’t let on is that they were,
once again, well behind the curve with the news, which had actually “emerged” yesterday lunchtime.
And first to the punch were the Independent, which
also pointed out that just 1.7% of the salary bill had been paid in bonuses
versus Cabinet Office guidelines of 5%, and the Maily Telegraph, which
described the UKBA as “troubled”
and felt it necessary to remind its readers of “border controls” and (to no surprise) “asylum seekers”. These were not the only freely available online
sources running the story.
The Huffington Post UK
also had the news, though Dina Rickman’s piece was
rather judgmental for that site, telling of bonuses paid “despite failings”. The foot soldiers, in
Ms Rickman’s world, are clearly to blame when the management fouls up. The Guardian also
ran the story, and to its shame also used the term “troubled” as well as describing bonus payments being “pocketed”.
That last is the kind of borderline pejorative language more
likely to come from the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), which takes us back
to the Express version. Having had
several free-to-view sites giving different versions of the UKBA bonus
payments, the Desmond press just had to copy and paste – and there was their
next day’s front page lead, at next to zero cost!
All that was needed was to ring round a few talking heads to
get a quote, and this too did not impose an unduly onerous overhead. Readers
receive the benefit of the wisdom of James Clappison, who succeeded Cecil
Parkinson as Tory MP for Hertsmere and is otherwise barely visible at Wesminster,
save for a
brief appearance in the MPs’ expenses business.
Clappison stupidly infers that bonus payments be subject to
public vote, which would stop the payments but cost several times more. The Express also gets quotes from usual
suspects Mark Reckless, whom we
have encountered previously, and Emma Boon of the TPA, who reads from her
book of approved quotations. And that is how the Express puts out a front page story at very little cost.
Which means one thing: another
Benchmark Of Excellence.
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