Telegraph

I am continuing my foray into the world of the printed media in an attempt to spread my understanding of other people’s opinions and support the work of paid journalism. I’m not sure if I am making any difference but then again we all have to do our own bit.

This time I lurched to the right and bought the Telegraph, a newspaper that I have never purchased before in my life.

I must admit to feeling an odd sense of shame and embarrassment when I took it to the counter to pay. Was this something to do with people thinking that I was some right-leaning individual? I have no idea. I purchased it in Marks and Spencers and so I guess they are used to that kind of thing and nobody batted an eyelid.

As for the paper? Well, it was wall to wall Johnson at the start. This was the day of his coronation and so I should have expected nothing less. The first few pages were given over to articles and images of his  rise to the top of the Conservative party. Some I agreed with and some I found difficult to swallow. I even found myself agreeing with some of what Farage said in his article, not all I hasten to add, yet this shows that my plan is working.

One thing I didn’t understand however, was the Telegraph’s obsession with Churchill. I lost count of how many times he was referred to. I’m sure, like all Prime Ministers, there were good things about his time in office and bad, yet we are talking about over seventy years ago. My impressions of Churchill are far from being  always positive. It seems to me that the Conservatives have an unhealthy obsession with the past.

The strange thing is though that once I got past the politics, there were many interesting articles (and a lot of stuff that was simply not of interest to me). This has been true of all the papers I have read. Their political stance is positioned in the opening pages and commentary, while the rest is very similar to any other.

Perhaps this is true of us all. Our politics is a veneer and all of us are much more alike once you get beyond the first few pages.