Good morning,
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Brief overview: A Telegraph/Financial Times scoop yesterday revealed that the Brexit divorce bill figure has been settled. It will cost the UK in the ballpark of £50 billion. I would happily pay £500 billion to never hear or type the word Brexit again.
Outside of the headlines: North Korea fired another ballistic missile into the Japanese sea last night. In retaliation, President Trump told reporters “We will take care of it.”
Tulip Siddiq, a Labour MP who sits on the Women and Equalities committee, is being investigated for making a threatening remark towards a Channel 4 producer. She is accused of telling the pregnant producer to “have a great birth because child labour is hard”, after being asked difficult questions during an interview.
Some good news: figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show the one-year lung cancer survival rate in England increased from 25.7% in 2000 to 40.7% in 2015.
Poll of the day:
The Daily Mail
Owned by: Daily Mail and General Trust, owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere
Editor: Paul Dacre
Political leaning: Right / far right
Daily circulation: circa 1,490,000 (10 million views per month from personal computer and 20 million from mobiles)
Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: Posing in front of the Palace, the 15-year-old who’s about to become a princess
The Daily Mail has a picture of Meghan Markel on holiday as a teenager posing in front of Buckingham Palace.
Afterthought: There is really nothing to add on this story. I did find an interesting poll on the topic though.
The Daily Telegraph
Owned by: Telegraph Media Group, owned by Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay
Editor: Chris Evans
Political leaning: Right
Daily circulation: circa. 460,000
Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: Britain and EU agree on Brexit bill
At last, a breakthrough. The Telegraph today reports that Britain and the EU have finally reached an agreement on the Brexit bill, although neither negotiating team confirmed this (more importantly neither team denied it). Although the number still hasn’t been ratified, the Telegraph estimates put it between £45 to £55 billion, which will potentially be paid out over the next forty years.
Afterthought: Theresa May is currently touring the Middle East, so it will be left to her deputy PM Damian Green to answer questions on the issue during today’s PMQs.
Green currently has problems of his own. He continues to be under investigation for having extreme pornography on his work computer, and pundits still believe he may be the next to leave the cabinet.
The Times
Owned by: News UK, Rupert Murdoch’s company.
Editor: John Witherow
Political leaning: Centre right
Daily circulation: circa. 446,000
Brexit stance: Neutral / slightly pro-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: Britain to pay EU bills for decades
Similarly, The Times also reports on the new step in Brexit negotiations. The paper believes the deal will cost up to £50 billion which will be paid out over a forty-year period on a diminishing scale.
Afterthought: Some would call it a divorce bill; others would call it reparations. It is necessary to pay out a divorce bill, regardless of what the most extreme Brexiteers (we should pay them nothing, we owe them nothing!) or Remainers (we should pay them nothing, as we will never go through with Brexit!) think. It is a price worth paying to move Brexit negotiations on to the next chapter in time for next month’s European Council meeting.
The Guardian
Owned by: Scott Trust Limited, run by a board with a policy of non-interference.
Editor: Katharine Viner
Political leaning: Left
Daily circulation: circa. 161,000
Brexit stance: Anti-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: UK faces £50bn divorce bill after bowing to EU demands
Framing it as a weak admission of failure, the Guardian reports the figure to be around £50bn. The paper announces that May will face a “moment of truth” when she meets Juncker next Monday to potentially finalise an agreement on the sum.
Although the figure of £60bn has been floated, the paper notes that this will likely be cut to help the British negotiating team move forward. It goes on to say that any figures right now are purely speculation based on anonymous government officials.
Afterthought: It was always going to be hard to please the Guardian on this issue. Despite that, there seems a sense that both sides are breathing a small sigh of relief at this newest development. It is beneficial for both sides of the channel to proceed and carry out as cleaner deal as possible.
In the meantime, the comedy roadshow that is David Davis continues to leep on giving. Still in trouble for boasting that he had curated impact reports that he now denies existed, he faces increased calls for charges of holding parliament in contempt to be brought against him.
The i
Owned by: Johnston Press, whose CEO is Ashley Highfield
Editor: Oliver Duff
Political leaning: Centre
Daily circulation: circa. 264,000
Brexit stance: Neutral
Today’s leading headline: Brexit divorce bill deal is ‘closed’
The i reports that the deal has been closed, which again is speculation given that neither camp have confirmed this is the case. The paper does note that the Irish border remains a “stumbling block” in the negotiations.
Afterthought: Ireland will prove to be a challenging case for the negotiating team and the Foreign Office.
All eyes turn to the foreign secretary; a deft hand and diplomatic touch will be required for what could be a fairly sensitive issue. Could this be a shot at redemption for Johnson?
The Daily Mirror
Owner: Trinity Mirror. Its chairman is David Grigson, formerly the chief financial officer at Reuters
Editor: Lloyd Embley
Political leaning: Left
Daily circulation: circa. 716,900
Brexit stance: Anti-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: I’m thrilled to Brits
Meghan Markel is happy, so is Prince Harry.
Afterthought: Nothing to add.
Financial Times
Owner: The Nikkei, which is based in Tokyo.
Editor: Lionel Barber
Political leaning: Centre
Daily circulation: circa. 193,211
Brexit stance: Neutral/slight anti-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: Britain bows to EU on divorce bill in search of Brexit breakthrough
At a conference in Florence two months ago, Theresa May floated the idea of paying around £20 billion for the Brexit divorce bill. At the time, EU officials laughed privately at what was clearly far too small of a sum. Since then the potential figure has ballooned as high as £90bn from some sources. It will now be around £45bn, the Financial Times reports.
Afterthought: Again, neither team has confirmed this yet. With this in mind the framing of the Brexit negotiations during the next couple of weeks by the press will play a crucial part in how much leeway Davis’ team has.
The Sun
Owner: News UK, owned by Rupert Murdoch
Editor: Tony Gallagher
Political leaning: Right / far right
Daily circulation: circa. 1,611,464
Brexit stance: Pro-Brexit
Today’s leading headline: Here comes the Brit
Royal engagement.
Afterthought: Royal engagement.
Top trending stories from across the web
Al Jeezera
Owned by: Government of Qatar.
Political leaning: Often accused of having the state interests overshadow their independent integrity.
Top article: Documents reveal how ISIL ran areas under its control (link)
BBC
Owned by: The British public.
Political leaning: Strict regulation to make it impartial. Centre.
Views: 70 million unique views per week.
Top article: Boy, 15, charged over Leeds death crash (link)
Guido Fawkes
Owned by: Paul Staines, a libertarian political blogger, also writes for the Sun on Sunday.
Political leaning: Right/far right. Read by anyone and everyone in Westminster.
Views: 100–250 thousand views per day.
Top article: Order of the OTT: LSE Prof Claims “Brexit Is Our Vietnam”
The Canary
Owned by: Six editors and around 25 writers. Editor-in-chief is Kerry-anne Mendoza, prior ties to the Guardian.
Political leaning: Left/far left. Very pro Corbyn. Clickbait — pays its writers on a click per pay basis, encouraging them to produce work that will go viral.
Views: 2.8 million a month
Top article: ‘I’ll fuck you up’: the conduct of staff at a flagship government project is under investigation [VIDEO] (link)
