Editorial 30 July 2024.
Most of Tuesday’s front pages lead on the knife attack on children at a holiday club in Southport. Two children have died and nine injured after a knifeman entered a dance class and started the attack. A 17-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. It’s not yet known what the motive is but it’s not believed to be terror-related.
Chancellor Reeves’s cuts and tax plans to plug the £20bn black hole in the public finances is another popular lead for the papers, with the papers offering up their assessments of the chancellor’s plans.
Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards is pictured on most of the front pages after it was announced he has been arrested for making indecent images of children.
There is also plenty of Olympics coverage as Team GB had a spectacular Monday – bagging their first gold medals in Paris.
‘Ferocious knife attack on children’
The Guardian calls it a ‘ferocious attack’ that has killed 2 and left at least nine injured. The paper notes that a 17-year-old male has been held. Two adults are also critically hurt.
The Times says it was like “a horror movie.” The 17-year-old suspected knifeman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. The paper describes firefighters and ambulance workers in tears after treating injured kids, with some sitting on the floor with their heads in their hands.
The Telegraph says the suspected attacker was wearing a Covid-style mask and hooded top when he walked through the front door. The paper says the building had been left unlocked for fire safety reasons. Witnesses heard piercing screams and then children running from the building covered in blood, the paper adds.
The Daily Mirror speaks to witnesses describing the scene as being like something from a horror movie. “Every parent’s nightmare,” reads the paper’s headline.
The Sun’s editorial reports that such brutality against young children is horrifying and the motivation is beyond comprehension.
The i calls it a “deadly knife attack,” the Express says it’s like a ‘scene from a horror movie’ whilst the Daily Star calls it ‘carnage at the kids club.’
‘£22bn fiscal black hole’
The FT leads on Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying she’s having to make “incredibly tough choices” to fill a £22bn fiscal black hole. The paper is amongst several that claim the single biggest cause of the funding gap is Reeve’s own decision to give inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers.
Paul Johnson from the IFS writes in the Times that the chancellor revealed a “financial mess” beyond what was anticipated. He says it’s “astonishing” the previous government didn’t budget for the six-billion pound cost of housing asylum seekers.
The Guardian’s editorial backs Reeves saying the chancellor was right to paint a picture of the Conservative economic incompetence in vivid, shocking colours. The paper says the hard part is what comes next. The decision to prioritise savings, and squeeze spending, the paper says, sits uneasily with the government’s resolve to kick-start economic growth.
The Daily Mail’s leader column has a different take. The paper says the speech was full of piety and faux-indignation as she treated the nation to a whopper. The paper claims Labour needed a fall guy to renege on its manifesto commitment not to raise taxes and says middle England will now pay a heavy price.
Reeves writes in the Sun that these are not choices she wanted but they’ll make the paper’s readers better off.
‘BBC’s Huw Edwards charged’
Most of the papers feature a picture of the veteran TV presenter Huw Edwards after shocking news he has been charged with making indecent images of children. Edwards left the BBC in April.
The Metro leads on the former BBC presenter Huw Edwards who has been charged with making indecent images of children. He will appear in court in London on Wednesday. Edwards left the BBC in April.