Daily Mail

A newspaper for Stepford wives.*

Founded in 1896 by the Harmsworth brothers, Alfred (later Lord Rothermere) and Harold (later Lord Northcliffe), it was aimed at a more populist readership than the established dailies (with a purchase price of ½d rather than the 1d charged by the rest of the London dailies).

From the outset it was rabidly conservative, attracting some criticism for its pro-Empire stance and lack of objectivity during the 1899-1902 South African War (the “Boer War”). In 1934 Lord Rothermere wrote an infamous op-ed, “Hurrah for the Blackshirts”, in praise of Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists. Even after the Mail dropped its support for the BUF after violence at a 1934 meeting at Kensington Olympia, it nevertheless maintained a sympathetic stance towards Hitler right up until 1939.

It maintains this right-wing conservative (with a “c” as well as with a “C”) to the present day, being anti-Europe, anti-immigration, anti-taxation, anti-abortion, anti-permissive, anti-(the list goes on and on…). Articles tend to be written in one of two tones – either sycophantic praise of the lifestyles of middle-class role models and their trappings, or (more usually) moral outrage at the ever-increasing wickedness and instability of the modern world. It’s frequently lampooned by Private Eye for this, especially over house prices – rises, falls and stagnation are all given mock headlines describing them in fearful and pessimistic terms – and has acquired the nickname the Daily Heil in some quarters. It came under fire from disabled people in April 2011 for what they regarded as its “defamatory” and “disablist” coverage of disability benefit claimants.

It held the first “Ideal Home Exhibition” in 1908, and has continued to hold them very successfully ever since.

Besides the main edition, there’s also an Irish Daily Mail and a “foreign” edition.

Since 1982 it’s had a Sunday counterpart: the Mail on Sunday. Both are available as an iPhone app.

*Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. We’ve carried that description of the Daily Mail ever since this site first appeared on the Web in 2002. On 4 May 2007 the Mail‘s “Femail” section for women carried an article under this headline: “I became a Stepford wife and saved my marriage”. You couldn’t make it up. Let’s face it, with the Mail you don’t have to.

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Right-of-centre, middle-market daily tabloid - very similar in style, tone and format to its great rival, the Daily Mail

Mail on Sunday
A clone of the Daily Mail; same right-wing stance and "right-thinking" tone

Metro
The UK's first urban national newspaper, first launched in the London area in 1999 and now distributed in several British towns and cities

Morning Star
Historically the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain but broke with it in 1988