Not all Doom and Gloom?

I quite enjoyed the first article by Peter Wilby as the new Press Commentator of the Media Guardian.Writing in Monday's section he penned a rather good piece on how newspapers always paint a gloomy picture of the outside world.I particually liked this bit,

I mean that the papers' tone is one of vague, generalised grumpiness, similar to what you hear from tired and slightly inebriated old men in the corner of a pub. It is, they insist, dangerous to go out, particularly at night, because rapists, paedophiles, schizophrenics and knife-wielding youths lurk round every corner, and drunken yobs roam the streets. The country is overrun by eastern European migrants. Veiled and bearded Muslims are plotting deadly atrocities. Our children are sexmad drug addicts. Law-abiding motorists are in mortal peril from speed cameras and traffic wardens. The schools don't teach anybody to read, and an orangutan could pass an A-level. Go into hospital, and you will catch a deadly disease or, if you are old, possibly starve to death. There is little hard evidence to support any of these claims; I doubt they accord with the direct experiences of the majority of Britons.

Look back at the newspapers over the Christmas and new year period, supposedly a season of celebration and good cheer. The Daily Express repeatedly lamented that "political correctness" made it impossible to enjoy Christmas: offices were forbidden to put up decorations, school parties and carol services cancelled, and angels expunged from Christmas cards. The Daily Mail warned of a New Year's Eve of "unprecedented mayhem", caused by pubs and clubs being continuously open. Most papers reported that much of the country was taking at least a fortnight off work. A triumph for the family and a heartening sign of a better work-life balance?
No, "Britain's New Year lie-in" threatened the economy with ruin (though it has stubbornly prospered for more than a decade in the face of similar annual press warnings) and would leave us helpless against competition from India and China.
And just in case you thought of trying to get away from this misery, the Observer reported on Christmas Eve that "Islamic militant terrorists" were "aiming to cause maximum carnage during the holiday season", probably in the Channel Tunnel.

As if to add more weight to the argument,take a look at this morning's Mail with a scare story on its front page

The black and white calf may look unremarkable.
But Dundee Paradise is evidence that clone farming - designed to deliver supersize cows producing an astonishing 70 pints of milk a day - has arrived in Britain.
Her birth last month exposed glaring gaps in the Government's system for policing livestock farming.
It raises the prospect of milk and meat from the offspring of clones reaching the shops without proper safety checks.
Though not a clone herself, Dundee Paradise is the daughter of a clone. Her mother was created in the U.S. using cells from the ear of a champion dairy Holstein.

The Mail and the Express are renowned as the bringers of doom and despair to the British Middle Classes

Record January temperatures will bring gales and torrential rain also features in the Mail this morning,

I will keep an eye on doom and gloom stories over the next few days