Daily Star praised for being brilliantly funny and deadly serious at same time

Tabloid newspaper the Daily Star has received wide praise online for its front page today which points out both how ludicrous and how serious the Dominic Cummings’ scandal is for the UK’s fight against coronavirus.

The red-top features a cut-out Cummings mask so you too can ‘do whatever the hell you want and sod everybody else’.

It also pokes fun at his 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle ‘to test his eyes’ with the seemingly obvious police warning: ‘Don’t drive if you’re blind’.

A slew of political commentators, TV personalities and members of the public joined praise for the front page on Twitter, with presenter Piers Morgan leading the pack.

The Good Morning Britain host and former Daily Mirror editor tweeted it was a ‘brilliant front page’.

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‘First, because it’s hilarious. Second, because it’s also making a deadly serious point – Cummings’ refusal to abide by his own lockdown rules has made the rules a laughing stock,’ he said.

‘This will cost lives.’

Former Labour spin-doctor Alastair Campbell – who yesterday told the Government to ‘do one’ over its handling of the affair – agreed that the newspaper had managed to balance the funny and serious nature of the story.

He quoted TS Eliot and said: ‘Wit is the alliance of levity and seriousness by which the seriousness is intensified.’

Another fan cut to the chase and said: ‘You know the UK is in a s**t state when the Daily Star cares about politics.’

Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings is still facing calls to resign or be sacked after he refused to apologise for driving 250 miles across the country with suspected coronavirus, with both his wife and young son in the car, while the Government’s clear message to the public was ‘stay at home’.

The Prime Minister, as well as cabinet ministers and the advisor himself, has called the behaviour ‘reasonable’ while the rest of the country, following the rules, missed family events, births, deaths and funerals.

Mr Cummings admitted the trip and a separate drive to Barnard Castle to ‘test his eyesight’ before returning to London, claiming his illness made his vision blurry. Eyesight is not officially recognised as a symptom of Covid-19.

Giving a statement in the Downing Street rose garden on Monday, Mr Cummings failed to clear up a number of points about his story. Here are ten questions the UK still does not have clear answers to.

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