(not satire – it’s the Daily Mail!)
I have it on good authority that foul-mouthed Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre is very proud of his father. On becoming editor of the Mail he even revived his father’s column Ephraim Hardcastle as a tribute to him.
Which makes the bizarre attack on Ed Milband’s father by the Mail even stranger.
In 1944 when the 22-year old Ed’s father Ralph Miliband was bravely risking his life storming German positions protecting the Normandy beaches, Paul Dacre’s 19-year-old father Peter Dacre was working in London as a show business reporter for newspapers such as the Daily Express.
Quite how a fit 19-year-old managed to avoid call-up to the front line at that time God only knows.
Perhaps show business reporters – like coal miners – were considered just as essential to the war effort as fighting soldiers?
Whatever the reason – you’d think Mr Dacre would want to avoid comparisons between the two men. Wouldn’t you?
UPDATE – At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, Paul Dacre’s father worked for Daily Express owner Lord Beaverbrook – even for a time as his personal assistant. As a member of the War Cabinet Beaverbrook would definitely have had the influence to enable one of his employees to avoid front-line duty. Could this explain the mystery of how Peter Dacre managed to avoid the call up?
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Go ahead and comment.
Related articles by Tom Pride:
Of course the Daily Mail doesn’t like Ed Miliband. He’s a Jew.
Daily Mail Apologises To Its Readers After Admitting Publishing Something True
Daily Mail fail – newspaper uses false photo in Kenya shopping centre article
Child abuse scandal can of worms – just who is Daily Mail reporter David Rose?
Oops! Daily Mail gets British immigration test wrong
An APOLOGY to The Daily Mail from TOM PRIDE
This is what you get when you dare to question a tabloid journalist in the UK
Pride's Purge