Media unsympathetic to Prescott 'suffering'

"I sympathise with bulimics but I’m deeply suspicious of Mr Prescott’s lurid soul-baring". Thus screams Stephen Glover’s headline in the Daily Mail of the somewhat astonishing news that Britain’s most (in)famous pie-eater has in fact been suffering from a serious eating disorder.

One of the best known and most vilified politicians of recent times, Mr Prescott has always courted controversy, never more so than by exclusively telling the Sunday Times of his bulimia ordeal in a move which coincided with an impending book launch.

The ever-cynical British media have faced a dilemma as to how to react to the announcement – they can’t be seen to be unsympathetic to a life-altering disease, while sudden affection for Mr. Prescott would only be viewed by the public as disingenuous.

The Guardian sympathetically began their article by claiming that "John Prescott was praised by eating disorder experts yesterday", although their headline, "I took refuge in stuffing my face" belies genuine sympathy. The Times, one feels, is kinder to Prescott, focusing on the message that Prescott presents to fellow sufferers that they should get help.

The Sun, somewhat predictably, ridiculed the "Fat Controller". Trevor Kavanagh’s lurid claim that Prescott has been misdiagnosed attempts to shift the issue to Prescott’s "greedy incompetence". A Q&A of bulimia and the phone number of a bulimia helpline cover up their flagrant disrespect for any suffering felt by Prescott.

The Telegraph was always unlikely to be kind to Prescott, although their approach is cleverer and more subtle than the tabloids’ full frontal attack. They lead with the question of whether Prescott kept his bulimia from Blair, focusing on the negative political implications that the story could have for the Labour party rather than the human aspect utilised by other papers.