Fury at Guardian’s ‘shameful’ swipe

THE Guardian was forced to apologise after publishing an editorial which claimed David Cameron only felt ‘privileged pain’ after his son’s death.

The former prime minister writes in his memoirs of the ‘torture’ he and wife Samantha endured after the death of his six-year-old son Ivan, who was born with a rare neurological condition.

But The Guardian yesterday said the Old Etonian had only ever experienced ‘limited failure and privileged pain’, adding: ‘Had he been trying to get the system to look after a dying parent rather than a dying child, he might have understood a little of the damage his policies have done.’

The online piece was changed within two hours and then removed but screenshots appeared on social media to widespread condemnation. Chancellor Sajid Javid said: ‘Shameful thing to read. Never has an editorial so lacked in empathy while so righteously criticising others for lacking it.’

The Guardian said the article ‘fell far short of our standards’, adding: ‘We apologise completely.’

Comment and Rosa Monckton – Page 16

DURING his short and difficult life, Ivan Cameron endured as many as 40 epileptic seizures a day. His parents, David and Samantha Cameron, came close to collapse with the strain.

In its editorial column, the Leftist Guardian newspaper shockingly described the former Prime Minister’s torment as ‘privileged pain’. Apparently, Mr Cameron cannot feel real anguish or despair because he is wealthy and upper-class.

Definitions of bigotry vary, but one aspect is the tendency to dehumanise your target.

After luxuriating in self-righteousness for years, The Guardian (a veritable haven of bourgeois privilege) finds itself condemned for its crass, callous and bigoted depiction of a terrible family tragedy. Its behaviour is shameful.