Britain's press flies to Egypt... to interview British tourists

THE CRISIS in Egypt is keeping British newspapers busy this morning, with several tabloids sending reporters to Cairo to report the drama from the ground.

This is how the main stories from Britain's best-selling dailies begin. Keen-eyed media studies graduates may detect a pattern:

The Daily Mail: "British tourists..."

The Sun: "Thirty thousand Brits..."

The Mirror: "Britons were urged to flee..."

The Daily Express: "Up to 30,000 Britons..."

It is not just the opening lines. The Daily Mail's 28 paragraph story devotes 18 paragraphs to the "terrifying ordeal" endured by British tourists (not one of whom has been harmed to date), including the "mayhem" some had witnessed at Cairo airport, and an interview with a man whose flight was delayed for seven hours.

Encouragingly, most of the front page of the Daily Star is devoted to a huge story headlined "Jordan 999 Dash Mystery". Alas, on closer inspection, it does not concern the Hashemite kingdom that is perhaps Britain's closest ally in the Arab world. Instead, it reports that an ambulance was seeing visiting a house in Surrey owned by a model called Katie Price who uses Jordan as a stage name, though at the time Ms Price was believed to be undergoing beauty treatments elsewhere. Hence, its visit was a bit of a mystery.