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“Strong to reign over us,” declares the Sun, as almost all of the front pages lead on the King’s announcement that he will be scaling back his cancer treatment. A source quoted in the Daily Mail describes the video message as “just about the best Christmas present the monarch could have asked for”. But as the Times points out, while the film is being seen within the palace as a “huge step forward”, the King is not in remission nor is he free of cancer.
The Daily Mirror praises Charles for what the paper calls a “frank, personal” message – stressing the importance of screening to pick up early symptoms. “Once more”, says the letter from the editor in i Weekend, “his intervention is welcome and will save lives”. The leader in the Daily Express adds that his “candour” will have assured people in Britain and beyond in need of treatment that “they are not alone”.
Writing in the Guardian, the prime minister says the NHS is getting ready for a “coming storm”, as resident doctors in England prepare to strike at the same time as flu cases are “soaring”. In order to protect healthcare, i Weekend reports that there will be an urgent NHS drive to give children a flu vaccine before Christmas. The paper says schools with the lowest uptake will get “snap visits” before term ends.
According to FT Weekend, the Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, has for the first time laid out a timetable for his departure from the airline. The 64-year-old tells the paper he intends to hand over to his successor by 2035.
“A colossus of women’s fiction” is how the Daily Mail describes the author Joanna Trollope, after her death at the age of 82. Known as the “Queen of the Aga Saga” – a title she loathed – the Daily Telegraph says her prose was “more solid than scintillating”. But the Times says her books reflected “the changing lives and values of an often overlooked section of British society”.
