Columnists Gibe At Snowdon’s New Job

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29724, 18 January 1962, Page 15

Columnists Gibe At Snowdon’s New Job

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, Jan. 16. The controversy over the appointment of the Earl of Snowdon to the staff of the “Sunday Tinies” is providing wonderful scope for London newspaper columnists. Cassandra in the "Daily Mirror,” commiserating with the “Royal dicky bird” and his flight from Kensington Palace to the jungle of Fleet Street, talks about the macaws, parrots and other screaming birds in the inky undergrowth setting up “a screeching and a yelling that splits the eardrums.” The Tonybird, he says, has been caught by "a handful of corn and raisins with fishhooks inserted in them by that most wily old feathercraft. Roy Thomson, of the ‘Sunday Times.’ "Until Tony persuades his charming wife to become the woman's feature editor of the

‘Daily Mirror,’ we shall soldier on alone but not without a friendly cheer for chum Tony flying into the dark, dark tangled jungle,” says “Cassandra.” The “Daily Mail,” parodying the slogan of "The Times”—“Top People Read ‘The Times’ ” —has a cartoon depicting a poster with a caricature of Lord Snowdon clad in ermine and coronet and armed with a camera and flashlight under the caption, “Top People Run the ‘Sunday Times’.” No fewer than eight national newspapers referred to the controversy today. All tied it up with the “routine” visit which the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) made yesterday to the Queen at Sandringham. Only one paper says definitely that the appointment was among the matters raised but all say it “could have been” and several imply that it was. In view of mounting newspaper comment, however, it seems hardly likely the subject could have been avoided and it is taken as certain that Lord Snowdon’s new post will be the subject of Commons questions when Parliament resumes next week. The one columnist, in the “Daily Sketch.” who says flatly that the appointment was discussed adds that Lord Snowdon is now’ very unlikely to take up his Fleet Street job.