MPs' expenses: a tale of two front pages

The Daily Telegraph dedicated its front page this morning to a well-deserved victory lap on the conclusion of the Legg report into MPs' expenses . In design terms, however, its bitterest rival might just have sprinted ahead. Don't get me wrong: the Telegraph front is a strong and handsome thing, with a sledgehammer main headline, that we-own-this-story "Expenses Files" logo and a nicely moody picture. Click on the picture above for the full page, and more advantages are revealed: the always-enviable Matt cartoon, a very cleverly angled secondary story , and a bottom-of-sheet barrage of statistics. It's all the stronger given the high number of stories the Telegraph has tended to have on its front pages recently; half a dozen is routine. But the Times's front page pulls off a trick that it has managed regularly under James Harding: using a visual surprise to give a fresh perspective on the day's big story. Often the surprise comes from a Peter Brookes caricature. Today it's a Getty Images photo sequence, projected as big as it'll go, and making a powerful point about the twisting of parliament without any need for a tabloidy opinonated heading. Indeed, the Times is confident enough about its main picture that it drops the features blurbs from underneath its masthead – something the Telegraph did regularly at the height of the expenses investigation , but hasn't risked today. Be interesting to know the sales impact. The Daily Mail, which still wields the heaviest editorial sledgehammer in Britain, chose not to join this particular contest: on the edition I read, at least, it relegated parliament to second lead, same as the Guardian. And we learned today that three MPs and a peer are to face charges – which might give us a wider competition to look at over the weekend.