What the papers say – December 26
The national mastheads splash on a royal debut and the possible end of NHS targets.
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Your support makes all the difference.The King’s first Christmas broadcast, delivered with him standing in the quire of St George’s Chapel as his late mother did in 1999, leads many of the Boxing Day front pages.
During his address, Charles offered his sympathy to families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The Times calls the King’s speech a “gift” for health workers, who the Daily Mirror says he described as “selfless”.
The Sun uses its headline to call the 74-year-old the “King of Hearts” as it says he referenced the late Queen as his “beloved mother”, a quote also used by the Daily Mail.
The Daily Express devotes its front page to a photograph of the “King of Caring” and the 75-year-old Queen Consort walking ahead of family members including the Waleses to a Christmas Day church service.
Meanwhile, the i has been told a major review will ensure the end of NHS targets, with hospitals to instead be run like schools with responsibility devolved to local managers.
In other health news, The Independent reports hundreds of thousands of children have been left waiting for up to two years by the NHS for developmental therapies.
The Guardian carries analysis of the latest Office for National Statistics data which shows the number of UK stay-at-home fathers has leapt by a third since before the pandemic, up from one in 14 in 2019 to one in nine now.
And the Daily Star looks back at a “not so yappy Xmas” with the tale of a hound who set a house ablaze by jumping onto a bed and switching on a hairdryer, with the paper calling it the “scare of the dog”.