This is astonishing. Hot on heels of Newsnight comes this. The government is now literally using our money to *pay* the Daily Mail to publish pro-government propaganda pieces about how well it is handling COVID-19.

‘Sponsored by The UK Government’

So. Many. Questions. In 2014, @pressgazette reported a single one of these articles costs up to £65,000.

And this is what it looks like on desktop. So that's what? £65k for the article? Then how much for banner and column? Which department is running these? Is it you @Number10press? Can you please fill us in? 'Stay alert' is public health messaging. But 'how the govt is helping'?!?