How the Sun changed its tune on the refugee crisis - in two front pages

Oh, how a few weeks changes everything. On September 3, the Sun led its front page with the heartbreaking photo of Aylan al-Kurdi and called on David Cameron "to help those in a life-and-death struggle".

Such was the humanitarian sentiment on the front page of the Sun, and many other newspapers, that this website even dubbed it "the day the British media finally got a conscience".

But fast forward seven weeks and all that goodwill appears to have disappeared:

The front page of the tabloid on Thursday morning led with the headline "Illegals have landed" and labelled 114 people who arrived at the RAF base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, on Wednesday as "alleged refugees", while accusing them of trying to find "a back door into the UK".

While quoting Ukip spokesman Steven Woolfe and using alarmist rhetoric like "boatloads" and "on Brit soil", the paper also lays blame on "locally-employed" Cypriots who were said to have helped them ashore.

Here's a reminder of what the very same newspaper said about the refugee crisis last month:

Today The Sun urges David Cameron to help those in a life-and-death struggle not of their making.

Britain has rightly held back the thousands massed at Calais — many of them merely economic migrants — and is making our welfare system less attractive to those tempted to join them.

But there are others who, with their kids, have fled imminent danger in Syria either from its genocidal dictator Assad or the bloodthirsty savages of IS...

Our nation has a proud record of taking in desperate people and we should not flinch from it now if it is beyond doubt that they have fled for their lives.

The change in tone puts us in mind of this cartoon, by illustrator Eduardo Salles:

More: The day the British media finally got a conscience

More: An open letter to anyone who ever talked down the refugee crisis