Does the Sun’s switch to the Tories matter?

No, is the short answer. The media’s power is vastly overestimated both by politicians and, of course, journalists, but also by ideologues from all sides who blame the defeat of their hopes on the power of the Tory press, if they are left wing, or BBC bias if they are on the right.

A few seconds thought should convince you of the folly of the notion. The BBC has a pro-European bias, but that has not stopped the British, or more specifically the English, being Eurosceptic. The media cannot run too far away from their readers and viewers or their readers or viewers will run from them.

If that argument does not suffice, consider Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere’s campaign in the early 1930s to insist that Baldwin commit the Tories to Empire free trade. Everyone remembers Baldwin’s put down – “What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot down the ages.” (Kipling came up with the line for him, incidentally.)

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Posted on September 30, 2009 at 9:22 am in Uncategorized | RSS feed | Respond | Trackback URL

4 Comments to “Does the Sun’s switch to the Tories matter?”

Ross Burns
September 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm

I’m reading Marquand’s Britain since 1918 book and I’m at the chapter about Stanley Baldwin at the moment. A Tory, yes, but he doesn’t seem to have been too bad.
Mandelson and Harriet Harman aren’t happy about The Sun, and – why do they let him up on the stage? – Burnham has said ” it wasn’t The Sun but Labour wot won the NHS”. Jesus!
The Aristocameron must be loving this and surely must be hoping that The Sport, too, follows suit.
I don’t know much, if anything, about newsroom relationships but I’ve heard once more today, for the umpteenth time, Kevin Maguire, The Mirror’s associate editor (Politics), referred to as its Political Editor. What must Bob Roberts, who really is the paper’s PE, think when he hears it?
Neil Kinnock was asked if he was surprised at the news of The Sun’s treason…”Is the Pope Catholic? This has been coming for a long time now…”
Haha, is that not one of Coleman’s balls? Nearly.

Mandelson says politics isn’t about personalities. But what/who was his speach/performance about?
Gordon Brown’s was just a showcase of denial, a history of his time with more holes in it than a teabag.
I may have got this wrong but on the large platform screens before Brown appeared Clem Attlee, Nye Bevan, Kinnock, and Tony were featured, but no Michael Foot. Never mind how his leadership went, he should have been included. He’s somewhere around 96 years old, a brilliant writer, and it would simply have been a nice thing to do.
They’ll all be coming out with words on the sad day when he’s no longer, though. There’s usually more blood on an elastoplast than there is in some of these politicians and their aides.
O.J. Throbb (1)
September 30, 2009 at 3:34 pm

So. Farewell
Then Labour,

the Sun has come out
for Dave,

Attitude magazine
was already out.

Cats go out at night.

And candles
don’t
burn
forever.
Davy Stephenson
September 30, 2009 at 7:51 pm

What we are seeing is no different than that in the US of good old A, its a real shame to see a civilised nations government who look upon lawyers and liars for a hand up the political ladder.

Maybe Tony could give them a hand/up/out from the Half million dollars he made recently for an hours talk in Manilla ealier, we need to open our eye people.

They all live in constant resolution with themselves bickering like kinder in the garden, on live TV, over a system which isn’t worth the money we give them, we have already spent up for next years full GDP, so who ever gets in have got to deal with the biggest problem the UK has ever seen.

We are being controlled like the sheeple we have become, the real Jesuit leaders in Rome continue sit back and pulls the strings, its nearly judgement day folks, and we are doing nothing, in total denial to the real problems approaching very soon.
Ross Burns
October 1, 2009 at 10:31 am

If yesterday had been an episode of a satirical programme, I would have laughed my head off.
Brown on GMTV, philosophical about the newspaper that crossed the floor. Then we saw him later on striking the most bizarre pose ever when his interview with Sky’s political editor, Adam Boulton, had finished. Horrible. And he only went on to crash off in a huff, which has now, unbelievably, been denied that he did so by his aides.
Peter Pooh-Bah faired little better when asked by Channel Four News’ political correspondent, Kathy Newman, about his earlier exchange with Sun execs and that c-word. He might as well have spat on her, or slapped her.
The fact is that a bit of indifference would have went along way, but instead these professional politicians were child-like and embarrassing. They’ve showed how low their confidence really is and how unstable they really are. How to make a mountain out of a newspaper. It was all quite a sight. Within two days Mrs Prime minister had gushed how her husband was so clever and so gentle, etc; for him then to slash that the following day with his strop. She should be stroppy with him for making her look so silly.
Good riddance to this lot (kick that Balls out!), I say, and let’s get rid of the next lot so we can get on to the rivalry between the two Milliband brothers as they form the Labour party into warring divisions under the one surname.
What a dreadful thought.

Nick Cohen: Writing from London

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