The Sun’s execrable bahaviour in exploiting for political purposes Jacqui Janes’ raw emotions over the death of her son in Afghanistan was true to form. This is the paper that fabricated an interview with the widow of a soldier killed in the Falklands for the same purpose. There is no human emotion which this paper would not stoop to manipulate in order to extract the dregs of political advantage by some twisted means. But that is, as we all know, par for the course with the Murdoch media. What is however remarkable is the obsequiousness accorded to Murdoch and his acolytes, whether by Blair, Brown and now Cameron, as though the Sun were a mighty political force in the land that could swing elections. It is nothing of the kind – if anything, the other way round. Murdoch only changes his political allegiances when the tide of opinion has already decisively swung. He is a follower, not a leader. So why are politicians so frightened of him? The media are in general enormously impressed with their own self-importance, and none more so than Murdoch, but the evidence simply does not bear out their own conceits.

In 2005 Mori polled how Sun readers voted in the previous 4 general elections. They reflected very closely the swings of opinion across the whole electorate. In 1992 45% of Sun readers voted Conservative and 36% Labour. In 1997 the electorate swung massively to Labour, and so did Sun readers: 30% voted Conservative and 52% Labour. In 2001 there was miniscule change, exactly as with Sun readers: 29% voted Conservative and 52% still voted Labour. In 2005 there was a significant swing away from Labour, though it still won quite easily – exactly the pattern demonstrated by Sun readers: 35% voted Conservative and 44% Labour.
The lesson of all this is that it makes not a blind bit of difference what political stance is taken by the Sun’s editor or owner. Nor is that the least surprising when tabloid readers mainly read the sports, fashion or family scandal pages. It is only the media proprietors and editors who like to think they carry political influence because it enhances their own sense of power, and it is only the politicians who succumb to this pretence because so many of them are so weak and devoid of ideological purpose.
Rather than sycophantically courting the press, political leaders should be addressing the manifest failings and excesses of the contemporary media. There should be a statutory right of reply, as already exists in many other countries. The Press Complaints Commission, over-represented from the press itself and a spineless institution if ever there was one, should be much more independent of the press and given statutory powers. The ownership of newspapers, far too concentrated around conventional establishment views, should be broken up to ensure much more closely the breadth and diversity of opinion in the country, with no proprietor permitted to own more than one daily and one Sunday newspaper. Britain might then begin to get the press it really deserves.

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