Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
There is a really good piece at ConservativeHome which suggests that the Tories should be very careful about their relationship with Murdoch and The Sun. As the author, Bob Seely observes:
The strategy of the Murdoch media is to find a man on the up (Blair, Cameron, etc), build him up further and destroy his opponents, in order to ride the zeitgeist and maximise its relationship with those in power, for the benefit of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
And that is so true. I for one never shared the enthusiasm people like Ken Livingstone showed for using The Sun to get their message across. And I strongly suspect that those conservatives who rub their hands with glee at the backing their Leader has received from the Dirty Digger, will live to repent at their leisure.
Of course, The Sun, nor the other printed media, will have as great an influence on people's lives as we go forward, and much of The Sun's splash announcement after the Brown conference speech was bluster. Like the Sky News call for a Leaders' Debate, it is, as Seely says, as much about making the media itself the story. The power of the press may be waning, but as all politicians are aware, perception is 90% of the game. The important thing for the Murdoch empire is for the politicians, Labour or Conservative, to think that they have to suck up to News International in order to win the Digger's endorsement.
As one commenter on ConservativeHome says.. the conservatives should think of devils and long spoons.
newmania said:
November 11, 2009 1:52 PM | permalink
I think thats right .In many ways the Conservative Party ought to be supporting the BBC against the Multi-national objectives of Murdoch.
Its a shame that said BBC has so earned the loathing of anyone not left centre Liberal as to have forgone such support.
Robert said:
November 12, 2009 9:18 AM | permalink
It's a sad world if people read the Sun to get political information, when they could be looking at page three, thats why my work mates bought the paper, and the walls of the canteen was plastered with page three pictures, until the canteen manager a lady decided she had enough and cleaned them off the walls, we ended up with a two day strike, but she won the argument, it was sexist and that was in the 1980. I did not seen many men who bought the sun read the political pages.
November 11, 2009 1:52 PM | permalink
I think thats right .In many ways the Conservative Party ought to be supporting the BBC against the Multi-national objectives of Murdoch.
Its a shame that said BBC has so earned the loathing of anyone not left centre Liberal as to have forgone such support.