He invented big tents and an end to conventional political alliances
Posted in General on 27. Jul, 2010
He invented big tents and an end to conventional political alliances. If there is a coincidence of view between the Mail and the New Statesman, then it is partly Blair’s own making.”
While Paul Dacre’s editorial line has been anti-New Labour for some time, his columnists are now also enthusiastically attacking the Government. To some extent this is a case of New Labour’s old enemies belatedly seeing through the Blair wooing process. Around the time of the election a number of columnists including Simon Heffer and Paul Johnson were invited in by Blair and given the impression that he was keen to hear their views.
As it becomes clear that he isn’t actually listening, he is beginning to feel the backlash.But the Mail is mistaken on one count. Its political editor David Hughes wrote that the Labour Party had found so little amiss with its reporting that it had “quietly dropped” its monitoring exercise. “Not a bit of it,” monitor-in-chief Gerald Kaufman MP assured me yesterday “The party hasn’t given up on this at all. The monitoring exercise can be activated whenever the occasion arises. The less the Mail’s journalism requires it, the less it will be needed.”With the FT, Independent and Mail showing year-on-year gains in the latest circulation figures, the strangest boast came over the weekend from The Daily Telegraph, telling readers on its front page how it was ahead of The Express for the first time. If there is a coincidence of view between the Mail and the New Statesman, then it is partly Blair’s own making.”
The brief flirtation between New Labour and the Daily Mail now seems a distant memory.
Saturday’s splash “Damned Lies And Labour” was one of the strongest attacks yet on the Government by the Mail. As well as seizing on the Government’s embarrassment over Lord Winston’s criticisms of the NHS, it accused Alastair Campbell of trying to bully him into submission and for good measure commissioned a piece by Mary Riddell of the New Statesman to confirm what Lord Winston actually told her in her New Statesman interview. The Mail is happy even to forge a temporary ideological alliance with the Statesman if it means kicking the Government. As well as seizing on the Government’s embarrassment over Lord Winston’s criticisms of the NHS, it accused Alastair Campbell of trying to bully him into submission and for good measure commissioned a piece by Mary Riddell of the New Statesman to confirm what Lord Winston actually told her in her New Statesman interview. The Mail is happy even to forge a temporary ideological alliance with the Statesman if it means kicking the Government. New Statesman editor Peter Wilby said yesterday: “Blair has created this situation to some extent.
He invented big tents and an end to conventional political alliances. Saturday’s splash “Damned Lies And Labour” was one of the strongest attacks yet on the Government by the Mail. The brief flirtation between New Labour and the Daily Mail now seems a distant memory. Mr Smith and Tony Blair were said to be “livid” when the ITC agreed to ITV’s request to axe the programme. The Government cannot intervene directly but the watchdog can force television bosses to reschedule a programme to its original time.However, the average audience for the 6.30pm bulletin – presented by the former News at Ten presenter Sir Trevor McDonald – has increased from 5.3 million in October to 6.2 million.. The committee’s chairman, Gerald Kaufman, said: “ITV claimed that it would be able to change the nation’s television habits [with an 11pm news show] but these figures show that people are just going to bed earlier.”Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has already written to ITV’s watchdog, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), to complain about the decline in ratings.