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New Labour - is the corpse finally dead?
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
It has often been remarked upon that the support of The Sun newspaper is essential to win a general election. The paper in question is forever crowing on about how "It Was The Sun Wot Won It" back in 1992, when Major shocked everyone by returning to government - it's a story which has some truth in it. Tony Blair courted the paper assidiously throughout his time as PM, giving them exclusive stories and interviews.
Tomorrow, The Sun comes out saying they are switching to supporting the Tories. Looks like it's curtains for New Labour, then. Can't say I'll miss them - if it was up to me, every single member of the Labour Party would face being boiled to death after the next general election, with the Prime Mentalist going first.
Though I can't say I'm looking forward to David Cameron's government ruling over us, either...
Tomorrow, The Sun comes out saying they are switching to supporting the Tories. Looks like it's curtains for New Labour, then. Can't say I'll miss them - if it was up to me, every single member of the Labour Party would face being boiled to death after the next general election, with the Prime Mentalist going first.
Though I can't say I'm looking forward to David Cameron's government ruling over us, either...
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Murdoch simply likes to back a winner, then threaten to remove his support in order to control government policy. Sadly it is likely governments past and present buy into the hype.
As for Aladdin's comments, the enormous rat community that lives in Britain (for you are never more than six feet away from one, we are told) would be greatly offended by you comparing them to Rupert Murdoch.
Most corpses are SG .....:)
If there's one paper that can claim to have destroyed this government, it's the Telegraph (I know it was a cross party criticism, but it's always the government that gets blamed).
But I agree with what others have said, they're not as influential as they think they are. They're not a newspaper that is taken particularly seriously anymore, unlike (unfortunately) the Daily Mail. But beyond that, they are facing ever increasing competition from numerous online sources. The Sun is nowhere near the most popular newspaper website, not only being behind The Mail, The Guardian and The Telegraph, but even its own sister paper The Times, and fellow News Corp website Sky News (although obviously as a group, they are quite powerful, assuming the other two join The Sun in their political policy). But particularly the BBC website, which is massively more popular than any commercial news source. In 2005, the BBC accounted for over 28% of all UK news traffic, whereas Sky was the third most popular website, but only managed just under 4%. This combined with 24 hour news channels, which have a duty to be impartial.
But I think even more important than the existance of rival news sources, is the existance of many free news sources, which means that the days of single-source news are pretty much over. People can read different reports for free, which does nothing but damage the case of explicitly biased newspapers such as the tabloids. Maybe that explains why the broadsheets generally have far more popular websites, with the exception of the Mail, which seems to have carved out a niche of being the reactionary source for topics designed to start a debate on websites like this one.
The Sun is fucking hideous. Make your own mind up nevermind listening to what Amy from Dagenham thinks whilst posing in her knickers.
Seriously though why do people listen to Rupert Murdoch and The Sun ???
They might not be an influence so much as a symptom, the way rats leaving a ship aren't responsible when it sinks, but it's still a significant sign of which way the wind's blowing...
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Because the "Great British" public, are generally a bunch of ill-informed morons.
Labour may have made mistakes, but the alternatives aren't better.
If you sincerely believe that to be true, shouldn't you be asking "democracy - is the corpse finally dead ?"
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And you honestly believe it isn't? When a newspaper believes it can swing a general election, democracy is dead.
No, when a newspaper actually can, it's dead. Fortunately, their claims about their own power are about as accurate as their claims about events in general.
I know it's pathetic. There was a prefix to that, which was "Now the public speak out" (paraphrased) as if they're following the Sun's lead, rather than the actual situation, which is the Sun following the public's money. Funny the Scottish Sun hasn't come out in support of the Tories isn't it? :rolleyes:
I was thinking about what the red tops remind me of, and I realised it was the computer game magazines I used to read when I was about 13. Constantly kissing their own arse, and giving themselves undue credit. You only need to read the back pages when one of the ten football transfers they reported in the past week actually happens. They're like a psychic that realises if they report enough stories, one is bound to turn out to be true, and then is really smug when it happens.
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ps. was it just me, or did peter mandelson's speech at the labour party conference seem alot like the speech at the end of the 4th harry potter book when voldermort rises from the dead
I didn't listen to the speach... And I haven't read harry potter :yeees: but I'll agree anyway.
Yes, it really did sound like that speach, didn't it? *giggle*
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well... they are both for "British independance" and neither has a chance of winning...
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Brown's speech, on the other hand, was even worse than last year's speech. It was dubbed "the speech of his life" and he still managed to fuck it up. He then went round the TV studios losing his temper with various interviewers - when he stormed out of a meeting with Adam Boulton from Sky News, he walked straight into a door. (not the first time Brown's temper has made him look an utter and complete twat - when he had an interview with the political journo from Sky News a few years ago, he walked into a plant pot)
I don't watch EastEnders personally, but I have heard reports that he's appearing in tonight's edition.