Why is The Sun Backing Alex Salmond?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/apr/18/why-is-the-sun-backing-alex-salmond
Apparently The Sun tomorrow will come out in support of Alex Salmond and the SNP. The paper in the 2007 elections campaigned against the SNP, so what has changed?
Apparently Salmond has been meeting with News International executives. I wonder if there is some media deal being done or if it is simply that The Sun thinks it got it very wrong before, or even, quite simply, that The Sun likes to back what it thinks will be the winner.
Apparently The Sun tomorrow will come out in support of Alex Salmond and the SNP. The paper in the 2007 elections campaigned against the SNP, so what has changed?
Apparently Salmond has been meeting with News International executives. I wonder if there is some media deal being done or if it is simply that The Sun thinks it got it very wrong before, or even, quite simply, that The Sun likes to back what it thinks will be the winner.
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Comments
The Sun is fond of tits!;):p;)
They did this in 1997 when they knew the Tories were dead in the water.
Is it because he's got big moobs?
So is it a form of anti-Labour ?
According to The Guardian there it is.
The Sun used to be Tory and support Tory all the way, that is to the ' 97 election and switched allegiance to Blair.
I find it a bit scary that a newspaper or group of nwspaers have the trump card to electing governments.
It has never backed the SNP before. At the last Scottish elections it's front page famously had a picture of a noose saying if Scotland voted SNP it would be a country committing suicide. It has always supported Labour in Scotland previously.
Aah I see. I didn't know that. So your correlation between the Tories backing at the same time as the SNP would be right. My apologies Sparkle.
They supported the SNP, in a vague way, in the early nineties. Basically, they can't support the Tories in Scotland because it'd be commercial suicide. But when they're in Tory mode in England, they can't support Labour in Scotland as they'd have to rewrite the whole paper. So at these times, they back the SNP. It's just a commercial decision.
True, a lot of folk hate the Sun and might get turned off by it. But all parties know that having the top-selling paper in the country on your side really can't be a bad thing. It's a bit rich for Labour to mutter darkly about "backroom deals" after the way they were up Murdoch's arse for ten years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-13128712
It is very much contested whether the Sun helped give blair a final push over the line or whether Murdoch, ever the pragmatist, saw which way the wind was blowing and went over to labour. There had certainly been a lot of courting between both parties in the run up to the the 1997 election. The reality probably is that it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Labour would have won that election regardless of Murdochs support but i'm sure that the suns support did the campaign no harm.
Now the imfluence of the Sun, or any individual news outlet (esspecially print media) is far less than it was 20-30 years ago. In this case however its just murdoch pragmatism. The conservatives will never win an election in Scotland, Labour and the Lib dems are very much "damaged goods" at the moment, leaving the the SNP as the only way the sun can stay onside with public oppinion.
Much as I genuinely believe murdoch would be more comfortable backing the conservatives in this election, it wouldn't go over well in the scottish market. Murdoch likes to play politics, but he's a clever business man first. A paper saying "vote conservative" would not sell well in Glasgow.
Iain Gray!! You'd have to be an utter moron to back Gray over Salmond. Why Murdoch and his lacheys are many things I choose not describe, he is not a moron and neither are they.
Not actually true either 1979 was the first election the Sun came out in favour of the Tories before that it had been Labour.
Slighty off topic, how come it's possible to get a Welsh edition of The News Of The World, complete with Welsh flag on the front page, in South Wales but the populations of Mid and North Wales have put up with the English regional editions?
If you want to know who is going to win an election - see who his papers back!:D
In fairness they backed all out independence in 1992. If anything they have still back tracked from their one time position.
The Sun backs who they think will win and who they think is credible. The fact they've come out for the SNP says all you need to know about how the election is going.
Its laughable Labour acuse the SNP of breaking promises then come out with a manifesto that is full of policies they spent the last 4 years blocking.
No vision. No ideas. No way!!