BRITAIN's most popular selling newspaper The Sun has made the unsurprising switch in its political allegiance from Labour to the Tories for the next general election.
The Sun's front page headline "Labour's Lost It" leaves readers in no doubt which party it will be supporting when the country goes to the polls next year.
The switch deals a mortal blow to the premiership of Gordon Brown just hours after his rallying call to Labour members in his conference speech in Brighton.
And it brings to an end 12 years of support for New Labour, which it first declared six weeks before the 1997 general election.
Tony Blair and his director of communications Alastair Campbell had courted owner Rupert Murdoch in the run-up to the landslide victory.
They put great importance on gaining The Sun's endorsement after the newspaper claimed to be the decisive factor in John Major's re-election in the 1992 general election.
On the eve of polling day, it famously ran a front-page image of then-Labour leader Neil Kinnock's head in a light bulb.
The picture was accompanied by the headline "If Kinnock Wins Today, Will The Last Person To Leave Britain Please Turn Out The Lights".
Then, although exit polls suggested a hung parliament, the result put Mr Major back into office and the paper declared "It Woz The Sun Wot Won It".
Despite this, the political influence of the newspaper on the public is much-debated and it is regarded by many simply to back the party already most likely to win.
Certainly, in 1997, Labour had been well ahead in the polls for some time when The Sun, which sells 3 million copies daily, finally declared its support.
And it's the same story for David Cameron's Conservative party this time around.
The Tories have been ahead in the polls since the infamous non-election in October 2007 and they now hold a comfortable lead of up to 16 points.
The latest poll by Ipsos-MORI even has Labour in third for the first time since February 1982, with the Conservatives on 36%, Labour on 24% and the Liberal Democrats on 25%.
Indeed, perhaps the only surprise in recent weeks has been the lack of an official declaration of support for the Tories from The Sun.
But it is now clear that the paper has held their announcement back in order to deal as big a blow as possible to the Prime Minister and his ailing administration.
And while it is easy to dismiss The Sun's pandering to the public, it is difficult to feel any sympathy for Mr Brown.
He and his party have introduced draconian laws onto the statute book, eroding the civil liberties of the general public.
Labour has also led the nation's forces into seemingly unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most incredibly of all, Labour seems to have forgotten about its grassroots support.
Of course, Mr Brown and his supporters will hark on about its credible first term achievements of the introduction of a minimum wage and the tax credits system.
But the fact of the matter now is that it is better financially to be on benefits than work for the minimum wage, and the tax credits system has long been a mess.
My personal view is that Mr Brown lost any credibility as Prime Minister in his last budget as Chancellor before he got the top job.
In that budget, he announced the removal of the 10 per cent starting rate income tax band from the following tax year.
I was working in the tax office at the time and was stunned to hear this.
With the aid of a calculator, it did not take me long to work out that this effectively forced anyone earning between £6,000 and £18,000 would pay more tax.
That included most members of my family and the majority of my friends. It was the last thing I expected a Labour Prime Minister to be doing.
A year later when the policy came into force, Mr Brown was Prime Minister and, unsurprisingly, there was a furore.
Realising his mistake, Mr Brown instructed new Chancellor Alastair Darling to reverse the policy by increasing the tax free allowance.
But it was too late - the original act had left its dirty mark and the damage had been done.
Even after the U-turn, there were still up to 1.3 million low-earning taxpayers for whom the allowance increase was insufficient.
Is it any wonder he no longer has the support of Britain's most populist rag?
It really does not matter. Labour are tired and desperately need renewal. If anything, four/five years of the Tories doing the dirty work could be quite helpfull for their long-term ambitions.
ReplyDeleteWho is to say that Cameron is not going to be another Heath, lacking the political courage to fight the big fights?