Labour warhorse Lord Mandelson has emerged as the Government's prime attack dog in the ongoing war betweenGordon Brown and the Sun newspaper. The business secretary went on the Today programme this morning to accuse the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid of "bad taste and crude politicking" in its coverage of Jacqui Janes's complaint about a letter she had received from the prime minister. Brown wrote to her to commiserate about the death of her son Jamie, a soldier in Afghanistan. But the grieving mother said the handwritten missive was riddled with errors. The Sun made great play of the story, splashing on Monday morning with a headline suggesting the PM was 'Bloody shameless', and suggesting in an editorial that the letter demonstrated Brown's "underlying disregard for the military". The ferocity of the attack surprised many, and, as reported today in theGuardian, ran against the wishes of some senior staff such as political editor Tom Newton Dunn. Since the Sun switched its support from Labour to the Tories in September, it has run an unrelenting campaign against the Government. Now Mandelson has come out swinging against the newspaper this morning in a move that will bring considerable cheer to his embattled colleagues. "The Sun's owner, News International, has made a decision for the newspaper to support the Conservative party," he said during the interview with James Naughtie. "They have effectively formed a contract, over the head incidentally of the paper's editor and their readers, in which they are bound to one another. "What the Sun can do for the Conservatives before and during the election is one part of that contract. And presumably what the Conservatives can do for News International if they are elected is the other side of that bargain." Mandelson's allegation runs counter to the claim by Murdoch himself,as reported by the Mole yesterday, that he regrets that the SUn has turned against Brown and that its decision to do so was down to its editor and not him. On the Today programme, Mandelson went on to say that while he was indifferent about losing the Sun's support - it and the Tories "were welcome to each other" - he was concerned that by setting an anti-Government agenda, which was then followed up by another Murdoch entity, Sky News, News International were "putting pressure on the BBC to follow suit" in reporting the story. "This has wider implications for [next year's] general election, which, in my view, is of wider public concern," the business secretary concluded. His allegation of a deal between David Cameron and the media mogul, which has been doing the rounds in political circles for some weeks now, chimes with recent reports that the Tories would cut the BBC's license fee if they win the next election, and that Murdoch's media interests would not be subject to strict regulation by Ofcom - one of the quangos that the Tories have publicly targetted for cuts. While it was bracing to hear Mandelson on such vintage form, talking straight through Naughtie to ram his message home, the Todaypresenter did make a salient point: isn't this what the Sun was doing for Labour in the final months of the John Major administration in 1996-97? Filed under: Peter Mandelson, Rupert Murdoch, The Sun, Gordon Brown,Labour, Tories, David Cameronextract from comment below
"Murdoch always backs the winner and if Mandy and his neo labour government hadn't run the country into the ground and instead looked like they would win the election things would be different, of course Murdoch wants to ingratiate himself with whoevers in power and because of this labour governments disasterous policies it won't be them for much longer."
Mandelson attacks Sun’s ‘contract’ with the Tories
Lord Mandelson alleges that Rupert Murdoch has forged a deal with David Cameron ahead of general election
Thursday 12 November 2009
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 11, 2009
Posts
Comments
The "Business Secretary" who has never spent one working day of his life in any kind of business. The "Government Minister" for whom no-one has ever voted. The crook who changed address four different times to cheat on expense-claims, and delayed taking up his seat in the European Parliament by three months so he could renovate his UK house and make hundreds of thousands profit on it at the taxpayer's expense? That's the kind of SCUM you're dealing with when you're talking about Peter Mandelson, Lord Scrote of Foy.
Posted by Neil McGowan at 12:03pm on November 11, 2009
Neil McGowan, Could not have put it better myself,I'm afraid my comment would have many rude words about the shit.
Posted by ROBERT BOYD at 8:00pm on November 11, 2009
Well written, Mr. McGowan! Why doesn't the rest of the media (that is, all except the Sun) attack the Sun? Easier to leave it to the unspeakable Mandelson, I suppose. They ALL deserve each other.
Posted by alan scott at 10:16am on November 12, 2009
Blimey, who opened the door to the slavering nut kennel? Good article, especially Naughtie's last point.
Posted by Polsonby at 11:28am on November 12, 2009
Murdoch always backs the winner and if Mandy and his neo labour government hadn't run the country into the ground and instead looked like they would win the election things would be different, of course Murdoch wants to ingratiate himself with whoevers in power and because of this labour governments disasterous policies it won't be them for much longer.
Posted by Daniel Hewson at 11:29am on November 12, 2009
Great reading but firstly the New Deal did not get the USA out of the Depression. WW2 did that. What is suggested is propping up weak industry. It is far more expensive to have people burning up a budget at work than it is to pay unemployment benefit. However saying that radically fewer than 8 million are unemployed is dishonest and not taking any action is equally corrupt. Overall a tough problem which we suppose Mandy has in hand.
Posted by Peter Gardiner at 11:33am on November 12, 2009