I have recently been reading Nick Davies’ Hack Attack, and you bet there’s going to be a review. In the meantime, here’s Alex Salmond in October 2010. Rupert Murdoch wants to buy the rest of BSkyB, has already planted Andy Coulson in Downing Street, and his lawyers are fighting Justice Vos’s demand that they hand over the e-mails.
Fred Michel [Murdoch’s PR man] persuaded the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, to tell newspapers in Scotland that the bid was important to protect jobs
This was when Vince Cable was trying to hold out against the lobbying, and his spad Giles Wilkes (of blogging fame) comes out pretty well from it.
Later on, in February 2011, with much more of the truth about his papers in the public domain, even though they’d got rid of Cable, OFCOM was proving difficult. PR man Michel had a card up his sleeve.
In the background, Fred Michel wheeled in the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, who agreed to talk to Hunt about the importance of the bid for the Scottish economy and wondered if Sky News would like to organise a pre-election TV debate featuring himself
When Murdoch needed him the most, Salmond came through. Now, Murdoch comes through for him.
Bigger problem! Wrestling with Scottish vote. Scottish Sun No. 1.
Head over heart, or just maybe both lead to same conclusion.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 10, 2014
Or maybe not?
RT @rupertmurdoch: SNP not talking about independence, but more more welfarism, expensive greenery, etc and passing sovereignty to Brussels.
— Frances Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) September 14, 2014
I’m always early, he’s always late. One thing you learn is, you always gotta wait.
Politicians often try to deal with Murdoch on a transactional basis, but the problem is that he doesn’t deal with them on market terms. The bully at the bully pulpit of crash-bang capitalism does not practice it himself. It’s too risky. Rather, he wants to create an enduring patron-client relationship, to shape the human terrain in which he operates. He doesn’t rent; he owns.
What will Murdoch be allowed to do in Scotland post-yes? As far as I can see it, the only politicians in the UK who mean to stand up to him are Labour heroes like Tom Watson, Chris Bryant, and, yes, Gordon Brown, Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price, and a few hyper-unionist Tories like, yah, Peter Oborne. The rotten centre is nowhere. It has never been able to convince itself that it has enemies in that quarter, even when the police informed it of the illegal surveillance, as was true of Tessa Jowell.
True enough. You have to think that Scotland will be easily bullied by all sorts of large corporations.
On the other hand, the Tories have run amok during this coalition and the UK polls (see UK polling report) suggest at best a 30 seat majority for Labour. It’s very hard to see how being yoked to SE England does Scotland (or indeed Yorkshire) much good in the long term.
Essentially we’re already in dystopia, with no good options.
You could say the same thing for London. My big meta-argument is that all these schemes to somehow get off the hook of winning a UK general election are cop-outs in the end.
The trouble with UK GEs is that too many people end up picking the least unpalatable option, and that the entry of new parties with alternative ideas is badly impaired by FPTP. We might see a situation at the 2015 GE where Green+UKIP+Other get >25% of the vote but have one or two MPs each.
The use of AMS in Scottish elections is hardly ideal but provided the window for alternative parties to enter. Not just the SNP but also the Scottish Greens. Patrick Harvie has been representing them extremely well.
Traditionally the UK operates on internal party coalitions rather than explicit coalition. But recent party discipline has been too strong to allow genuine discussion and promotion of talent outside the orthodoxy.
Indeed. A few weeks ago I was talking with some folk who are rather right wing conservative (I’m kind of the opposite) and they bemoaned the lack of interesting people in politics. Sure, some of that is just standard “it was better in my days, we had proper clowns” stuff, but it was also a genuine recognition that interesting and otherwise good people were just not getting a look in. So I suggested “the triumph of the political class” to them as background reading.