Newspapers and the Election

[John Simkin]

I am old enough to remember the days when newspapers like the Sun and the Telegraph warned its readers not to vote for the Labour Party because of its socialist policies. I therefore had to laugh this morning when I read these newspaper’s editorials on the election.

The Sun is urging people to vote Labour. It argues: “polls prove that few people realise just how extreme the Lib Dems’ policies are. None is more threatening than the proposal to go soft on drugs… A Lib Dem government, should that nightmare ever come true, would signal that Britain is a haven for criminal gangs dealing in drugs.”

The Daily Telegraph still supports the Conservatives but it does not mind its readers voting New Labour. However, it is concerned about its readers voting Lib Dem. This morning’s editorial points out: “Under a Liberal Democrat regime, there would indeed be devolution: not of power to local citizens, but of meddlesome regulatory authority to local councils and new statutory bodies… This is the world view of socialists, not of libertarians.”