A KEY QUESTION

by RAY FLEMING
THERE is a question we must not forget to ask while we are analysing opinion polls, assessing policies and unravelling the details of the Downing Street plotting. It is this: which way will Rupert Murdoch jump? With the Sun at one end of the electoral spectrum and The Times at the other his influence remains potent, however vehemently he may claim that he does not tell his editors what to say. It was surely significant that yesterday's Sun had a lachrymose Gordon Brown shedding a tear over the child he and his wife lost soon after its birth. At the same time the newspaper published a poll that “suggests Mr Brown has won back the trust of the voters” after the “Tony Blair coup affair”. What a fickle lot the voters seem to be. One week they are said to be outraged by Mr Brown's triumphant smile after leaving a meeting with the Prime Minister but in no time at all he is forgiven. While all this has been going on the Conservative strategy has been consummate: say nothing at all about Labour's travails. However, Mr Cameron will soon have to give serious thought to his relations with Mr Murdoch. In so far as anything is known thus far it seems that the News Corporation boss is no better than luke-warm about the Conservative leader. That is hardly surprising; Mr Murdoch's model for the job was, and probably still is, Margaret Thatcher.