The novelty of this transformed choreography takes the breath away. Senior figures in both the bigger parties are used to paying homage. As a BBC political correspondent, I was the only journalist who travelled with Tony Blair in July 1995 for his famous meeting with Rupert Murdoch at a conference in Australia. The investment of political and physical energy was staggering. Murdoch issued an invitation at relatively short notice to Blair, a summons that could not be ignored. Blair, Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter dropped all plans, flew for 24 hours, taking sleeping pills to manage the jet lag, attended the conference and returned in time for Prime Minister's Questions.
There was no formal deal between the future prime minister and the mighty media emperor during that fleeting round-the-world trip, but I was certain by the end of it that at the very least The Sun would be neutral and Murdoch could relax about future media ownership laws. Subsequently Campbell's deputy in No 10, Lance Price, described Murdoch as the third most powerful figure in the Labour government after Blair and Gordon Brown. Murdoch's editors were the equivalent of powerful apparatchiks in a dictatorship.
Similarly, when in doubt, as Cameron and George Osborne often were in the early days of their leadership, they turned to News International. Their appointment of Andy Coulson showed the importance they attached to securing the endorsement of those who count. Read more.
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