No. 10 admits Clegg right to differentiate Lib Dems from Tories/Labour over cosying-up to Murdoch
by Stephen Tall on April 25, 2012
In today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, a riled David Cameron appealed across the political divide to the other major conservative party in the Commons, inviting all politicians to accept they’d been guilty of cosying-up to the Murdochs’ News International empire.
Nick Clegg was having none of it:
Clegg mouths ‘no we didn’t’ as Cam said all politicians cosied up to News International.
— Craig Woodhouse (@craigawoodhouse) April 25, 2012
And Number 10 has admitted he’s got a point:
No.10 spkswmn admits Clegg right to mouth ‘no we didn’t’ re cosying to Murdoch. “We all know..it was primarily Lab + the Cons”
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) April 25, 2012
It’s worth rewinding two years, to April 2010, to recall the prophetic words of reformed Sun editor David Yelland:
I doubt if Rupert Murdoch watched the election debate last week. His focus is very firmly on the United States, especially his resurgent Wall Street Journal. But if he did, there would have been one man totally unknown to him. One man utterly beyond the tentacles of any of his family, his editors or his advisers. That man is Nick Clegg.
Make no mistake, if the Liberal Democrats actually won the election – or held the balance of power – it would be the first time in decades that Murdoch was locked out of British politics. In so many ways, a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote against Murdoch and the media elite.