There is no such thing as a Tory press anymore

Earlier this week ConservativeHome highlighted the Daily Mail's shallow response to Gordon Brown's Conference speech.  Yesterday's leader in The Mail was as ungenerous to David Cameron as the newspaper had been generous to The Chancellor.  The Mail's behaviour when set alongside The Daily Telegraph's suspicion Project Cameron and the ways in which The Sun has still been spinning for New Labour does give credence to Peter Oborne's view that there is no longer a reliable Tory press.  Mr Oborne is quoted in today's Independent on Sunday saying the following:

"The Tory press is a fantasy in the minds of people like Polly Toynbee. It doesn't exist any more and it hasn't since 1990 when it fragmented and parts of it then went pro-Blair. The real division in the British press is between the neocons and the rest - America versus Europe if you like - and in the neocon camp I would put the Telegraph, News International, the Express and The Observer [because of its stance on Iraq and Blair's foreign policy]."

Mr Oborne has emerged as one of Fleet Street's leading backers of David Cameron - yesterday writing an article for The Daily Mail predicting that the Tory leader will be able to crush Gordon Brown.  Bruce Anderson, Matthew d'Ancona, Daniel Finkelstein, Michael Portillo and Alice Thomson are other columnists who reliably defend Project Cameron.

Related link from April: David Cameron's cheerleaders in the press (and the lack of them)

Comments

[Tapestry]

David Cameron is friendless in the BBC, SKY TV, The Mail, The Telegraph, The Times, Uncle Tom Cobley and all - he is fighting Labour, Lib Dem, Green, and the Conservative Party too. And yet he keeps on coming.

He has clear ideas of what he is doing and what he wishes to achieve, so he can keep moving forwards against any and all opposition. He just bats Gordon Brown aside, and depicts Blair as superficial which he is.

Murdoch has attacked him the most for having no 'substance' - but these attacks lack substance themselves. I predict a humdinger of a conference.

[malcolm]

Don't agree Henry. The majority of coverage from the Telegraph,Mail and the Times is pro Conservative but it is certainly true that the slavish loyalty of the the Thatcher years seems no more.Interestingly though the same is true of the left wing press which criticise Labour on a number of fronts other than foreign policy. Personally I think it healthy that parties can no longer take the press for granted.

[geoff gilson]

Hmm. I dunno. The Tories had a pretty good run with the press for a number of years. Maybe there's something the media know that the rest of us ought to. We, at the Conservative Campaign for Compassion, against Corruption think so. Secret Tory Funds is a good place to begin. Read on.

We truly believe David Cameron when he ways he wants to break with the tragic elements of the Conservative Party’s past, and re-introduce responsibility and compassion to British society.

But, we want his actions to match his words.

It is for that reason that we have addressed an open letter to David Cameron, inviting him to take responsibility for the past Conservative Arms Corruption, and to have the courage to break with that past, by annulling those of his recent appointments which would revive Tory Arms Corruption upon the election of a new Conservative Government.

Here is that letter:

"Dear David,

I write as an expatriate, but as one who spent some ten years working with the Conservative Party, at the highest level, and as one who still regards himself as a Tory loyalist.

I believe you when you say you wish truly to modernise the Party; but I also believe that you can only offer the Party as the future when you have first taken care of the past.

I attach a copy of my book, Dead Men Don’t Eat Lunch ( www.lulu.com/content/384105 ). You can find a summary of its findings at: www.conservativecampaign.com/tory_arms_corruption.php

I invite you to address the following three challenges at this week’s Party Conference:-

1. Come clean about the allegations in the book. Namely that the Conservative Governments of 1979-1997 instituted a systemic regime of arms corruption in Whitehall and Westminster, that has had an ongoing and distorting influence upon its successor New Labour administration, and upon the internal workings of the Conservative Party itself.

2. Agree to do the right thing by the families of Hugh John Simmonds, CBE and Dr. David Kelly, CB. In their different ways, they were both servants of their respective Governments, who died as a consequence of knowing too much about arms corruption. Their families deserve better. At the very least, they deserve to know the truth. Call for the re-opening of their respective Coroners' Inquiries.

3. Dismantle the apparatus that you have already put in place, which, whether you know it or not, has the fullest intention of reviving Tory arms corruption when the Conservatives return to power. As a first step, immediately annul the appointments of Michael Ashcroft, Alan Duncan, Julian Lewis and Gerald Howarth to their respective Party and Front Bench positions.

David, you have a wonderful opportunity to show that you are, indeed, a different sort of politician. One who truly stands shoulder to shoulder with ordinary people, against forces that would wantonly distort their everyday lives. Break the mould, David.

You are the same age now that Hugh Simmonds was when he died so unnecessarily in 1988. Show the world that you have the mettle to stand up to the corrupting influences in the British body politic.

Help those families who have no reason to hurt, but who hurt nonetheless, because of the callous actions of those corrupting influences. Show your country that you stand at the head of a Party, which not only talks the talk, but walks the walk, when it comes to conservative compassion.

Take a stand, David. Modernise all of the Conservative Party. Take it away from its dishonourable past, and into a future of genuine honesty and compassion.”

If there is nothing to hide, then David Cameron will not hide. Clever side-stepping, from an accomplished PR man, will be hiding.

P. Geoffrey Gilson/Conservative Campaign Against Corruption

[Monday Clubber]

"David Cameron is friendless in...The Telegraph"

Tapestry if you really believe that you must have blasted off into outer space.

I assume you have never read the sycophantic witterings of Siamese Twin Cameroons Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson?

Nor the pompous pontifications of Matthew "Maggie's backing Portillo" D'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph?

I admit that there are occasional signs that even these snivelling courtiers may be having early doubts about the Ineffable Dave, but beyond these slight stirrings they remain fervently loyal to "The Project"

Still, if you have never read their worthless rubbish, I sincerely envy you.

[Monday Clubber]

"Geoffrey Gilson/Conservative Campaign Against Corruption"

Geoffrey I remember you when you were an excellent Chairman of, I think, Beaconsfield YCs.

Hugh Simmonds CBE, sometime Mayor of Beaconsfield, was indeed a Tory of distinction who could have risen to the very top. Much mystery continues to surround his tragic death.

If Cameron is indeed a Conservative who cares he will surely treat your request with the seriousness it deserves.

I look forward to hearing more on the progress of your campaign.