The Battle For Campaign Agenda In Britain — страница 9
17 percent of all issue coverage in the press focussed on foreign policy, nearly all concerning Britain’s role within the European Union29. As discussed earlier, the press headlined Conservative splits over Europe: almost a fifth of the coverage of Conservative issues (19 percent) focussed on Europe. The Conservative agenda was also sabotaged by the issue of standards of public life: 18 percent of their total issue coverage in the press concerned stories about sex and sleaze. This was also the number one topic in editorials30. The extent to which the Conservatives lost the battle of the media agenda can be illustrated most clearly by this issue. The first week of the campaign was dominated by the ‘cash for questions’ row when part of the unpublished Commons report by Sir George Downey was leaked to The Guardian on 21st March. As a result 23 Conservative MPs entered the election with a cloud over their heads, notably Neil Hamilton in Tatton and Tim Smith in Beaconsfield. During the second week, the Tories started to mount a counter-offensive: both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph led with a splash story about the ‘union threat’ under Labour, with the Mail publishing a ’secret union hit list’ of employers. Conservative Central Office tried to lead their press conference on this story but before they could gain any traction this news was swept off the front pages by the resignation of Allan Stewart, an ex-minister and Conservative MP for Glasgow Eastwood, forced to stand down following allegation of an old affair which were published in the Sunday Mail. On Thursday 27th, in a classic case of cheque-book journalism, the Sun led a scoop with photos of the Conservative MP, Piers Merchant, caught embracing a “17-year-old blonde Soho nightclub hostess” while out canvassing in his Beckenham constituency (”SCANDAL OF TORY MP’S MISTRESS, 17″, the Sun). Even the pro-Conservative Express and Mail could not resist giving this set-up story front-page coverage, and it continued to rumble on in the press throughout the quiet Easter weekend. As if this was not enough, that same day Tim Smith, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, confessed to taking 25,000 from Harrods’s owner, Mohammed Al Fayed, and he stood down from his candidacy. While the tabloids headlined sex, the broadsheets had their exclusives based on corruption, with the crusade against Tim Smith led by The Guardian (”THE DISHONOURABLE MEMBER”), thereby also renewing pressure on Neil Hamilton in Tatton. The following week Sir Michael Hirst, chairman of the Scottish Conservative party, and front-runner for the recently vacated Glasgow Eastwood seat, had to resign because of allegations of past indiscretions in his private life. The story first broke in the Scottish press, but it was reputed to have been planted by malcontents from within the Scottish Conservative party. Whether all of these stories were really ‘news’, suitable of headline treatment in this feeding frenzy, is highly debatable, but the culture of sensationalism in the British press was by now too well entrenched to avoid such treatment. The start of April saw the launch of the official manifestoes, and more traditional, issue-oriented coverage returned, but by then a third of the campaign period had been dominated by sleaze. Coverage reinforced the widespread sense that the government had run its course, and become faintly disreputable, divided and tired, fuelling the ‘time for a change’ sentiment. The issue failed to go away since Neil Hamilton (claiming to be innocent of cash for questions until proved guilty) refused to resign. John Major refused to intervene in Tatton, although he had earlier indicated that Piers Merchant (caught guilty of kissing) should rethink his position in the interests of the party, a curious choice of priorities concerning suitable standards in public life, and one not, apparently, shared by the electorate31. The ‘battle for Tatton’ made headlines throughout the fourth week after Labour and the Liberal Democrats agreed to withdraw their candidates. This allowed the BBC war correspondent, Martin Bell, to stand, and eventually win, as the first independent MP (without any previous party affiliation) for fifty years. The soap opera of Tatton, with all the personal drama of Hamilton v. Bell, was just too good a news story for any journalists, including those working for the Tory tabloids, to keep off their front pages. By dissolving parliament six weeks before polling day, well before the traditional launch of the manifestos and the formal beginning of the campaign, Major blundered into creating a yawning news hole into which, like the White Rabbit, fell the
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