问答题The relationship between politicians and the press
 In the seaside town of Brighton in southern England the ruling Labour Party’s annual conference is getting underway. It’s a time for both Mps and grassroots members to take stock of how the party is doing, to discuss policy and to hear, hopefully inspiring speeches. The party delegates will be hoping too for plenty of coverage from the media assembled there.
 Newspapers in Britain have long had great influence over Governments, much to the resentment of the politicians. Almost seventy-five years ago, the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin accused the two big press barons, Lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere, of running their papers as “engines of propaganda” for the “personal wishes and personal dislikes of two men”. He famously accused them of seeking “power without responsibilitythe prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.” It’s hard to imagine the current Prime Minister Tony Blair attacking the tabloid press so publicly.
 The former editor of the Daily Mirror Piers Morgan claimed earlier this year that he met the Labour leader no fewer than fifty-eight times for lunches, dinners or interviews, a statistic which astonished many in Government and the media, who thought a party leader and Prime Minister should have had better ways to spend his time. But Tony Blair has good reason to court the press. In Britain, Labour, left-of-centre governments, have always had problems with national newspapers, most of whose owners traditionally supported the right-of-centre Conservative Party. This came to a head on Election Day in 1992 when Labour seemed set to win power for the first time in eighteen years.
 In those days, Britain’s biggest-selling daily paper, the sun, part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, was no friend of Labour, indeed it had been Margaret Thatcher’s biggest cheerleader. That morning, on its front page, it depicted the bald head of the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock as a light bulb. Alongside ran the headline: “If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights?” Labour lost. By the next election, Tony Blair was the party’s leader and determined to win over, or at least neutralize, The Sun and its owner. He succeeded, moving the Labor Party towards the center ground, and gaining The Sun’s endorsement at the last three elections.
 Once in Government, Labour played hardball with the media, relishing its power, and aware that if it did not take charge of the agenda, the media would. Its key figure was the former political editor of the Daily Mirror, Alasdair Campbell, who took charge not just of the Prime Minister’s press office but all government press officers, trying to ensure the Government spoke with one voice. Journalists who reported favorably were given privileged access; those who didn’t were frozen out.
 Mr. Blair maintained his close links with R Murdoch and his newspapers; doing everything he could to maintain their support. Lance Price claims in his diaries that the Government assured the tycoon and his editors that it wouldn’t change its policy on Europe without asking them.