MEDIA STUDIES
At the voice of Middle England, a lost harmony
STEPHEN GLOVER
Why should Lord Rothermere have thrown in his lot with Tony Blair? He is too wily an old bird to have been moved simply by sentiment. No doubt he likes Mr Blair, as he says. He has met him often. He also loves causing mischief, which he has cer- tainly succeeded in doing. But there is more to this defection than the admiration of an older man for a younger one, or his love for teasing his employees.
For one thing, Lord Rothermere hopes to get something out of a Blair government. Eighteen years of Conservative rule may have produced the economic conditions which helped to make Associated Newspa- pers, publisher of the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and the London Evening Stan- dard, into a hugely profitable group. But the company received no special favours, whereas it is felt that Rupert Murdoch did. Lord Rothermere and Sir David English, chairman of Associated, have been courting Mr Blair so assiduously in the hope that when great media issues such as cross- ownership come to be discussed their sup- port will count in their favour.
Then there is the question of Europe, on which New Labour recommends itself to Lord Rothermere and Sir David much more than do the increasingly Eurosceptic Tories. Lord Rothermere's main residence happens to be in Paris, and he regards him- self as a European man. But it is not just a question of personal preferences. His Lord- ship believes that Labour is on the same wavelength as what he described as 'the developing popular mood' in an article in the Evening Standard last Friday, and that this mood is not viciously Eurosceptic. A popular newspaper like the Daily Mail Lord Rothermere's flagship title — should also be in tune with the zeitgeist.
All this explains Lord Rothermere's pub- lic conversion to Blairism, and Sir David's vote for New Labour on 1 May. They were able to deliver the Evening Standard to Mr Blair (with the willing co-operation of its editor, Max Hastings), though the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail grouchily sup- Ported the Tories. It is a remarkable fact about Associated, where as much fear and loathing exist as in any newspaper office, that its editors are allowed to do more or less what they want so long as they do not lose circulation. The editors of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail were left to their own devices.
Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, is hardly in communion with the mood of the times as defined by Lord Rothermere, at any rate so far as Euroscepticism is con- cerned. Lord Rothermere has had occasion to balk at Mr Dacre's extreme anti-Euro- peanism before. Over two years ago a mes- sage was delivered to Mr Dacre via Sir David telling him to ease up a little, which he did for a time. But Mr Dacre cannot be long restrained. He has been running an anti-European paper rather than a pro- Tory one. When Mr Dacre came to deliver his editorial verdict before the election, it was based solely on Europe, on which he believes the Tories are more to be trusted.
The trouble is that, although in funda- mental disagreement with him on Europe, Lord Rothermere regards Mr Dacre very highly. How could he do otherwise, given that Mr Dacre has presided over an increase of some 300,000 (almost 20 per cent) in the Mail's circulation since he became editor nearly five years ago? There is no reason to doubt Lord Rothermere's praise of Mr Dacre on BBC Radio 4's The World at One, when he described him as `probably the most brilliant editor in Fleet Street'. On the other hand, he added some- thing that cannot be written off as mere mischief-making. Mr Dacre was entitled to express his anti-European sentiments, but 'if they start to affect circulation, that will be different'.
These few words have caused confusion and consternation at Associated Newspa- pers' offices in Kensington. Every editor and every journalist there wants naturally to please his Lordship. Or at any rate, not to displease him. He is the boss, not exactly hands-on, it is true, but a presence felt throughout the office. Particularly on the Daily Mail, it was thought to be the ulti- mate responsibility of every journalist to advance the cause of Conservatism and to oppose socialism in every shape and form. Yet now Lord Rothermere praises Mr Blair as 'a modern man' and makes a slightly ominous remark about Mr Dacre.
One person in Kensington who is very happy is Max Hastings, editor of the Evening Standard. During an interview on the Today programme he could not conceal his delight that Lord Rothermere was Classifieds — pages 59 and 62 jumping on a bandwagon he had set rolling. When John Humphrys quoted passages from Mr Dacre's eve-of-election anti-Euro- pean leader (`There is a terrible danger that the British people, drugged by the seductive mantra "It's time for a change," are stumbling, eyes glazed, into an election that could undo 1,000 years of our nation's history'), Mr Hastings chuckled like the school swot when the dunce's essay is read out in class.
Mr Dacre may be forgiven for being a lit- tle upset. He can justifiably feel that he has done his job at the Mail well enough not to deserve public remarks of the sort made by Lord Rothermere. He also has a strong case for believing that he is more in touch with his readers than his proprietor. Most of them are probably opposed to the kind of European integration that Lord Rother- mere favours. And only a minority supports Mr Blair. In an election which saw the biggest ever swing to Labour, 49 per cent of Mail readers who voted still supported the Tories, and only 29 per cent Labour. Even if this government is reasonably successful, many Mail readers who deserted the Tories are bound to return to them sooner or later.
Lord Rothermere is nonetheless the boss. There are signs of the Mail accommo- dating itself to the changed world. In a fea- ture on Monday, Lady Thatcher's admira- tion for Tony Blair was emphasised in an account of their recent meeting, and the Labour leader was portrayed as her natural heir. An editorial in Tuesday's Mail urged New Labour to continue the Tories' privati- sation programme: 'Stand by for a continu- ation of Margaret Thatcher's sale of the century.' So long as Mr Blair plays ball, this will be the Mail's line, and one that will not displease Lord Rothermere: Blair as the best bulwark against the Left and the con- tinuation of Margaret Thatcher by other means.
But on Europe there is very little scope for Mr Dacre being able to delight Lord Rothermere. He is too deeply devoted to the anti-European cause. A happy and suc- cessful editor needs more than the backing of his proprietor: they must be in some kind of philosophical harmony. This sense of harmony Lord Rothermere and his edi- tor have lost. However much Mr Dacre is truthfully told that he is loved and valued, he knows he does not have his proprietor's complete trust.
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