Rupert Murdoch launches a new channel, C4 is threatened and notions of impartiality seem up for grabs. Are we seeing a challenge to the old order?
Britain’s stubborn attachment to non-Tory values infuriates and worries Conservative politicians to equal degree. Yes, there is a suspicion of immigration or welfare cheats and an attachment to law and order they can exploit, but belief in fairness, in standing together and public spiritedness and, increasingly, in matters green seem impervious to attack.
Right-of-centre British newspapers have done an unparalleled job in attempting to move public opinion to the right, but as their circulation declines so their influence wanes. Without a politician of the campaigning zest of Boris Johnson, Tories concede, their chance of winning elections will fade. The imperative is to use the current conjuncture to follow the US and build a broadcast media as effective as the fading print media in cheerleading the Conservative cause. Public service broadcasting and, above all, broadcast regulators’ attachment to impartiality are in their crosshairs.