In the decades after the second world war it was common to hear the bulk of Britain’s national newspapers referred to as “the Tory press”.
During the Tony Blair era that phrase fell into disuse. The publishers and editors of right-wing papers were only too delighted to see its demise, with several of them disingenuously arguing that they were independent of party allegiance.
But they have shown their true-blue colours during this general election campaign. So let’s be honest and tell it like it is. The Daily Telegraph, the Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, the Sun and Daily Star collectively constitute “the Tory press”.
The combined daily circulation of the six titles totals more than 5.2m (compared to 1.6m for the rest) and gives them a readership of about 16m. But the influence of this Conservative propaganda weapon goes far wider than their own audiences because the stories they break and the arguments they advance set the agenda for TV and radio news broadcasters, most obviously the BBC.
Day after day over the past two weeks, the entire media landscape has been dominated by the pro-Conservative and anti-Labour headlines of the Tory press.
Today’s agenda centres on two such stories: the future of Trident and the tax status of non-doms. The Telegraph’s splash, Labour’s tax plan to spark exodus, claims that “tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and business leaders will leave Britain because of Labour’s ‘cataclysmic’ plans to scrap the ‘non-dom’ tax status”.
Who says so? Experts, says the paper. And who are the experts? Tax barristers, private banks, accountants and financial advisers. There’s a surprise.
In its leading article, the Telegraph argues that Ed Miliband’s announcement that a Labour government would end the non-dom tax privilege was “a cheap election stunt that would cost Britain dear”.
It attacks Labour on the basis that it could have abolished the status when it was in power and it now wishes “to create an election narrative that paints the Tories as friends of the rich and Labour the doughty champion of the underdog”. This, says the paper, is “pious nonsense”. It continues:
“It is not merely the non-doms’ contribution to Britain’s retail takings and the exchequer’s VAT receipts that will be jeopardised by a Labour government.
The dynamism of many of these people is behind the rapid rise of the City of London to be the world’s premier financial centre. Without their contribution, the public programmes that Labour wants to expand would be shredded”.
The Times splashed on “‘Backstabber’ Miliband attacked over Trident”. Its leader, while conceding that there is an excellent case for ending non-dom status, still managed to attack Miliband for having “elevated a historical anomaly of marginal financial significance into a campaign theme that targets foreigners and enterprise”.
After pointing out that the previous Labour government’s failed to abolish non-dom status the paper stands on its head by maintaining that “capitalism will not prosper if it is associated with the idea of tax breaks for the rich”.
The news story about the issue in the Financial Times (which I have generously - and, in my view, rightly - omitted from being designated as part of the Tory press) is headlined “Tories attacks Balls over non-doms U-turn”.
It also carries a measured op-ed piece by Chris Giles in which he takes both the main parties to task for their “positively dangerous” tax pledges. He writes:
“In seeking to reassure voters that the only people who might have to pay higher taxes are bad and rich, Britain’s politicians have forgotten that one of the fundamental purposes of taxation systems is to bind people into a shared national endeavour.
Part of the price of living in a civilised and liberal democracy is the payment, according to one’s means, of taxes necessary to ensure the essential functions of the state...
Hollow tax promises undermine the state’s ability to function and leave Britain few desirable options if the world does not turn out as we all hope”.
The Sun’s editorial on the subject is anything but measured. Miliband “doesn’t give a damn if it works for Britain as long as it sounds good for Labour... What’s crucial to Miliband is securing Labour votes with his absurd pose as a class warrior against the rich”.
But the Sun, like its grown-up sister, the Times, has to admit that “some of the non-dom policy should be changed”. It argues: “We don’t believe anyone should inherit non-dom status. That’s ridiculous. And the annual levy they pay to avoid UK tax on non-UK earnings is too low even at £90,000. You could hit oligarchs for £250,000 without a blink”.
Even so, the Sun returns to its central anti-Miliband theme with a final sentence: “Unless enough people wake up to it, he and his comedy troupe will get their hands on the nation’s finances again in 27 days”.
The Express leading article condemns Labour’s proposal as cynical for playing to the gallery “without taking account either of economic reality nor indeed the the party’s position on it a few months ago”.
As with other papers, and broadcasters, it mentions the fact that shadow chancellor Ed Balls was sceptical about an end to non-dom status qwhen speaking to the BBC in January.
But, as only the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror, points out, the papers quoting Balls’s statement conveniently cut out and overlook “his crucial last sentence” in which he said: “I think we can be tougher – and we should be and we will”.
I noted that last line in the BBC clips shown on its news bulletins yesterday, but the significance - that Balls supported a tougher stance on non-dom status - was not pointed out to viewers.
In its leader on non-doms, the Mirror says: “The divide in politics between Labour and the Conservatives suddenly looks wider than the Grand Canyon”.
For the Mail, however, the issue that puts “clear blue water” between the Tories and Labour (and the SNP) is Trident. It praise the Conservatives for their pledge to spend £100bn on four new Trident nuclear submarines and urges them, should they form a government, to spend 2% of GDP on defence. How so?
“There’s plenty of money in the bloated, grotesquely wasteful foreign aid pot – which has been increasing, while most major nations cut back – that could be better spent keeping this country safe”.
The Sun also backs the Tories on Trident and scorns “the SNP and Labour’s lefties who dream of a nuke-free cloud cuckoo land”. It concludes: “Nukes remain our best insurance against the apocalypse an unstable regime could inflict on us”.
Whatever the subject, for the last couple of weeks, the Tory press have spoken with one voice. Expect more of the same over the coming month.
