Is David Cameron getting an easy ride from the press? Alice Miles of The Times thinks so. She says that if former Labour leader Neil Kinnock had offered up as little policy detail as the would-be Conservative Prime Minister has, he would have been met with “howls of derision”
But this goes further than just journalists getting bored of “bottler” Brown – it’s about class. She says:
Instead of derision, the Tories have enjoyed deference. In place of scrutiny, eulogy. No ridicule, just respect. Yes, this is about class: a cowering media is doffing its collective cap to David Cameron and George Osborne.
There certainly has been positive coverage of the conference – even from chief Cameron critic Simon Heffer – with some qualified praise from traditionally left-leaning papers.
But is it really “like watching the Proletariat bowing before the lords of the manor”? It will be interesting to see which way Rupert Murdoch’s papers go in the next election, just as it is equally unsure which way papers like the Daily Mail. The Guardian and Times will go. At the moment they seem to be hedging their bets.
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