This has been a strange campaign, even without the volcanic eruption which occurred in the Manchester studios of ITV as the first leaders’ debate unfolded and Cleggmania burst upon an unsuspecting electorate.
Before it began, there was much speculation that this could be the first new media election. Clearly it hasn’t been. We’d been primed to expect an upsurge of activity on the political blogosphere, to see Facebook elbowing door-knocking aside, to witness Twitter explosions by the hour and to watch as gaffe after gaffe was recorded on mobile phones, uploaded to YouTube and emailed around the world. But the only happening of substance that can be attributed to the new media is the odd – very odd – Labour candidate being forced to stand down as a result of inappropriate tweeting. Both cases raise disturbing questions about the selection process in these two seats, but that’s for another time.
Instead it’s been old-fashioned debates – admittedly ones that have never happened before – that have dominated the campaign and, potentially, affected the outcome in a way that no media intervention has achieved since the Zinoviev Letter of 1924. That was when a forgery published by the Daily Mail ensured that the first Labour Government was not returned to power.
But even if this election has not been the first new media campaign, history might well judge that we have seen the last of the old. The TV debates have been revolutionary – giving the party leaders and the public four hours of unexpurgated peak television time in which to focus on the issues, unmediated by the press, the broadcasters or the army of online politicos.
The campaign has also been noticeable for the decline in importance of the daily press conference. Until this election, every campaign day began with hacks rubbing the sleep from their eyes as they traipsed from Liberal Democrat to Labour to Conservative early morning press conferences, where they dutifully listened to the party leaders trying (and usually failing) to set the day’s news agenda.
Now, with the leaders’ debates dominating and many journalists seemingly uninterested in policy, these press conferences have become something of an occasional sideshow where discussion has been mainly confined to hung and unhung parliaments
One aspect of the changes taking place, and one that should give Tribune readers some cheer, is the apparent decline in the influence of the Tory press as a political force. It was on the eve of the second of the leaders’ debates that evidence of this decline became most stark. Following meetings at Tory high command, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and The Sun all unleashed torrents of ordure on Nick Clegg in the hope of destabilising him and denting his and his party’s popularity. The bile was reminiscent of the sort of material thrown at Labour during the 1980s and ’90s. But the onslaught had no discernible effect. Clegg performed as well in the second debate as he had in the first and his party’s standing in the polls remained virtually unchanged.
Nor do I think this was a one-off. Months ago, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun mounted a campaign to discredit Gordon Brown, because the mother of a soldier who had died in Afghanistan took exception to the condolence letter he had written. Day after day, The Sun attacked the Prime Minister, but the public were unmoved. They were not offended by Brown. Indeed, they were impressed with the fact that he wrote personal letters of condolence and they understood why his visual impairment might mean his handwriting was less than perfect.
Another such moment occurred when, following Andrew Rawnsley’s allegations about “Brown the bully”, a media mob piled into the PM. His poll ratings remained unchanged. People were either unbelieving, unsurprised or unfazed by stories of a testosterone-charged Downing Street.
So what’s going on and what is causing this change? Being a “glass half full, rather than half empty” sort of person, I’m inclined to the view that the public is increasingly thinking for itself and finding its own voice. Put it down to a reaction to MPs’ expenses, the interactivity of the internet or even the impact of reality TV. Whatever it is, something is bubbling under – something that might just manifest itself on May 6. And even if Britain’s electoral map is not turned upside down next week, election campaigns are never going to be the same again.
