Severin Carrell reports that tomorrow’s edition of the Sun will endorse Alex Salmond and the SNP. This should not surprise anyone. I suspect most of the Scottish press will support, albeit with significant qualifications, the Nationalists. The most significant of those qualifications is that this is a Holyrood election, not a Westminster one. Endorsing the SNP does not require anyone to support independence it’s merely making the best of a poor job and recognising that the Nats are a more attractive choice than Labour.
The press is prepared to back Salmond but only because independence is not on the immediate or even medium-term agenda. If it were the Nats would find themselves defriended by many of their erstwhile backers in the press. No major Scottish newspaper supports independence; most are likely, I think, to recommend Salmond be given another shot at Holyrood. This owes something to the way in which Salmond is perceived and much to the inadequacies of Labour’s campaign. I cannot imagine the Scotsman or Scotland on Sunday backing Labour and nor, I think, will the Herald, Sunday Herald or Sunday Times.
Which leaves the dear old Daily Record group as Labour’s sole remaining Pavlovian cheerleader. As Severin says, that helps explain the Sun’s preference for Salmond. Sure, the paper has hammered the Nats before but it’s also backed them when it’s made commercial sense to do so or when the Nationalists have looked to be the coming men. Rupert Murdoch, remember, is a businessman first, a newspaperman second and an ideologue third.
In any case, an SNP win at Holyrood is good for the Tories and that’s another reason for the Sun’s willingness to support the SNP. Nationalists should not suppose that this endorsement is a matter of conviction or likely to be for the long-term. At the next Westminster election the Scottish edition of the Sun is likely to be quieter than it’s English counterpart and it’s unlikely to offer as much support to the SNP as it is willing to do in the different circumstances of a Scottish election.
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