Why poor Mr Howard can’t get a good press, even from Tory newspapers

The Tory party conference began on Monday, and Radio 4’s Today programme gave it the kind of send-off reserved for truly hopeless causes. Item after item emphasised the Tories’ unfitness to govern, their uniformly low spirits and their enduring unpopularity. One excited reporter even suggested that the party might slide off the political map as the Liberals did, an event which he chose to place in the 19th century. The reason for all this wailing and gnashing of teeth was the Conservatives’ abysmal performance in the Hartlepool by-election — which we had known about for three days — and a Populus poll which appeared in that morning’s Times showing the party’s support at 28 per cent. The story covered almost the whole of the front page of the tabloid version of the paper, and was about as unfriendly to the Tories as it was possible to be in the circumstances, and as supportive of Tony Blair. It read: ‘Poll trouble for Tories as Blair bounces back’.

Many people will argue that the media’s almost universal depiction of the Conservatives as a bunch of no-hopers is no less than the truth. Maybe so. But this dire version of events should be viewed in the context of the government’s own tribulations. Tony Blair’s personal ratings have plummeted, and most people believe that he lied to them over the Iraq war. Blairites and Brownites are at one another’s throats. The Labour party did not have a particularly successful conference. Of course, the press has given full vent to the Prime Minister’s difficulties, but the effect has not been to encourage it to take another and more sympathetic look at the Tories. Far from it. The anti-Tory papers — the Guardian, Independent and Daily Mirror — do not bother to conceal their contempt. The Murdoch press — the Sun and the Times — remain staunchly Blairite, and are inclined to minimise or ignore his lies and inconsistencies over Iraq.