Back in 1992, there was a British general election which pitted a still largely Thatcherite Conservative party now led by John Major against an unreconstructed Labour party led by Neil Kinnock—who had also been the Labour leader defeated by Mrs. Thatcher in 1987. Labour was widely expected to win. On election day, the country’s biggest-selling tabloid newspaper, The Sun, which was and is owned by Rupert Murdoch, ran an anti-Labour article under the headline: “If Neil Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.” After the Tories unexpectedly won their fourth consecutive election that day, The Sun crowed: “It Was The Sun Wot Won It!” Whether or not this was true, the claim was widely believed, not least by the Labour Party itself which, first under John Smith and then under Tony Blair, proceeded to transform itself into “New Labour,” to obtain the...

 

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