The End of the Road for Brown and Labour? The Sun Says Yes!

As of Wednesday this week, The Sun has switched its support to the Conservatives. Does this signal the end of for Gordon Brown? A historical look at the mass media and voting suggests that if a party has the support of The Sun they will gain the most seats in the general election.

Opinion polls in 1992 varied with some suggesting a small Labour lead and others suggesting a small Conservative lead. None of the major opinion polls suggested that the Conservatives would have a 7.5% lead over Labour however. Reasons for this have been put forward: inaccurate sampling (sociologists can associate with this), ‘shy’ Tory voters, and a late swing.

If there was a late swing, was The Sun responsible? On the day of the election the newspaper famously ran the front page headline, “If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights” and have a Conservative majority of 21 in the House of Commons the headline the next day read, “IT’S THE SUN WOT WON IT”. source: Wikipedia

We are at the end of the Labour Party Conference week and The Sun has turned blue, is this the final nail in the coffin for Labour or has the Mandleson speech rescued the party, has Sarah Brown done enough to improve Gordon’s image, or has Gordon done enough himself?

Find The Sun Feeling Blue micro-site here, and The Sun’s dossier of Labour failing here.

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