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13 November 2009

Brown and Murdoch: the quotes

Proving the point of my column

By James Macintyre

Anyone interested in the subject of my column and blog yesterday on the relationship between New Labour and Rupert Murdoch, and the reasons for the latter’s mythical “influence”, should look at these quotations from Gordon Brown and the media mogul.

Here is my (least) favourite, from Murdoch:

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, whenever I’m in town, they say, ‘Can’t you come over for a cup of tea?’ When you’re invited by the prime minister to have a cup of tea, you have a cup of tea. It’s sometimes very inconvenient, if you’re only there for two days and you have a month’s work to do. And you have to be careful to have a cup of tea with them both or they’re very suspicious that you are lining up with the other one.

And from Brown, after the Sun turned against him:

I have a lot of admiration for Rupert Murdoch personally. His family come from not far from mine in Scotland, and his attitudes to hard work and getting on with things you can only admire. But the Sun has tried to become a political party. It’s not personal about Rupert, he’s always been very friendly to me. I think the Sun‘s made a mistake, but that’s up to them.

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