An article by a Sun journalist in a respectable publication like Prospect is remarkable. Not so long ago, it would have been unthinkable. Neither I nor any of my colleagues would have been given house room in any remotely liberal or left-wing magazine during the days of Michael Foot or Neil Kinnock. Today, Prospect and the Sun are more or less Blairite-although there are times when Downing Street has its doubts. But it does show how far the Sun has come since I joined it a quarter of a century ago. In those days, when conversation at polite parties turned to what we did for a living, fellow guests would make their excuses and find someone else to speak to. I was an industrial correspondent and frequently, while being introduced to a union official as "Trevor Kavanagh from...", would see an outstretched hand snatched away as the sentence ended.
And this was even before Wapping. During that epic battle, we required physical protection while working on our new terminals in Brighton's Grand Hotel, watching television coverage of the Labour Party conference in the hall next door, from which we were banned. As chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby journalists in 1991, it was my task to respond to the vote of thanks to the press. Chairman Tom Sawyer took me to one side and admitted "I cannot guarantee your safety." As I began my speech, a Scots miner led a walkout, shouting, "If you lay down with dirty dogs, you catch fleas." A lot has happened since then.
In 1997, we backed Tony Blair and urged our 10m readers to vote Labour, losing some of them in the process. We did the same again last year. But the change in attitude to the Sun began much earlier. People may not have liked us, but they were starting to respect us. Even as a sensational red-top tabloid, it has always been a "must read," and not just among truck drivers, builders' labourers and Essex girls. Harold Wilson had our first edition delivered to Downing Street. It is still the first newspaper read there each night.
By the 1980s, we had lived down a reputation for Lies, Damned Lies and Sun Exclusives. We were breaking big stories, with famous headlines like "Gotcha" and "Up Yours Delors." It was the Sun that landed Stella Rimington's MI5 memoirs, a story that still reverberates through the service. We announced the date of the 2001 election. We published Tony Blair's bombshell memo admitting New Labour was seen as "soft," "weak" and "out of touch."
Some of our political positions might surprise Prospect readers. We ran a pro-immigration leader a few months ago. We sometimes lead the paper on policy issues-such as Estelle Morris's decision to phase out GCSEs. Our balanced coverage of the war on terror and support for the British Muslim community after 11th September won wide praise.
Old Labour loathed us. Still does. We made their lives a misery. But they have a lot to thank us for. Our uncompromising coverage helped persuade them to make the painful changes needed to become electable. Ask Neil Kinnock. But we dished it out to the Tories, too, even while we supported them. For all the froth and humour, we have carved out a reputation for lively political realism which has to be taken seriously-and is.
Instead of being treated like the man in a Bateman cartoon, respectable society wants to talk to us. Our journalists are invited by merchant banks and Oxbridge colleges to talk about politics, economics, defence, or life on the biggest-selling daily newspaper. Foreign ambassadors want to know what makes us tick. Media students besiege us with questionnaires for their dissertations. The armed forces seek our counsel. This may be commonplace on papers like The Times, but not, until a few years ago, for journalists on the Sun.
We have a strong readership in Whitehall, Westminster, the City and in boardrooms across the country. Sun readers include more from the A, B and C1 group than all broadsheet readers combined-including the FT.
The Sun does not by itself change or preserve governments. But more than any other newspaper it acts as a touchstone for the national mood. Political parties need our readers. They include the floating millions who help to decide elections. No other paper has the same impact. The Mirror is lifeless Old Labour. No Guardian reader would vote Tory. The Mail and Telegraph are indelibly blue. The Times has a soft political image. The Express and Independent don't count. This is why the Sun is so important to Tony Blair on the euro. We backed him in two elections. But he knows we will fight him to a standstill in a euro referendum. Europe minister Peter Hain says the prime minister cannot win a euro vote as long as Sun readers are opposed. At least, that's what he told me a few weeks ago. At the moment, around three out of four Sun readers are against scrapping the pound. Could be an interesting call, Tony.
