Newspapers Political Influence

Britain's national newspapers are hardly known for their political reticence. Historically, most of them have been unashamedly partisan, spinning every story in order either to promote the party they favour or to denigrate the opposition.

They did not need to wait until just before an election to tell their readers how they should vote: their daily political agenda was patently obvious. There has been something of a change over the last 20 years – dating from the fall of Margaret Thatcher – because almost all papers have tended to proclaim their independence from political parties. Most newspapers in the UK are for-Conservative. This is because the owners of the newspapers are themselves supporters of the Tories. Most of the newspapers in the UK are actually Conservative, whilst there only being a few for Labour.