Has Cameron Pulled Murdoch?

The political geography is moving this week. First Rupert Murdoch, who's been sycophantically supportive of Gordon Brown for a long while, openly criticised him in the Sun and the ST last weekend.

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That gave a clue that someone must have done a deal with Murdoch to replace Brown as the man most likely to ....keep Murdoch in possession of his privileged media and sports market positions.

also telegraph

and times


And yet there was no indication in the ST as to which direction Murdoch's support might be swinging.

Later on in the week, another significant event has happened - the opening up of Cameron's pitch to the Right.

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Quite noticeably David Cameron has opened up operations on the right flank after denying that this would be necessary only a year ago.

The question in my mind is whether Cameron feels safe to move right because he knows that he will be getting enough media support. So far Murdoch has not been favourable to Cameron, saying he didn't think 'much' about him. Cameron has not been willing to brown nose the EU, and that has been enough to keep Murdoch onside with Brown.

Do the above movements of the political tectonic plates indicate anything?

The EU seems to be splitting. Royal is talking of an 'a la carte' Europe where France and Germany press ahead with the Constitution and others can choose if they want to join or not. The accession of Turkey looks increasingly doubtful, as well as further expansion of the EU. Italy is on the verge of breaking out of the Euro. Are the pressures holding the EU in place at last starting to unravel?

Is Murdoch starting to look beyond the EU as the principle power source that controls his affairs in Britain? If he is starting to think 'beyond the EU' that would explain why he's thinking of dumping Gordon Brown, and could also indicate that he will be backing David Cameron before too long.

There might be other explanations than this for what we are seeing this week, but my mind cannot yet create any other likelier scenarios.