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THE SUN RAINS ON GORDON BROWN'S PARADE

As this blog predicted in July, Rupert Murdoch and News International have ditched the Labour Party and are supporting the Conservatives at the next general election.

Whether this has anything to do with the Coulson Affair is open to question but as every biography of Rupert Murdoch testifies, the media mogul never forgets any slight against him or his newspaper empire.

Interestingly, Sky's Adam Boulton suggests that "There is no evidence that newspaper endorsements affect their own readers, let alone the broader public, but they are significant in the battle of ideas. The Sun newspaper's endorsement is probably the most significant of all."

However, with a daily readership of almost 8 million, it is bound to have an effect over the next seven months on the battle for voters. At the very least, and with the most perfect timing imaginable, it will diminish the impact of Gordon Brown's speech and hit Labour hard whilst giving the Conservative party a timely boost before next week's conference.

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