New Labour is hated by its natural friends, so why don’t the Tories get a good press?

To lose one loyal media friend may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Not long ago the government could depend on the instinctive support of the BBC. That has been forfeited as a result of the row over Andrew Gilligan, and the two sides are locked in battle. Now the Independent, which could once be counted on to see life from Tony Blair’s point of view, is also at odds with the government. It is true that the paper, with hard sales of only 160,000 a day, is probably one hundredth as powerful as the BBC. Nonetheless, when No. 10 finds itself slogging it out with a second natural ally, one has to ask what is happening.

The Independent was wholly justified in running its story on Monday about a ‘senior Whitehall source’ who described Dr David Kelly, the weapons expert who committed suicide, as ‘a Walter Mitty’.