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Geoffrey George Goodman CBE (2 July 1922 – 5 September 2013) was a British journalist, broadcaster and writer. Following periods on the News Chronicle and the Daily Herald , he was a senior journalist on the Daily Mirror from 1969 to 1986. Goodman was known as "the doyen of industrial correspondents" for his extensive contacts and prominent role covering British industrial disputes.

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169-527: He was close to leading left-wing politicians including Harold Wilson , Frank Cousins , Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot . He briefly served as an economic adviser to Wilson in 1975. After retiring from the Daily Mirror , Goodman was the founding editor of the quarterly British Journalism Review in 1989, and remained its editor until 2002. In 2020, The Sunday Times uncovered his role as an agent of

338-562: A tabloid , and ran it as a sister paper to the News of the World . The Sun used the same printing presses, and the two papers were managed together at senior executive levels. The tabloid Sun was first published on 17 November 1969, with a front page headlined "HORSE DOPE SENSATION", an ephemeral "exclusive". An editorial on page 2 announced: "Today's Sun is a new newspaper. It has a new shape, new writers, new ideas. But it inherits all that

507-453: A "popular idea", would have to "go and lie down in a dark room for half an hour". Both have pointed to the huge commercial success of the Sun during that period, and its establishment as Britain's top-selling newspaper, claiming that they are "giving the public what they want". That conclusion was disputed by critics. John Pilger said that a late-1970s edition of the Daily Mirror , which replaced

676-540: A "straightforward, honest newspaper" which would continue to support Labour. IPC, under pressure from the unions, rejected Maxwell's offer, and Murdoch bought the paper for £800,000, to be paid in instalments. He would later remark: "I am constantly amazed at the ease with which I entered British newspapers." The Daily Herald had been printed in Manchester since 1930, as was the Sun after its original launch in 1964. Murdoch stopped publication there in 1969; this put

845-465: A British missile. Under the headline "Stick This Up Your Junta: A Sun missile for Galtieri's gauchos", the newspaper published a photograph of a missile (actually a Polaris missile stock shot from the Ministry of Defence ) which had a large Sun logo printed on its side with the caption "Here It Comes, Senors..." underneath. The paper explained that it was "sponsoring" the missile by contributing to

1014-614: A Labour Party led by James Callaghan or Roy Jenkins . In the October election, an editorial asserted: "ALL our instincts are left rather than right and we would vote for any able politician who would describe himself as a Social Democrat." In the 1975 referendum on Britain continuing membership of the European Economic Community , it advocated a vote to stay in the Common Market. The editor, Larry Lamb,

1183-466: A Labourite of Wilson's generation, given its role in both opening up opportunities for ambitious youth from working-class backgrounds and enabling Britain to seize the potential benefits of scientific advances. Under the first Wilson government, for the first time in British history, more money was allocated to education than to defence. Wilson continued the rapid creation of new universities, in line with

1352-399: A broad range of reforms during its time in office, in such areas as social security, civil liberties, housing, health, education, and worker's rights. It is perhaps best remembered for the liberal social reforms introduced or supported by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins . Notable amongst these was the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality and abortion , reform of divorce laws,

1521-459: A column by former editor Kelvin MacKenzie the day before the 28th anniversary of the disaster which included a passage about footballer Ross Barkley that was considered "appalling and indefensible" and included a racist epithet and insults against the people of Liverpool. Access to the club grounds and facilities for Sun reporters were blocked. The Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson described

1690-453: A copy of The Sun in the House of Commons and suggested the paper could be prosecuted for indecency. Sexually related features such as "Do Men Still Want To Marry A Virgin?" and "The Way into a Woman's Bed" began to appear. Serialisations of erotic books were frequent; the publication of extracts from The Sensuous Woman , at a time when copies of the book were being seized by Customs, produced

1859-407: A devaluation would disproportionately harm low-income Britons with savings and poorer Commonwealth of Nations countries in the sterling area . The government instead opted to deal with the problem by imposing a temporary surcharge on imports, and a series of deflationary measures designed to reduce demand and therefore the inflow of imports. In the latter half of 1967, an attempt was made to prevent

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2028-451: A follow-up, headlined "Now they're after our fish!". Following a Press Complaints Commission adjudication a "clarification" was eventually printed, on page 41. In 2005, The Sun published photographs of Prince Harry sporting a Nazi costume to a fancy dress party. The photographs caused outrage across the world and Clarence House was forced to issue a statement in response apologising for any offence or embarrassment caused. Despite being

2197-521: A large parliamentary majority, despite the paper having attacked Blair and New Labour up to a month earlier. Its front-page headline read THE SUN BACKS BLAIR and its front-page editorial made clear that while it still opposed some New Labour policies, such as the minimum wage and devolution, it believed Blair to be "the breath of fresh air this great country needs". It said that John Major's Conservatives were "tired, divided and rudderless". Blair, who had radically altered his party's image and policies, noting

2366-547: A much-reproduced photograph was taken of him standing on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street . At the age of ten, he went with his family to Australia, where he became fascinated with the pomp and glamour of politics. On the way home, he told his mother, "I am going to be prime minister." Wilson won a scholarship to attend Royds Hall Grammar School , his local grammar school (now a comprehensive school) in Huddersfield , Yorkshire. His father, working as an industrial chemist,

2535-540: A page 2 news story titled "STRAIGHT SEX CANNOT GIVE YOU AIDS – OFFICIAL." The Sun favourably cited the opinions of Lord Kilbracken , a member of the All Parliamentary Group on AIDS , who had said that only one person out of the 2,372 individuals with HIV/AIDS mentioned in a specific Department of Health report was not a member of a "high risk group", such as homosexuals and recreational drug users. The Sun also ran an editorial arguing that "At last

2704-477: A panellist on BBC1's Question Time , that the apology he made about the coverage was a hollow one, forced upon him by Rupert Murdoch. MacKenzie further claimed he was not sorry "for telling the truth" but he admitted that he did not know whether some Liverpool fans urinated on the police, or robbed victims. On 12 September 2012, following the publication of the official report into the disaster using previously withheld Government papers which officially exonerated

2873-608: A pathway to growth, embodied in the DEA and Mintech, was at the time by no means confined to the Labour Party. Wilson built on foundations that had been laid by his Conservative predecessors, in the shape, for example, of the National Economic Development Council (known as "Neddy") and its regional counterparts (the "little Neddies"). Government intervention in industry was greatly enhanced, with

3042-423: A persistent critic of some of the government's policies, the paper supported Labour in both subsequent elections the party won. For the 2005 general election , The Sun backed Blair and Labour for a third consecutive election win and vowed to give him "one last chance" to fulfil his promises, despite berating him for several weaknesses including a failure to control immigration. However, it did speak of its hope that

3211-556: A person's sexuality unless it could be defended on the grounds of "overwhelming public interest". In 2003, the paper was accused of racism by the government over its criticisms of what it perceived as the "open door" policy on immigration. The attacks came from the Prime Minister's press spokesman Alastair Campbell and the Home Secretary David Blunkett (later a Sun columnist). The paper rebutted

3380-564: A photograph of Scargill with his arm in the air, a pose which made him look as though he was giving a Nazi salute . The print workers at The Sun refused to print it. The Sun strongly supported the April 1986 bombing of Libya by the US, which was launched from British bases. Several civilians were killed during the bombing. Their leader was "Right Ron, Right Maggie". That year, Labour MP Clare Short attempted in vain to persuade Parliament to outlaw

3549-485: A politically active middle-class family, Wilson studied a combined degree of philosophy, politics, and economics at Jesus College, Oxford . He was later an Economic History lecturer at New College, Oxford , and a research fellow at University College, Oxford . Elected to Parliament in 1945, Wilson was appointed to the Attlee government as a Parliamentary Secretary ; he became Secretary for Overseas Trade in 1947, and

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3718-427: A priority to reduce wartime rationing , which he referred to as a "bonfire of controls". Wilson decided that the massive number of wartime controls was slowing the conversion to peacetime prosperity and he was committed to removing them as fast as possible. He ended rationing of potatoes, bread and jam, as well as shoes and some other clothing controls. In November 1948 Wilson announced his Board of Trade had removed

3887-616: A reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium   ... these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters   ... I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong". A member of the Hillsborough Families Support Group responded "too little, too late". Widespread boycotts of

4056-544: A research fellow at University College . On the outbreak of the Second World War , Wilson volunteered for military service, but was classed as a specialist and moved into the civil service instead. For much of this time, he was a research assistant to William Beveridge , the Master of University College, working on the issues of unemployment and the trade cycle. Wilson later became a statistician and economist for

4225-420: A round of competitive devaluations, and concern about the impact price rises following a devaluation would have on people on low incomes. The government's decision over its first three years to defend sterling's parity with traditional deflationary measures ran counter to hopes for an expansionist push for growth. The National Plan produced by the DEA in 1965 targeted an annual growth rate of 3.8%, however, under

4394-499: A sample copy into a bin, Murdoch replied: "If you think we're going to have any of that upmarket shit in our paper, you're very much mistaken." Lamb hastily recruited a staff of about 125 reporters, who were mostly selected for availability rather than their ability. This was about a quarter of what the Mirror then employed, and Murdoch had to draft in staff on loan from his Australian papers. Murdoch immediately relaunched The Sun as

4563-551: A scandal and a significant amount of free publicity. Politically, The Sun in the early Murdoch years remained nominally Labour-supporting. It advocated a vote for the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson in the 1970 UK general election , with the headline "Why It Must Be Labour"; by February 1974, it was calling for a vote for the Conservative Party led by Edward Heath while suggesting that it might support

4732-472: A shopkeeper reporting that the newspapers refused to print stories about the Prince of Wales with Wallis Simpson , "despite most of us knowing exactly what is going on". After adding a year to his age, he enlisted at the beginning of the Second World War . An RAF pilot during his war service (1941–46), he ended the war as a Flight Lieutenant flying Mosquito planes on photography missions. Goodman studied at

4901-690: A successor to the Daily Herald , and became a tabloid in 1969 after it was purchased by its current owner. The Sun had the largest daily newspaper circulation in the United Kingdom , but was overtaken by freesheet rival Metro in March 2018. The paper became a seven-day operation when The Sun on Sunday was launched in February 2012 to replace the closed News of the World , employing some of its former journalists. In March 2020,

5070-507: A time when unemployment stood at around 400,000. It still stood at 371,000 by early 1966 after a steady fall during 1965, but by March 1967 it stood at 631,000. It fell again towards the end of the decade, standing at 582,000 by the time of the general election in June 1970. Despite the economic difficulties faced by Wilson's government, it was able to achieve important advances in several domestic policy areas. As reflected by Wilson in 1971: It

5239-560: A total of 17 libel suits. They began with an invented account of the singer having sexual relationships with rent boys . The singer-songwriter was abroad on the day indicated in the story, as former Sun journalist John Blake , recently poached by the Daily Mirror , soon discovered. After further stories, in September 1987, The Sun accused John of having his Rottweiler guard dogs' voice boxes surgically removed . In November,

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5408-491: Is best from the great traditions of its predecessors. The Sun cares. About the quality of life. About the kind of world we live in. And about people." The first issue had an "exclusive interview" with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson on page 9. The paper copied the rival Daily Mirror in several ways. It was the same size and its masthead had the title in white on a red rectangle of

5577-519: Is currently no separate Welsh edition of The Sun ; readers in Wales receive the same edition as the readers in England. The Sun was first published as a broadsheet on 15 September 1964, with a logo featuring a glowing orange disc. It was launched by owners IPC (International Publishing Corporation) to replace the failing Daily Herald on the advice of market researcher Mark Abrams . The paper

5746-541: Is funded was vociferously supported by the newspaper, despite widespread opposition, (some from Conservative MPs), which is seen as having contributed to Thatcher's own downfall. The tax was quickly repealed by her successor John Major , whom The Sun initially supported enthusiastically, believing the former Chancellor of the Exchequer was a radical Thatcherite. On the day of the general election of 9 April 1992, its front-page headline, encapsulating its antipathy towards

5915-532: Is right, we can't carry on like this". The paper showed hostility to the European Union (EU) and approval of public spending cuts, tax cuts, and promotion of right-wing ministers to the cabinet, with leaders such as "More of the Redwood, not Deadwood". The Sun criticised Labour leader John Smith in February 1994, for saying that more British troops should be sent to Bosnia . The Sun 's comment

6084-501: Is still disputed in historiography. Some scholars praise his unprecedented electoral success for a Labour prime minister and holistic approach to governance, while others criticise his political style and handling of economic issues. Several key issues which he faced while prime minister included the role of public ownership, whether Britain should seek the membership of the European Communities, and British involvement in

6253-483: The Daily Herald and remained working for IPC when the Herald was turned into The Sun in 1964, where his employer was Hugh Cudlipp , whom he once described as the greatest popular journalist of the 20th Century. Goodman joined the Daily Mirror for a second time in 1969, following Rupert Murdoch 's purchase of The Sun . He became industrial editor of Mirror Group Newspapers, a columnist and assistant editor of

6422-501: The News of the World , a sensationalist Sunday newspaper, the previous year, but the presses in the basement of his building in London's Bouverie Street were unused six days a week. Seizing the opportunity to increase his presence on Fleet Street, he made an agreement with the print unions, promising fewer redundancies if he acquired the newspaper. He assured IPC that he would publish

6591-583: The 1945 general election , Wilson won his seat in the Labour landslide. To his surprise, he was immediately appointed to the government by Prime Minister Clement Attlee as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works . Two years later, he became Secretary for Overseas Trade , in which capacity he made several official trips to the Soviet Union to negotiate supply contracts. The boundaries of his Ormskirk constituency were significantly altered before

6760-660: The BJR considered such issues as the role of journalism in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. After ceasing to be editor of the BJR in 2002, he became chairman and later emeritus chairman of its board. A memoir From Bevan to Blair: Fifty Years Reporting from the Political Frontline was published in 2003. In its account of the Wilson and Callaghan governments, the later volume is free, according to Dominic Wring, of

6929-413: The Daily Mirror found their rival's only source for the rent boy story, who admitted it was a totally fictitious concoction created for money. The inaccurate story about his dogs, actually Alsatians , put pressure on The Sun , and John received £1 million in an out-of-court settlement, then the largest damages payment in British history. The Sun ran a front-page apology on 12 December 1988, under

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7098-424: The Herald . The pre-Murdoch Sun was "a worthy, boring, leftish, popular broadsheet" in the opinion of Patrick Brogan in 1982. Robert Maxwell , a book publisher and Member of Parliament eager to buy a British newspaper, offered to take it off their hands and retain its commitment to the Labour Party, but admitted there would be redundancies, especially among the printers. Rupert Murdoch , meanwhile, had bought

7267-616: The London School of Economics under Harold Laski . In January 1947, he married Margit Freudenbergova, who as a child just before the war had been on the final train of the Kindertransport , a means of rescuing Jewish children from Czechoslovakia. The couple had a son and a daughter. After the end of hostilities, he briefly worked on the Manchester Guardian (1946–47) before joining the Daily Mirror , but

7436-555: The Mirror (1976–86). Friends with prime minister Harold Wilson , and his successor James Callaghan , who both respected him, Goodman was also able to get on with the Conservative prime minister Edward Heath , who invited him to Chequers . From July 1975 to August 1976, he headed a counter-inflationary unit for the Labour government. The Awkward Warrior , Goodman's biography of trade union leader and politician Frank Cousins , appeared in 1979. In 1984, Mirror Group Newspapers

7605-566: The News Chronicle , following the 1954 docks strike, he visited all the workplaces over a three-week period. He discovered "astonishing inefficiencies, poor management bordering on the absurd, corrupt trade union practices and a bewildered workforce". Arthur Deakin , the leader of the TGWU , read the articles by the journalist before publication at Goodman's own insistence, and thought the articles were "scandalous inventions". Goodman supported

7774-527: The StB , the intelligence agency of communist Czechoslovakia , with whom he had contact between 1955 and 1972. The newspaper reported on declassified intelligence archives stating that he received payments in return for providing information and analysis about the Labour Party , trade unions and Harold Wilson's government during his first term. He was born in Stockport , Cheshire (now Greater Manchester ), and

7943-563: The Vietnam War . His stated ambitions of substantially improving Britain's long-term economic performance, applying technology more democratically, and reducing inequality were to some extent unfulfilled. Wilson was born at Warneford Road, Cowlersley , in the western suburbs of the mill town of Huddersfield , in the West Riding of Yorkshire , England, on 11 March 1916. He came from a political family: his father James Herbert Wilson

8112-516: The divorce laws , limiting immigration, outlawing racial discrimination , and liberalising birth control and abortion law . In the midst of this programme, Wilson called a snap election in 1966 , which Labour won with a much increased majority. His government armed Nigeria during the Biafran War . In 1969, he sent British troops to Northern Ireland . After losing the 1970 election to Edward Heath 's Conservatives , Wilson chose to remain in

8281-716: The general election of 1950 . He stood instead for the new seat of Huyton near Liverpool, and was narrowly elected; he served there for 33 years until 1983. Wilson was appointed President of the Board of Trade on 29 September 1947, becoming, at the age of 31, the youngest member of a British Cabinet in the 20th century. Initially Wilson favoured a more interventionist policy, seeking requirements for government officials to be seated on private boards of directors , further price controls , and nationalisations of private industries which opposed government policy. However, he abandoned these plans after his colleagues disagreed. He made it

8450-1294: The 'Oral History of the British Press' collection held by the British Library. Goodman's papers relating to the Royal Commission on the Press are archived at the University of Warwick . These include files relating to the Mirror Group, the Press Council, Scottish Daily News , advertising, editorial standards and journalism, newspaper distribution, the provincial and foreign press, Harold Wilson 's evidence and transcripts of oral evidence, press cuttings, interim report, 1974–77, and papers relating to his biography of Frank Cousins. They also include notes from interviews with Frank Cousins , Jack Jones , Harold Wilson, Harry Nicholas , James Callaghan, Baroness (Dora) Gaitskell , Harold Macmillan and Aneurin Bevan. Harold Wilson [REDACTED] James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995)

8619-572: The 1970s – the so-called " Spanish practices " of the print unions – The Sun was very profitable, enabling Murdoch to expand his operations to the United States from 1973. The paper endorsed the Conservative Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 UK general election at the end of a process which had been under way for some time, although The Sun had not initially been enthusiastic about Thatcher. On 3 May 1979, it ran

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8788-450: The BBC's defence correspondent Peter Snow , of "treason" for aspects of their coverage. The satirical magazine Private Eye mocked and lampooned what they regarded as the paper's jingoistic coverage, most memorably with the mock- Sun headline "KILL AN ARGIE, WIN A METRO !", to which MacKenzie is said to have jokingly responded, "Why didn't we think of that?" These years included what

8957-672: The British tabloid concept more profoundly than [Larry] Lamb did". Under MacKenzie, the paper became "more outrageous, opinionated and irreverent than anything ever produced in Britain". The Sun became an ardent supporter of the Falklands War . The coverage "captured the zeitgeist" according to Roy Greenslade , assistant editor at the time (though privately an opponent of the war) but was also "xenophobic, bloody-minded, ruthless, often reckless, black-humoured and ultimately triumphalist". On 1 May, The Sun claimed to have " sponsored "

9126-479: The Conservatives (led by Michael Howard ) would one day be fit for a return to government. This election (Blair had declared it would be his last as prime minister) resulted in Labour's third successive win but with a much reduced majority. When Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) became editor in 2003, it was thought Page 3 might be dropped. Wade had tried to persuade David Yelland , her immediate predecessors in

9295-599: The Exchequer Stafford Cripps having gone to Switzerland in an attempt to recover his health, Wilson was one of a group of three young ministers, all of them former economics dons and wartime civil servants, convened to advise Prime Minister Attlee on financial matters. The others were Douglas Jay ( Economic Secretary to the Treasury ) and Hugh Gaitskell ( Minister of Fuel and Power ), both of whom soon grew to distrust him. Jay wrote of Wilson's role in

9464-507: The Exchequer in 1955, and he proved to be very effective. One of his procedural moves caused a substantial delay to the progress of the Government's Finance Bill in 1955, and his speeches as Shadow Chancellor from 1956 were widely praised for their clarity and wit. He coined the term " Gnomes of Zurich " to ridicule Swiss bankers for selling Britain short and pushing the pound sterling down by speculation. He conducted an inquiry into

9633-424: The Labour Party's organisation following its defeat in the 1955 general election ; its report compared Labour's organisation to an antiquated " penny farthing " bicycle, and made various recommendations for improvements. Unusually, Wilson combined the job of Chairman of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee with that of Shadow Chancellor from 1959, holding that position until 1963. Gaitskell's leadership

9802-417: The Labour leader Neil Kinnock , read: "If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights". Two days later, The Sun was so convinced its front page had swung a close election for the Conservatives it declared: " It's The Sun Wot Won It ". The Sun led with a headline "Now we've all been screwed by the cabinet" with a reference to Black Wednesday on 17 September 1992, and

9971-526: The Labour leadership, and resumed the role of Leader of the Opposition for four years before leading Labour through the February 1974 election , which resulted in a hung parliament . Wilson was appointed prime minister for a second time ; he called a snap election in October 1974, which gave Labour a small majority. During his second term as prime minister, Wilson oversaw the referendum that confirmed

10140-481: The Liverpool fans present, MacKenzie issued the following statement: Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty three years ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield [White's] in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP [Sheffield Hallam MP Irvine Patnick ] were making serious allegations against fans in

10309-526: The National Economic Development Office greatly strengthened and the number of "little Neddies" was increased, from eight in 1964 to twenty-one in 1970. The government's policy of selective economic intervention was later characterised by the establishment of a new super-ministry of technology, a connexion not always publicly grasped, under Tony Benn . The continued relevance of industrial nationalisation (a centrepiece of

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10478-520: The Open University. Money was also channelled into local-authority run colleges of education. Wilson's record on secondary education was motivated by growing pressure for the abolition of the selective principle underlying the " eleven-plus ", and replacement with Comprehensive schools which would serve the full range of children (see the article ' grammar schools debate '). Comprehensive education became Labour Party policy. From 1966 to 1970,

10647-423: The Opposition . At the party's 1963 annual conference, Wilson made his best-remembered speech, on the implications of scientific and technological change. He argued that "the Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated measures on either side of industry". This speech did much to set Wilson's reputation as a technocrat not tied to

10816-465: The Opposition. Wilson led Labour to a narrow victory at the 1964 election . His first period as prime minister saw a period of low unemployment and economic prosperity; this was however hindered by significant problems with Britain's external balance of payments . His government oversaw significant societal changes, abolishing both capital punishment and theatre censorship , partially decriminalising male homosexuality in England and Wales, relaxing

10985-593: The UK's membership of the European Communities . In March 1976, Wilson suddenly announced his resignation as prime minister. He remained in the House of Commons until retiring in 1983 when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Wilson of Rievaulx. While seen by admirers as leading the Labour Party through difficult political issues with considerable skill, Wilson's reputation was low when he left office and

11154-528: The World , and moved operations to the new Wapping complex in East London, substituting the electricians' union for the print unions as his production staff's representatives, and greatly reducing the number of staff employed to print the papers. A year-long picket by sacked workers was eventually defeated (see Wapping dispute ). During that period, The Sun gained a reputation for running sensationalist stories of questionable veracity. On 13 March 1986,

11323-488: The abolition of theatre censorship and capital punishment (except for a small number of offences — notably high treason ) and various pieces of legislation addressing race relations and racial discrimination . His government also undertook the easing of means testing for non-contributory welfare benefits, the linking of pensions to earnings, and the provision of industrial-injury benefits. Wilson's government also made significant reforms to education , most notably

11492-569: The accident, editor Kelvin MacKenzie published an editorial which accused people of "scapegoating" the police, saying that the disaster occurred "because thousands of fans, many without tickets tried to get into the ground just before kick-off – either by forcing their way in or by blackmailing the police into opening the gates". The next day, under a front-page headline "The Truth", the paper falsely accused Liverpool fans of theft and of urinating on and attacking police officers and emergency services. Conservative Member of Parliament Irvine Patnick

11661-426: The ageing Bouverie Street presses under extreme pressure as circulation grew. Additionally, Murdoch found he had such a rapport with Larry Lamb over lunch that other potential recruits as editor were not interviewed and Lamb was appointed as the first editor of the new Sun . Lamb wanted Bernard Shrimsley to be his deputy, which Murdoch accepted as Shrimsley had been the second name on his list of preferences. Lamb

11830-528: The article as "disgrace" and a "slur" on the city. MacKenzie was suspended as a contributor to the paper on the day of publication. The Sun remained loyal to Thatcher until her resignation in November 1990, despite the party's fall in popularity over the previous year following the introduction of the poll tax (officially known as the Community Charge). This change to the way local government

11999-566: The average circulation for The Sun was 1.21 million, The Sun on Sunday 1,013,777. The Sun has been involved in many controversies in its history, among the most notable being their coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster . Regional editions of the newspaper for Scotland ( The Scottish Sun ), Northern Ireland ( The Sun ), and the Republic of Ireland ( The Irish Sun ) are published in Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin, respectively. There

12168-403: The banner headline "SORRY, ELTON". Television personality Piers Morgan , a former editor of the Daily Mirror and of The Sun ' s "Bizarre" pop column, has said that during the late 1980s, at Kelvin MacKenzie 's behest, he was ordered to speculate on the sexuality of male pop stars for a feature headlined "The Poofs of Pop". He also recalls MacKenzie headlining a January 1989 story about

12337-507: The brash new paper "burst forth with tremendous energy" according to The Times . Its initial print run of 3.5 million was attributed to "curiosity" and the "advantage of novelty", and had declined to the previous circulation of the Daily Herald (1.2 million) within a few weeks. By 1969, according to Hugh Cudlipp , The Sun was losing about £2 million a year, and had a circulation of 800,000. IPC decided to sell to stop

12506-514: The category of Peel , Gladstone , Asquith , and no one else. But...he lacked originality. What he was superb at was the quick assimilation of knowledge, combined with an ability to keep it ordered in his mind and to present it lucidly in a form welcome to his examiners. He continued in academia, becoming one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21. He was a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and

12675-426: The claim, believing that it was not racist to suggest that a "tide" of unchecked illegal immigrants was increasing the risk of terrorist attacks and infectious diseases. It did not help its argument by publishing a front-page story on 4 July 2003, under the headline "Swan Bake", which claimed that asylum seekers were slaughtering and eating swans. It later proved to have no basis in fact. Subsequently, The Sun published

12844-647: The coal industry. He was Director of Economics and Statistics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power in 1943–44 and was made an OBE for his services. He was to remain passionately interested in statistics, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1943. As President of the Board of Trade , he was the driving force behind the Statistics of Trade Act 1947, which is still the authority governing most economic statistics in Britain . He

13013-426: The daily figure was 4,305,957. The highest ever one-day sale was on 18 November 1995 (4,889,118), although the cover price had been cut to 10p. The highest ever one-day sale at full price was on 30 March 1996 (4,783,359). On 22 January 1997, The Sun accused the shadow chancellor Gordon Brown of stealing the Conservatives' ideas by declaring, "If all he is offering is Conservative financial restraint, why not vote for

13182-509: The day of "The Truth" reported claims about fans as accusations by the police, rather than fact. In April 1992, on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, The Sun printed an exclusive interview with Liverpool manager Graeme Souness as he celebrated Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final win over Portsmouth while recovering in hospital from heart surgery. Souness came under fire from Liverpool fans for conducting an interview with

13351-525: The day of the Chesterfield by-election in which Benn was standing, was discredited when the psychiatrist quoted by The Sun publicly denounced the article, describing the false quotes attributed to him as "absurd". The Sun had apparently fabricated the entire piece. The newspaper made frequent scathing attacks on what the paper called the " loony left " element within the Labour Party , and on institutions supposedly controlled by it. Ken Livingstone ,

13520-420: The day when a new Act would make it the right of a student, on leaving school, to have a place in an institution of further education. In 1966, Wilson was created the first Chancellor of the newly created University of Bradford , a position he held until 1985. Housing was a major policy area under the first Wilson government. During Wilson's time in office from 1964 to 1970, more new houses were built than in

13689-408: The debates over whether or not to devalue sterling that "he changed sides three times within eight days and finished up facing both ways". Wilson was given the task during his Swiss holiday of taking a letter to Cripps informing him of the decision to devalue, to which Cripps had been opposed. Wilson had tarnished his reputation in both political and official circles. Although a successful minister, he

13858-484: The decision of editor Michael Curtis to oppose the Suez intervention , a stance which split the paper's staff. Slightly later though, until his close friend Michael Foot , he was unconvinced by unilateralism when CND first emerged. Goodman wrote about the socioeconomic makeup of the small town of Sellafield in 1959, around the UK's first nuclear power station. After the closure of the News Chronicle in 1959, he joined

14027-412: The devaluation, as economists had predicted. The devaluation, with accompanying austerity measures which ensured resources went into exports rather than domestic consumption, successfully restored the trade balance to surplus by 1969. In retrospect Wilson has been widely criticised for not devaluing earlier, however, he believed there were strong arguments against it, including the fear that it would set off

14196-445: The disaster, in 1989 prices. Sales also declined to a lesser degree in neighbouring parts of Cheshire and Lancashire . It was revealed in a documentary called Alexei Sayle's Liverpool , aired in September 2008, that many Liverpudlians will not even take the newspaper for free, or will burn or tear it up. The paper is referred to by Liverpudlians as The Scum , with campaigners believing it limited their fight for justice. The Sun

14365-522: The disease. The Sun ' s article and editorial were reported to the Press Council and an adjudication ruled that they were "misleading in its interpretation... and the headline... was a gross distortion of the statistical information supplied by the Minister." The Sun later published an apology, which was run on Page 28. David Randall argued in the textbook The Universal Journalist that

14534-591: The effect of reducing housing costs for buyers on low incomes and enabling more people to become owner-occupiers. In addition, house owners were exempted from capital gains tax. Together with the Option Mortgage Scheme, this measure stimulated the private housing market. Wilson in a 1967 speech said: ''..the grime and muddle and decay of our Victorian heritage is being replaced. The new city centres with their university precincts, their light, clean and well-spaced civic buildings, will not merely brighten

14703-562: The election was called, and was therefore compelled to resign from his position in the Civil Service. He served as Praelector in Economics at University College between his resignation and his election to the House of Commons. He also used this time to write A New Deal for Coal , which used his wartime experience to argue for the nationalisation of the coal mines on the grounds of the improved efficiency he predicted would ensue. In

14872-417: The eventual victory party on HMS  Invincible when the war ended. In copy written by Wendy Henry , the paper said that the missile would shortly be used against Argentinian forces. Tony Snow, The Sun journalist on Invincible who had "signed" the missile, reported a few days later that it had hit an Argentinian target. One of the paper's best known front pages, published on 4 May 1982, commemorated

15041-469: The expansion of comprehensive education and the creation of the Open University . Wilson's government put faith in economic planning as a way to solve Britain's economic problems. The government's strategy involved setting up a Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) which would draw up a National Plan which was intended to promote growth and investment. Wilson believed that scientific progress

15210-464: The exposure a few months earlier of an extra-marital affair in which Cabinet Minister David Mellor was involved. On 14 October 1992, The Sun attacked Michael Heseltine for the mass coal mine closures . Despite its initial opposition to the closures, until 1997, the newspaper repeatedly called for the implementation of further Thatcherite policies, such as Royal Mail privatisation, and social security cutbacks, with leaders such as " Peter Lilley

15379-772: The financial demands imposed by the Korean War . At this time, Wilson was not yet regarded as a heavyweight politician: Hugh Dalton referred to him scornfully as "Nye [Bevan]'s dog". After Labour lost the 1951 election , he became the Chairman of Keep Left, Bevan's political group. At the bitter Morecambe Conference in late 1952, Wilson was one of the Bevanites elected as constituency representatives to Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC), whilst senior right-wingers such as Dalton and Herbert Morrison were voted off. Wilson had never made much secret that his support of

15548-474: The first same-sex kiss on the BBC television soap opera EastEnders as "EastBenders", describing the kiss between Colin Russell and Guido Smith as "a homosexual love scene between yuppie poofs ... when millions of children were watching". In 1990, the Press Council adjudicated against The Sun and columnist Garry Bushell for their use of derogatory terminology about gay people. The Sun responded to

15717-503: The headline "The Lies" rather than "The Truth". I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong. Trevor Hicks, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, rejected Mr MacKenzie's apology as "too little, too late", calling him " lowlife , clever lowlife, but lowlife". Following the publication of the report The Sun apologised on its front page, under the headline "The Real Truth". With

15886-414: The health crisis on 8 May 1983 with the headline: "US Gay Blood Plague Kills Three in Britain". In May 1987, the publication offered gay men free one-way airline tickets to Norway to leave Britain for good: "Fly Away Gays – And We Will Pay" was the paper's headline. Gay Church of England clergymen were described in one headline in November 1987 as "Pulpit poofs". On 17 November 1989, The Sun headlined

16055-479: The incident was a fabrication: "I have never eaten or even nibbled a live hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, shrew, vole or any other small mammal." Fuelled by MacKenzie's preoccupation with the subject, stories in The Sun spread rumours about the sexual orientation of famous people, especially pop stars. The Sun ran a series of false stories about Elton John from 25 February 1987, which eventually resulted in

16224-488: The influence the paper could have over its readers' political thinking, had courted it and Murdoch for some time by granting exclusive interviews and writing columns. In exchange for Rupert Murdoch's support, Blair agreed not to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism , which John Major had withdrawn the country from in September 1992 after barely two years. Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson

16393-599: The initial optimism. Upon coming to power, the government was informed that they had inherited an exceptionally large deficit of £800 million on Britain's balance of trade . This partly reflected the preceding government's expansive fiscal policy in the run-up to the 1964 election. Immediately the pound came under enormous pressure, and many economists advocated devaluation of the pound in response, but Wilson resisted, reportedly in part out of concern that Labour, which had previously devalued sterling in 1949, would become tagged as "the party of devaluation". Wilson also believed that

16562-415: The instruction of Rupert Murdoch , believing: "all I did wrong was tell the truth ... I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now". On Question Time the next year, MacKenzie publicly repeated the claims he said at the dinner; he said that he believed some of the material they published in The Sun but was not sure about all of it. He said in 2012, "Twenty-three years ago I was handed a piece of copy from

16731-444: The job, to scrap the feature, but a model who shared her first name was used on her first day in the post. On 22 September 2003, the newspaper appeared to misjudge the public mood surrounding mental health, as well as its affection for former world heavyweight champion boxer Frank Bruno , who had been admitted to hospital, when the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" appeared on the front page of early editions. The adverse reaction, once

16900-404: The kind of "score settling" common to memoirs covering this period. When interviewed by Dan Carrier on 3 February 2011, he was asked about how the role of the Press had changed over his lifetime. While conceding that the amount of information available had greatly increased, "what we do not have is the depth of knowledge, and this translates into a lack of understanding about key current issues. In

17069-561: The last six years of the previous Conservative government. The proportion of council housing rose from 42% to 50% of the total, while the number of council homes built increased steadily, from 119,000 in 1964 to 133,000 in 1965 and 142,000 in 1966. Allowing for demolitions, 1.3 million new homes were built between 1965 and 1970, To encourage homeownership, the government introduced the Option Mortgage Scheme (1968), which made low-income housebuyers eligible for subsidies (equivalent to tax relief on mortgage interest payments). This scheme had

17238-413: The leader of the left-wing Greater London Council , was described as "the most odious man in Britain" in October 1981. During the miners' strike of 1984–85 , The Sun supported the police and Margaret Thatcher 's government against the striking NUM miners, and in particular the union's president, Arthur Scargill . On 23 May 1984, The Sun prepared a front page with the headline "Mine Führer " and

17407-574: The left-wing Aneurin Bevan was opportunistic. In early 1954, Bevan resigned from the Shadow Cabinet (elected by Labour MPs when the party was in opposition) over Labour's support for the setting-up of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Wilson, who had been runner-up in the elections, stepped up to fill the vacant place. He was supported in this by Richard Crossman , but his actions angered Bevan and

17576-612: The losses, according to Bernard Shrimsley in 2004, out of a fear that the unions would disrupt publication of the Mirror if they did not continue to publish the original Sun . Bill Grundy wrote in The Spectator in July 1969 that although it published "fine writers" in Geoffrey Goodman , Nancy Banks-Smith and John Akass among others, it had never overcome the negative impact of its launch at which it still resembled

17745-399: The need for over 200,000 licences and permits. By March 1949 he promised to remove the need for another 900,000, although meat remained in short supply and was still rationed, as was petrol. Henry Irvine argues that Wilson's success with the bonfire of controls established his reputation as a modernizing specialist, with both the general public and the political elite. Irving also argues that

17914-661: The newspaper published one of its best known headlines: "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER". The story alleged that comedian Freddie Starr , while staying at the home of a writer and friend of his named Vince McCaffrey and his partner Lea LaSalle in Birchwood, Cheshire , had, after returning from a performance at a nightclub in the early hours, found little to eat in their house. LaSalle was reported as saying that Starr put her pet hamster "between two slices of bread and started eating it". According to Max Clifford : Read All About It , written by Clifford and Angela Levin, La Salle invented

18083-425: The newspaper throughout Merseyside followed immediately and continue to this day. Boycotts include both customers refusing to purchase it, and retailers refusing to stock it. The Financial Times reported in 2019 that Merseyside sales were estimated to drop from 55,000 per day to 12,000 per day, an 80% decrease. Chris Horrie estimated in 2014 that the tabloid's owners had lost £15   million per month since

18252-461: The newspaper's editor at the time, Dominic Mohan, adding underneath: It's a version of events that 23 years ago The Sun went along with and for that we're deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry. We've co-operated fully with The Hillsborough Independent Panel and will publish reports of their findings in tomorrow's newspaper. We will also reflect our deep sense of shame. The newspaper was banned by Everton F.C. in April 2017 after The Sun published

18421-537: The newspaper, who made continued calls for him to be sacked. Liverpool's victory in the FA Cup final a month later did little to lessen the anger towards Souness, who was already under fire for Liverpool's inconsistent league form, although he did not resign from his position until January 1994. On 7 July 2004, in response to verbal attacks in Liverpool on Wayne Rooney , just before his transfer from Everton to Manchester United , who had sold his life story to The Sun ,

18590-447: The old days you had time to reflect. This does not exist now, because of the urge to be first with a scoop, no matter how weak and spurious that scoop is". In 1998, Goodman was appointed a CBE for his services to journalism. Some years earlier he had received an honorary MA from the University of Oxford and was an associate fellow at Nuffield College (1974–76). Goodman was interviewed by National Life Stories (C467/16) in 2008 for

18759-418: The other Bevanites. Wilson's course in intra-party matters in the 1950s and early 1960s left him neither fully accepted nor trusted by the left or the right in the Labour Party. Despite his earlier association with Bevan, in 1955 he backed Hugh Gaitskell , the right-wing candidate in internal Labour Party terms, against Bevan for the party leadership election . Gaitskell appointed him Shadow Chancellor of

18928-420: The paper devoted a full-page editorial to an apology for the "awful error" of its Hillsborough coverage and argued that Rooney (who was only three years old at the time of Hillsborough) should not be punished for its "past sins". In January 2005, The Sun 's managing editor Graham Dudman admitting the Hillsborough coverage was "the worst mistake in our history", added: "What we did was a terrible mistake. It

19097-694: The party's left-wing by renationalising the steel industry under the Iron and Steel Act 1967 (which had been denationalised by the Conservatives in the 1950s) creating the British Steel Corporation . One innovation of the Wilson government was the creation in 1968 of the Girobank , a publicly owned bank which operated via the General Post Office network: As most working-class people in the 1960s did not have bank accounts, this

19266-482: The physical environment of our people, they will change the very quality of urban life in Britain.'' The Sun (United Kingdom)#The Sun before Rupert Murdoch Defunct The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper , published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK , itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lachlan Murdoch 's News Corp . It was founded as a broadsheet in 1964 as

19435-427: The pictures on Page Three, and gained the opprobrium of the newspaper for her stand. During the 1987 UK general election , The Sun ran a mock-editorial entitled "Why I'm Backing Kinnock , by Stalin ". Murdoch responded to some of the criticisms of the newspaper by saying that critics were "snobs" who want to "impose their tastes on everyone else". MacKenzie claimed the same critics were people who, if they ever had

19604-575: The position of Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1961, before he challenged for the deputy leadership in 1962 but was defeated by George Brown . Gaitskell died in January 1963, just as the Labour Party had begun to unite and appeared to have a very good chance of winning the next election, with the Macmillan Government running into trouble. Timothy Heppell has explored how Wilson won the Labour Party leadership election . Wilson had alienated

19773-538: The post-War Labour government's programme) had been a key point of contention in Labour's internal struggles of the 1950s and early 1960s. Wilson's predecessor as leader, Hugh Gaitskell , had tried in 1960 to tackle the controversy head-on, with a proposal to expunge Clause Four (the public ownership clause) from the party's constitution, but had been forced to climb down. Wilson took a characteristically more subtle approach: No significant expansion of public ownership took place under Wilson's government, however, he placated

19942-463: The prevailing class system. Labour's 1964 election campaign was aided by the Profumo affair , a ministerial sex scandal that had mortally wounded Harold Macmillan and hurt the Conservatives. Wilson made capital without getting involved in the less salubrious aspects. (Asked for a statement on the scandal, he reportedly said "No comment ... in glorious Technicolor !"). Sir Alec Douglas-Home

20111-535: The proportion of children in comprehensive schools increased from about 10% to over 30%. Labour pressed local authorities to convert grammar schools into comprehensives. Conversion continued on a large scale during the subsequent Conservative Heath administration, although the Secretary of State, Margaret Thatcher , ended the compulsion of local governments to convert. Wilson's first government reluctantly decided it could not fulfil its long-held promise to raise

20280-483: The re-election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States ; Reagan was two weeks shy of his 74th birthday when he started his second term, in January 1985. On 1 March 1984, the newspaper extensively quoted an American psychiatrist claiming that British left-wing politician Tony Benn was "insane", with the psychiatrist discussing various aspects of Benn's supposed pathology. The story, which appeared on

20449-467: The real thing?" and called the planned windfall tax, which was later imposed by the Labour government, "wrongheaded". In February 1997 it told Sir Edward Heath MP to stand down for supporting a national minimum wage. The Sun switched support to the Labour party on 18 March 1997, six weeks before the general election victory which saw the New Labour leader Tony Blair become Prime Minister with

20618-502: The recession in activity from going too far in the form of a stimulus to consumer durable spending through an easing of credit, which in turn prevented a rise in unemployment. After a costly battle, market pressures forced the government to devalue the pound by 14% from $ 2.80 to $ 2.40 in November 1967. Wilson was much criticised for a broadcast soon after in which he assured listeners that the "pound in your pocket" had not lost its value. Economic performance did show some improvement after

20787-526: The recommendations of the Robbins Report , a bipartisan policy already in train when Labour took power. Wilson promoted the concept of an Open University , to give adults who had missed out on tertiary education a second chance through part-time study and distance learning . His political commitment included assigning implementation responsibility to Baroness Lee , the widow of Aneurin Bevan . By 1981, 45,000 students had received degrees through

20956-485: The restrained circumstances the actual average rate of growth between 1964 and 1970 was a far more modest 2.2%. The DEA itself was wound up in 1969. The government's other main initiative Mintech did have some success at switching research and development spending from military to civilian purposes, and of achieving increases in industrial productivity, although persuading industry to adopt new technology proved more difficult than had been hoped. Faith in indicative planning as

21125-421: The results from one specific study while ignoring other data on HIV infection and not just AIDS infection, which the critics viewed as unethical politicisation of a medical issue. Lord Kilbracken himself criticised The Sun 's editorial and the headline of its news story, stating that, while he thought that gay people were more at risk of developing AIDS, it was still wrong to imply that no one else could catch

21294-421: The right wing of the party by his angry attempts to defeat Gaitskell in 1960 for the leadership, and George Brown in 1962 for the deputy leadership. These misadventures gave Wilson a reputation for disloyalty and divisiveness. Heppell identifies three factors whereby Wilson overcame these disadvantages. Firstly, he had united the party's left wing behind him and they showed no willingness to compromise. Secondly,

21463-455: The right wing, although more numerous, was deeply split between Brown and James Callaghan . Wilson took the lead on the first ballot and gained momentum on the second. Finally, Brown proved a poor campaigner, emphasizing divisive factors rather than his own credentials, allowing Wilson to emerge, surprisingly, as the unity candidate, thus becoming the Leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of

21632-407: The same colour as the Daily Mirror . These papers are now known as red tops . The Mirror 's "Live Letters" was matched by "Livelier Letters". Sex was used as an important element in the content and marketing of the paper from the start, which Lamb believed was the most important part of his readers' lives. The first topless Page 3 model appeared on 17 November 1970, Stephanie Rahn ; she

21801-440: The school leaving age to 16, because of the investment required in infrastructure, such as tens of thousands of new classrooms and teachers. Overall, public expenditure on education rose as a proportion of GNP from 4.8% in 1964 to 5.9% in 1968, and the number of teachers in training increased by more than a third between 1964 and 1967. The percentage of students staying on at school after the age of sixteen increased similarly, and

21970-417: The selection timing and especially the publicity Wilson devoted to the bonfire represented the emerging skills of a brilliant young politician. While each major bonfire was justified in terms of technical economic advantages, it was selected and publicised widely to reach the largest possible audience so that everybody could understand that their bread and jam became free again. In mid-1949, with Chancellor of

22139-527: The social services, health, welfare and housing, unparalleled in our history. Several liberalising social reforms were passed through parliament during Wilson's first period in government. These dealt with the death penalty, homosexual acts, abortion, censorship and the voting age . There were new restrictions on immigration . Wilson personally, coming culturally from a provincial non-conformist background, showed no particular enthusiasm for much of this agenda. Higher education held special significance for

22308-496: The stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster. As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written

22477-515: The story in The Sun was one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in recent history, putting its own readers in harm's way. At the end of the decade, The Sun ' s coverage of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster , in which 97 people died as a result of their injuries, proved to be, as the paper later admitted, the "most terrible" blunder in its history. Three days after

22646-470: The story out of frustration with Starr, who had been working on a book with McCaffrey. She contacted an acquaintance who worked for The Sun in Manchester. The story reportedly delighted MacKenzie, who was keen to run it, and Max Clifford , who had been Starr's public relations agent. Starr had to be persuaded that the apparent revelation would not damage him, and the attention helped to revive his career. In his 2001 autobiography Unwrapped , Starr wrote that

22815-474: The student population increased by over 10% each year. Pupil-teacher ratios were also steadily reduced. As a result of the first Wilson government's educational policies, opportunities for the working-class were improved; overall access to education in 1970 was broader than in 1964. As summarised by Brian Lapping, The years 1964–70 were largely taken up with creating extra places in universities, polytechnics, technical colleges, colleges of education: preparing for

22984-428: The time Maxwell became his boss. Geoffrey Goodman was the founding editor of the quarterly British Journalism Review (BJR), which he edited from 1989 to 2002. In his first editorial he wrote that "the business is now subject to a contagious outbreak of squalid, banal, lazy and cowardly journalism whose only qualification is that it helps to make newspaper publishers (and some journalists) rich." His later articles for

23153-671: The torpedoing of the Argentine ship the General Belgrano by running the story under the headline "GOTCHA". At MacKenzie's insistence, and against the wishes of Murdoch (the mogul was present because almost all the journalists were on strike), the headline was changed for later editions after the extent of Argentinian casualties became known. John Shirley, a reporter for The Sunday Times , witnessed copies of this edition of The Sun being thrown overboard by sailors and marines on HMS  Fearless . After HMS  Sheffield

23322-480: The truth can be told ... the risk of catching AIDS if you are heterosexual is 'statistically invisible'. In other words, impossible. So now we know – everything else is homosexual propaganda". Although many other British press services covered Lord Kilbracken's public comments, none of them echoed the argument in the Sun , and none of them presented Lord Kilbracken's ideas without context or criticism. Critics stated that both The Sun and Lord Kilbracken cherry-picked

23491-616: The unequivocal front-page headline, "VOTE TORY THIS TIME". The Daily Star had been launched in 1978 by Express Newspapers, and by 1981 had begun to affect sales of The Sun . Bingo was introduced as a marketing tool, and a 2p drop in cover price removed the Daily Star ' s competitive advantage, opening a new circulation battle which resulted in The Sun neutralising the threat of the new paper. The new editor of The Sun , Kelvin MacKenzie , took up his post in 1981 just after those developments, and, according to Bruce Page, "changed

23660-548: The usual celebrity and domestic political news items with an entire issue devoted to his own front-line reporting of the genocide in Pol Pot's Cambodia , not only outsold The Sun on the day it was issued, but became the only edition of the Daily Mirror to ever sell every single copy issued, something never achieved by The Sun . In January 1986, Murdoch shut down the Bouverie Street premises of The Sun and News of

23829-499: The youngest person to hold that office since Lord Rosebery 70 years earlier. During 1965, by-election losses reduced the government's majority to a single seat; but in March 1966 Wilson took the gamble of calling another general election. The gamble paid off, because this time Labour achieved a 96-seat majority over the Conservatives, who the previous year had made Edward Heath their leader. The 1964–1970 Labour government carried out

23998-423: Was " outed " by Matthew Parris (a former Sun columnist) on BBC TV's Newsnight in November 1998. Misjudging public response, The Sun 's editor David Yelland demanded to know in a front-page editorial whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia" of a "closed world of men with a mutual self-interest". Three days later, the paper apologised in another editorial which said The Sun would never again reveal

24167-475: Was a British statesman and politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1976, Leader of the Opposition twice from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1970 to 1974, and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1983 . Wilson is the only Labour leader to have formed administrations following four general elections. Born in Huddersfield , Yorkshire, to

24336-409: Was a government which faced disappointment after disappointment and none greater than the economic restraints in our ability to carry through the social revolution to which we were committed at the speed we would have wished. Yet, despite those restraints and the need to transfer resources from domestic expenditure, private and public, to the needs of our export markets, we carried through an expansion in

24505-419: Was a terrible, insensitive, horrible article, with a dreadful headline; but what we'd also say is: we have apologised for it, and the entire senior team here now is completely different from the team that put the paper out in 1989." In May 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie , Sun editor at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, returned to the paper as a columnist. Furthermore, on 11 January 2007, MacKenzie stated, while

24674-529: Was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party , serving as Winston Churchill 's deputy election agent in a 1908 by-election, but later joined the Labour Party . His mother Ethel ( née Seddon) was a schoolteacher before her marriage; in 1901 her brother Harold Seddon settled in Western Australia and became a local political leader. When Wilson was eight, he visited London and

24843-518: Was acquired by Robert Maxwell , "the maniac on the ninth floor", according to Goodman. In July 1984, Maxwell interfered with one of the journalist's columns on the 1984–85 miners' strike , cutting a revelation concerning Margaret Thatcher 's non-conciliatory attitude towards the 1974 miners' strike , and her vote in cabinet against Edward Heath's decision to call a general election in February 1974 . Goodman threatened to resign unless given an undertaking that it would not happen again. Such an assurance

25012-441: Was also given to his colleagues Paul Foot and John Pilger , but the three men realised that such a guarantee from Maxwell was meaningless. Along with colleague Terence Lancaster , Goodman insisted on dropping his by-line from an article both men co-wrote at Maxwell's insistence stridently attacking NUM leader Arthur Scargill at the peak of the miners' strike. Goodman retired from the Mirror in 1986. He regretted not resigning at

25181-433: Was an aristocrat who had given up his peerage to sit in the House of Commons and become prime minister upon Macmillan's resignation. To Wilson's comment that he was out of touch with ordinary people since he was the 14th Earl of Home , Home retorted, "I suppose Mr. Wilson is the fourteenth Mr. Wilson". Labour won the 1964 general election with a narrow majority of four seats, and Wilson became prime minister , at 48

25350-476: Was called "spectacularly malicious coverage" of the Labour Party by The Sun and other newspapers. During the 1983 UK general election , The Sun ran a front page featuring an unflattering photograph of Michael Foot , then aged almost 70, claiming he was unfit to be Prime Minister on grounds of his age, appearance and policies, alongside the headline "Do You Really Want This Old Fool To Run Britain?" A year later, The Sun made clear its enthusiastic support for

25519-434: Was designed to serve their needs, as such it was billed as the "people's bank". Girobank was a long-term success, surviving until 2003. Wilson's government presided over a rate of unemployment which was low by historic (and later) standards but did rise during his period in office. Between 1964 and 1966 the average rate of unemployment was 1.6%, while between 1966 and 1970 the average stood at 2.5%. He had entered power at

25688-463: Was elevated to the Cabinet shortly thereafter as President of the Board of Trade . Following Labour's defeat at the 1955 election , Wilson joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chancellor , and was moved to the role of Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1961. When Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell died suddenly in January 1963, Wilson won the subsequent leadership election to replace him, becoming Leader of

25857-527: Was instrumental as prime minister in appointing Claus Moser as head of the Central Statistical Office , and was president of the Royal Statistical Society between 1972 and 1973. As the war drew to an end, he searched for a seat to contest at the impending general election. He was selected for the constituency of Ormskirk , then held by Stephen King-Hall . Wilson agreed to be adopted as the candidate immediately rather than delay until

26026-456: Was intended to add a readership of "social radicals" to the Herald 's "political radicals". Of Abrams' work, Bernard Shrimsley wrote that 40 years later there supposedly was "an immense, sophisticated and superior middle class, hitherto undetected and yearning for its own newspaper. ... As delusions go, this was in the El Dorado class." Launched with an advertising budget of £400,000,

26195-735: Was made redundant in December 1930, and it took him nearly two years to find work; he moved to Spital , on the Wirral Peninsula , to do so. Wilson continued his education in the Sixth Form at the Wirral Grammar School for Boys , where he became Head Boy . Wilson did well at school and, although he missed getting a scholarship, he obtained an exhibition ; this, when topped up by a county grant, enabled him to study at Jesus College, Oxford , from 1934. At Oxford, Wilson

26364-623: Was moderately active in politics as a member of the Liberal Party but was strongly influenced by G. D. H. Cole . His politics tutor, R. B. McCallum , considered Wilson to be the best student he ever had. He graduated in PPE ( Philosophy, Politics and Economics ) with "an outstanding first class Bachelor of Arts degree, with alphas on every paper" in the final examinations, and a series of major academic awards. Biographer Roy Jenkins wrote: Academically his results put him among prime ministers in

26533-555: Was not the only newspaper to print similar stories about the alleged drunkenness and violence among Liverpool fans at the Hillsborough disaster. The Daily Star and Daily Mail were among the newspaper who printed claims that hooliganism was a major factor in the tragedy; however, other papers' stories were presented less prominently. Alex Hern of the New Statesman noted that the Daily Express ' s headline on

26702-459: Was originally from a Labour background with a socialist upbringing, while his temporary replacement Bernard Shrimsley (1972–1975) was a middle-class uncommitted Conservative . An extensive advertising campaign on the ITV network in this period, voiced by actor Christopher Timothy , may have helped The Sun to overtake the Daily Mirror 's circulation in 1978. Despite the industrial relations of

26871-436: Was quoted as claiming that a group of Liverpool supporters told a police officer that they would have sex with a dead female victim. MacKenzie maintained for years that his "only mistake was to believe a Tory MP". In 1993, he told a House of Commons committee, "I regret Hillsborough. It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said", but privately said at a 2006 dinner that he had only apologised under

27040-473: Was regarded as self-important. He was not seriously considered for the job of Chancellor when Cripps stepped down in October 1950—it was given to Gaitskell—possibly in part because of his cautious role during devaluation. Wilson was becoming known in the Labour Party as a left-winger, and joined Aneurin Bevan and John Freeman in resigning from the government in April 1951 in protest at the introduction of National Health Service (NHS) medical charges to meet

27209-537: Was sacked at Christmas 1948. He then joined the News Chronicle . A one-time member of the Communist Party , he left it in 1951, and henceforward supported the Labour Party . As a friend of Aneurin Bevan , whom he had first met in 1948 outside St Pancras Town Hall , Goodman gave support to Tribune , the newspaper Bevan had founded just before the war, and helped new staff writer Ian Aitken . For

27378-435: Was scathing in his opinion of the Daily Mirror , where he had recently been employed as a senior sub-editor, and shared Murdoch's view that a paper's quality was best measured by its sales, and he regarded the Mirror as overstaffed, and too focused on an ageing readership. Godfrey Hodgson of The Sunday Times interviewed Murdoch at this time and expressed a positive view of the rival's "Mirrorscope" supplement. Dropping

27547-499: Was tagged as a "Birthday Suit Girl" to mark the first anniversary of the relaunched Sun . A topless Page 3 model gradually became a regular fixture, and with increasingly risqué poses. Both feminists and many cultural conservatives saw the pictures as pornographic and misogynistic. Lamb later expressed some regret at introducing the feature, although he denied it was sexist. A Conservative council in Sowerby Bridge , Yorkshire,

27716-401: Was that "The only serious radicals in British politics these days are the likes of Redwood, Lilley and Portillo". It also gradually expressed its bitter disillusionment with John Major as Prime Minister, with headlines such as "What fools we were to back John Major". Between 1994 and 1996, The Sun 's circulation peaked. Its highest average sale was in the week ending 16 July 1994, when

27885-429: Was the first to ban the paper from its public library, shortly after Page 3 began, because of its excessive sexual content. Shrimsley, Lamb's deputy, came up with the headline, "The Silly Burghers of Sowerby Bridge" to describe the councillors. The decision was reversed after a sustained campaign by the newspaper itself lasting 16 months, and the election of a Labour-led council in 1971. The Labour MP Alex Lyon waved

28054-469: Was the key to economic and social advancement, as such he famously referred to the "white heat of technology", in reference to the modernisation of British industry. This was to be achieved through a new Ministry of Technology (shortened to "Mintech") which would coordinate research and development and support the swift adoption of new technology by industry, aided by government-funded infrastructure improvements. In practice, however, events derailed much of

28223-413: Was the only child of Edythe (née Bowman) and Michael Goodman, whose Jewish parents had emigrated to Britain from Poland and Russia. His father spent long periods unemployed, and the family moved to Camden Town , London, in 1935 in an attempt to change their situation. Goodman was influenced in his choice of becoming a political journalist by overhearing current affairs being discussed in the local dairy, and

28392-481: Was weakened after the Labour Party's 1959 defeat , his controversial attempt to ditch Labour's commitment to nationalisation by scrapping Clause Four , and his defeat at the 1960 Party Conference over a motion supporting unilateral nuclear disarmament . Bevan had died in July 1960, so Wilson established himself as a leader of the Labour left by launching an opportunistic but unsuccessful challenge to Gaitskell's leadership in November 1960 . Wilson would later be moved to

28561-439: Was wrecked by an Argentinian attack, The Sun was heavily criticised and even mocked in the Daily Mirror and The Guardian for its coverage of the war, and the wider media queried the veracity of official information and worried about the number of casualties, The Sun gave its response. "There are traitors in our midst", wrote leader writer Ronald Spark on 7 May, accusing commentators on Daily Mirror and The Guardian , plus

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