Why Miliband posing with the Sun makes no sense

Media management is a complex business, and perhaps it’s one that I’ll never entirely understand. There are political connotations and considerations to every decision, and every opportunity must be weighed up in terms of risk and reward. In such matters I am but a perplexed novice.

But that said, I can’t understand for the life of me what Ed Miliband or anyone else thought he would get out of posing with The Sun today (and this is far from the first time he’s posed for one of their inauthentic photo ops). This is the paper which is at the forefront of the Murdoch empire which Miliband sought to take on. This is a paper which has mocked, attacked and traduced him on a regular basis. To paraphrase Tony Benn, Miliband’s relationship with The Sun, and several other titles, can be summed up as follows:

“If I rescued a child from drowning, the press would no doubt headline the story: ‘Miliband grabs child’.” 

This is a newspaper that is currently foisting itself on the English population, piggy-backing off the World Cup. Residents of Liverpool – a city who have suffered at the hands of this rag – are understandably displeased at the idea of having it pushed through their letterboxes. Scouse posties have refused to deliver them, and thousands (including me) have registered with the Royal Mail to ensure they don’t receive their copy.

If this is part of a strategy to speak to the working class voters that Labour has lost – and many of them may be Sun readers – it’s a flawed one. Voters quite like to see politicians stand up for what they believe in, rather than play along with the political and media games of the Westminster village.

Now it’s possible that Miliband may have posed for this photo, as many politicians have done before and will do again (I’m including you here as well Clegg and Cameron), because they don’t want to be accused to not being patriotic. Taking part in the photographic games of a paper owned by an overseas billionaire is not the final word on patriotism. Miliband certainly won’t have agreed to the photo on the basis that he might get better coverage from the paper. They’ve done photo ops with him before – they still attack him. They still will.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Some people may have a better opinion of Miliband after this (although for some, the opposite will be true). The Sun may lay down their arms and stop trying to politically flay him in the months ahead. Or neither may happen, except another photo of Miliband posing with a newspaper that dislikes him now exists, circulating confusedly around the internet – an unnecessary hostage to fortune in the months ahead.

Update: The Liverpool Echo reports:

“Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram has initiated talks with the office of Labour leader Ed Milliband after he posed with a copy of The Sun newspaper.”

He won’t be the only one asking strong questions.