Since his arrival in the Twittersphere, Rupert Murdoch has praised three politicians: Republican candidate Rick Santorum, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. Of the latter, Murdoch tweeted:
Great to see alexsalmond Briton of the year. Fellow antiestablishmentarian’s Econmist piece equal very good and bs!
Murdoch’s praise for the Scottish National Party leader may come as a surprise to some but, in fact, the two have a long-standing friendship. As the Salmond-Murdoch letters released last year demonstrated, the SNP head assiduously wooed the News Corp boss after becoming First Minister in 2007.
Following a meeting with Murdoch in New York in October 2007, he wrote:
I enjoyed our conversation and, as ever, found your views both insightful and stimulating.
On another occasion, after the opening of News International’s Eurocentral printing plant in Motherwell, Salmond fawned:
Thank you so much for the invitation to open the splendid new plant at Eurocentral. I hope that News International goes from strength to strength and that your “big bet” in newspapers will pay off.
The charm offensive continued. Murdoch was offered tickets to a Ryder Cup golf tournament in Kentucky and was twice invited to be Salmond’s “special guest” at the 2009 Homecoming Festival.
The First Minister was eventually rewarded for his sycophancy when the Scottish Sun backed the SNP at the last Holyrood election and when the paper’s executives treated him to a curry dinnner after his party’s remarkable victory.
Murdoch, who is proud of his Scottish ancestry, clearly has a soft spot for Salmond, as he did for Gordon Brown (unlike his son, James, he anguished over the decision to back the Conservatives). But in the post phone-hacking world is this one friend the SNP leader can do without?
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