John McLellan: Rupert Murdoch’s courtship of SNP is getting untidy

I WON’T be alone in thinking it is somewhat ironic that just as the Leveson Inquiry is getting into the meat of the relationship between Fleet Street, the government and the public authorities that News Corp emperor Rupert Murdoch has been up in Scotland getting even cosier with First Minister Alex Salmond.

There is absolutely no crime in any politician meeting media figures to discuss matters of mutual interest, and journalists are obviously keen to find out what makes those in power tick.

It would be a very unwelcome situation indeed if, in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal, politicians and journalists were prevented from associating for fear of being accused of having an improper relationship.

But of course, timing and circumstances are everything and when someone so embroiled in scandal as Mr Murdoch, even if he was not directly involved, is seen to be establishing an almost brotherly bond with a politician at the forefront of significant events then questions are bound to be asked.

And last weekend, after Mr Murdoch’s very public Twitter-wooing of Mr Salmond came evidence of the nature of the relationship, as the new Scottish Sun on Sunday was handed a little present from Mr Salmond’s office of the apparently chosen date for the independence referendum.

If you looked at the new paper last weekend, you would have been left in no doubt it was true, with the date splashed across the front page and the story backed up with a billet doux from Mr Salmond inside, wishing the SSS well.

At least if there was any doubt about the date it didn’t appear to be shared by the SSS’s staff.

And then came a sequence of events oh so recognisable by anyone who has spent time on a Sunday newspaper – the almost immediate denial by the same people who had given out the information in the first place.

What was obvious to those reading the story, at least those with children, was that the chosen day in October 2014 clashed with the school holidays, traditionally a non-starter for any public vote.

Most seasoned observers charitably agreed that cock-up rather than conspiracy was at the heart of the matter, but when the cock-up comes with the apparent endorsement of the First Minister, that’s more of a problem than usual. And so, information which at first seemed to be cast in Bute House stone very quickly became “just part of the consultation” as SNP officials hastily back-pedalled to clarify the position for broadcasters and the Monday papers.

Unfortunately, it left the first edition of the Soaraway Sunday looking rather lame.

Under normal circumstances, that would be unforgiveable, but instead Mr Salmond and Mr Murdoch had a get-together this week in the best traditions of Messrs Blair and Mandelson. Business as usual – Rupert is still in love with Alex and the new seven-day Sun maintains its full backing for the First Minister. But somebody in the SNP machine will have had the First Minister’s hair-dryer treatment … and if not then maybe the relationship isn’t quite the one of mutual respect we have been led to believe.

Three’s a crowd

IF all is sweetness at the Sun’s Queen Street offices, then the opposite is very much the case at Central Quay, home of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.

Editor-in-chief Allan Rennie and his boss, Sly Bailey, are said to have met Mr Salmond with a view to calling off their Nat-mauling hounds and their reward was an exclusive handed to their bitterest rival. Old relationships, it seems, are hard to break.

Own goal, perhaps?

AS for the new SSS itself, it was definitely a seventh day of the Sun, rather than a traditional Sunday paper and it’s strange just how odd a straightforward daily-style paper felt on a Sunday.

Maybe it’s just a question of getting used to it and a different formula will work, but no newspaper launch or re-launch was ever perfect on day one and much bedding-in will inevitably take place.

Sport presents a particular conundrum: seven-day readers will need something new and distinctive in the Monday pull-out which hasn’t largely been done the day before.