A tactic too far for the Sun

Every since the Sun announced that it was switching allegiances at the next election,the paper has been running a simmering campaign against Gordon Brown.

Now there is nothing wrong with that,any publisher is entitled to its opinion but the tone of the attacks has changed across the weekend combining the attacks with criticisms of the war in Afghanistan,the memorial services and personal grief.

Yesterday the paper launched into the fact that the Prime Minister had forgotten to bow at the cenotaph.

Today though sees a new low as it publishes the transcript of a phone call that the Prime Minister made to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

I can understand the grief that the mother is going through and no doubt part of that anger manifested itself in the decision to tape the phone call and offer it to the Sun.

The paper though,should have had nothing to do with events after that.By publishing its contents,it has used a mother's grief to broaden its own message to the country.

It is a tactic that will ultimately fail,I am sure.Regardless of what we think about the government's conduct of the war,this is not the way to highlight it.

Enough said