Will a lame-duck editor be able to bully people over Brexit as much as he could in his heyday? That’s one of the key questions raised by Paul Dacre’s upcoming retirement as editor of the Daily Mail. The other is whether an editor shapes readers’ views or merely reflects them. We’ll soon have a real-life experiment when the pro-European Geordie Greig takes over from the arch-Brexiter Dacre.
It reminds one of the switcheroo between Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in the movie Trading Places, which was designed to settle the old chestnut of whether nature or nurture shapes our personalities. In both cases, the answer is a bit of both. The extent to which a new Daily Mail editor matters could be vital to the future of our country.
Dacre has ruled by fear in a reign lasting over a quarter of a century. His journalists don’t want to cross him. Nor do Tory politicians. They fear Dacre’s four-line whip more than Theresa May’s three-line one.
But will he still have as much clout in the months leading up to his retirement in November? Will the Daily Mail’s journalists, who are astute readers of internal office politics, instead subtly shift their line in preparation for Greig’s arrival? And will Tory MPs thinking of rebelling against May’s shambolic Brexit be so scared of being branded traitors, enemies of the people, saboteurs or whatever new insult Dacre dreams up? They could endure a few rough months if they rebel. But by the time of the next election in 2022, the bully-boy and his attack dogs could be forgotten.
This, of course, assumes that Greig will change the Daily Mail’s line on Brexit. Some think he won’t, because Dacre will still be breathing down his neck as editor-in-chief and chair of Associated Newspapers. But it won’t be easy for the old editor to be a puppet-master because Greig will report to Lord Rothermere, the pro-European proprietor.
Others think the new editor won’t change because he won’t want to abandon Dacre’s supposedly winning formula. But Greig is currently the Mail on Sunday’s editor. Taking a markedly more pro-European line there than Dacre hasn’t damaged its fortunes.
The changing of the guard will happen at a crucial moment in the Brexit debate, roughly when parliament gives its verdict on whatever miserable deal the prime minister manages to negotiate. Greig will have an opportunity to give the honest verdict that we are damaging both our prosperity and our power, rather than pretend that we are entering a land flowing with milk and honey.
As a new editor, he will also be free to argue that the people should have the final say on the deal – and the chance to stay in the EU if they don’t like it. What’s more, if there is such a “people’s vote”, it is no longer a foregone conclusion that the Daily Mail will tell its readers to vote for self-mutilation.
Either way, it is a fair bet that Greig won’t be dripping anti-European venom into readers’ veins or stoking xenophobia with as much enthusiasm as Dacre has. We may then find out whether the Mail really has the power to shape the national debate.
• Hugo Dixon is co-founder of CommonGround