This is the question that A Very Special Relationship tackled perceptively on BBC Radio 4 last Monday. Rupert Murdoch, who on top of his broadcasting empire owns a third of the UK newspaper market, has more power than anyone in the British cabinet, the programme stated, and Gordon Brown is "at least as assiduous in his courtship". The programme went behind the scenes to speak to some of the authors - and victims - of the all-new Tragical History of Dr Faustus, notably Neil Kinnock, who is walking proof of what can happen if you decide to keep your soul for yourself instead of selling it.

Kinnock wasn't surprised that Murdoch's vehicles would oppose his policies as Labour leader in the '80s.

It was the level of opposition that he found "unusual", he said. "Even the Conservatives winced on our behalf."

After the 1992 election, when the Sun exhorted the last person in Britain to turn out the lights if Kinnock became prime minister, Labour began bending over backwards (or perhaps forwards) to make friends.

"The temptation to secure mass-circulation support has meant some softening of the lines, " said Kinnock euphemistically. Even David Blunkett admitted he worried about it.

A self-satisfied-sounding George Pascoe-Watson, political editor of the Sun, said his newspaper had "stopped Britain scrapping the pound and joining the European constitution". He also agreed that the Sun is pro-Blair, rather than pro-Labour, with imaginable implications for Brown. "Much of the Labour party remains unreconstructed, " he said. He would not declare whether the Sun would be issuing red smoke again from its Wapping headquarters when Brown leads Labour into an election. It looks as if the schmooze will go on.

Speaking of the media flexing its muscle, or its puny bicep, Pat Kenny seems to want to be the Gay Byrne of public healthcare. On Wednesday he spoke to Dr Fergus O'Ferrall, director of the Adelaide Hospital Society which commissioned a report advocating a system of social health insurance. But Kenny seemed less keen on interviewing someone about how to fix the health service than on fixing it himself. O'Ferrall could hardly get a word in. More than once he was almost shouting. O'Ferrall described the concept as "social solidarity", explaining that healthcare should be available to patients on the basis of their need, rather than their means. (Isn't that what a public health service is supposed to be doing anyway? ) "So it's a socialist principle, basically, " exclaimed Kenny, his eyes shining and his mouth forming a perfect O. But O'Ferrall pointed out that the concept dated back to Bismarck, just in case any Bolsheviks - or Bertie Ahern - spotted a moving bandwagon and hopped aboard. Kenny had some small amendments to make. For example, he's not in favour of free primary healthcare for all. He thinks there should be a "small charge" for GP visits so that "people don't bother the GP over nothing at all". But otherwise he seemed thoroughly enchanted with the proposal.

"It sounds very elegant indeed, " he said. The idea that patients could 'shop around', and that hospitals would have to 'pitch' to do your hip replacement, pleased him especially. He seemed to find the 'consumer as king' principle just so gratifyingly familiar. What a breeze it is when a new social policy doesn't require an ideological revolution.