The Sun's Page 3 girls endorse the Conservatives

It's not terribly surprising that the Sun, one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid rags, should be supporting the Tories. But in the May 6 issue they've announced their endorsement with a touch of cheerful absurdism (and self-parody). At least, I hope this is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek:

Sixteen Page 3 Girls in all their glory represent the very image of freedom in this country.
But if Labour or the Lib Dems win the election, this could be the last time they are allowed to pose together.
MPs Harriet Harman and Lynne Featherstone will move swiftly to change the law and ban Page 3 forever.
Our national treasures - who even enjoy the Royal seal of approval from our future King Prince Charles - will be no more.
And at a stroke the very liberties that put the Great into Great Britain will be torn asunder.

The radical ideas of the 17th-century philosopher John Locke helped shape our freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights and, later, America's Constitution. [....]
"His thinking underpins our ideas of national identity and society. Please don't let those who seek to ban our beauty win. Vote to save Page 3!"

If you don't know who, or what, the Page 3 girls are, click HERE.

(Can I imagine Murdoch's New York Post endorsing the Republicans in quite the same manner? No, not really. It seems that national cultures haven't been totally homogenized, after all.)

--Jeff Weintraub