Rupert Murdoch has given Tony Blair his marching orders. Rupert wants David Cameron and Gordon Brown to poll dance for him for 18 months so he can make up his mind on who he is going to back.

Murdoch has long seen himself as king maker and Blair hasn't helped matters with his willingness to appear as a star performer in the Murdoch global media circus.

He spells out exactly what he is looking for in one of his own titles, The Australian today:

"We've been a very big supporter of Tony on big issues, he's been a very courageous world leader. We've also been critical of him on other things like Europe.

"But for no reason other than the dynamics of British politics we would like to see at least a year to 18 months' standoff between Gordon Brown and David Cameron so we can decide which of those most coincides with our views.

"Those two are going to decide the next election and I think the British public would be cheated if they only got a month or two's warning."