The Strange Death of Illberal England

Everything I could hope to say on the News of the World/Metropolitan Police/phone hacking story has already been said, written, blogged and tweeted.  And no, I’m not just using this as a weak link to The Jam’s ‘News of the World’.  I did think about it, but seeing as it’s now better known as the theme tune to a TV comedy quiz show...no, it’s been done.

Of course there are a wealth of songs aimed at journalists or the media.  Straight off the top of my head – Adam & The Ants ‘Press Darlings’ and The Cramps ‘TV Set’ spring to mind, but that probably says more about me.

Oh, yes, back to the matter in hand.  The demise after 168 years of NOTW.  You almost have to admire the sheer arrogance of Murdoch in sweeping away a title he’s owned since 1969 as soon as it becomes a problem.

That’s almost.  But not quite.  While the staff are coming to terms with being summarily dismissed by managers who remain in place and data is wiped from hard drives before the boys in blue have moved in, it seems like another case of the elite pulling up the drawbridge.

Just like the bankers and the MPs a few sacrificial lambs will be offered up and an awful lot of good and blameless people will lose their jobs.  Meanwhile take a look at whose running the media in six months time.  Just like parliament and the banks, I suspect there will be a lot of familiar faces.  A few job titles may have changed and some nice fat pensions will have been cashed in, but is it really a pivotal moment, when power shifts and we have a ‘step change’.  (What is a ‘step change’ by the way?  I’m sure we never had such a thing when I was a lad...)

So now we’ll get a properly regulated press externally controlled by the body that comes out of the Public Inquiry that’s just been announced.  Sounds like a good thing right?  Erm no, actually that’s the irony of this whole sorry mess.

There is a real danger that politicians and/or business interests will find it far easier to gag the real news that a free press should be digging up all because we liked hearing about celebrity gossip.