The Hoarse Man of the Apocalypse

In one of those hideous moments of realisation, I was reading an article in this morning’s Times about the hacking scandal. It was written by Austin Mitchell MP.

And I agreed with him.

This almost never happens.

Generally speaking, the man is a bit of an unreconstructed clot, but he does realise what seems to have escaped many if not most MPs: you can’t cosy up to the media and then try to take the moral high ground when something like the News of the World scandal comes along. He also points out that since successive Parliaments have legislated away the ability to stop the Murdochs’ attempts to buy up any and all media outlets in the country, it is rather unedifying to watch politicians beg where once they could have required. It is public outrage and the resultant fall in stock prices that has (probably temporarily) halted Rupert and his minions, not the self-serving opportunism of politicians who are trying to time the moment they step off the Titanic to walk directly onto the lifeboats.

He likens Parliament to Hogwarts, where once every twenty years or so there is uproar and huge excitement followed by anti climax.

The City and the banks have blown themselves out of the water, political parties and politicians were discredited buy the expenses scandal, and now the independent press, which assumed most of Parliament’s role as watchdog of the Executive, is busy wiring itself up with demolition charges.

A deferential nation like the UK is busily running out of things to be deferential about.

Instead of banging on about the Murdochs’ empire, which will have to survive the grown up politics of the US Senate and the marketplace, rather than the self-created sideshow of Westminster that has derogated its immediate powers to EU legislative requirements and a supremely indifferent Brussels, politicians should be boosting the BBC.

If the Murdoch empire does crumble, the first bidder for the Sun will likely be our very own home grown media mogul, Richard Desmond, the owner of Channel 5 and look what he’s done to the Express and made of Channel 5, OK! Magazine, the Daily Star and other such high brow media offerings as Television X and Red Hot TV.

The Hoarse Man of the Apocalypse

In one of those hideous moments of realisation, I was reading an article in this morning’s Times about the hacking scandal. It was written by Austin Mitchell MP.

And I agreed with him.

This almost never happens.

Generally speaking, the man is a bit of an unreconstructed clot, but he does realise what seems to have escaped many if not most MPs: you can’t cosy up to the media and then try to take the moral high ground when something like the News of the World scandal comes along. He also points out that since successive Parliaments have legislated away the ability to stop the Murdochs’ attempts to buy up any and all media outlets in the country, it is rather unedifying to watch politicians beg where once they could have required. It is public outrage and the resultant fall in stock prices that has (probably temporarily) halted Rupert and his minions, not the self-serving opportunism of politicians who are trying to time the moment they step off the Titanic to walk directly onto the lifeboats.

He likens Parliament to Hogwarts, where once every twenty years or so there is uproar and huge excitement followed by anti climax.

The City and the banks have blown themselves out of the water, political parties and politicians were discredited buy the expenses scandal, and now the independent press, which assumed most of Parliament’s role as watchdog of the Executive, is busy wiring itself up with demolition charges.

A deferential nation like the UK is busily running out of things to be deferential about.

Instead of banging on about the Murdochs’ empire, which will have to survive the grown up politics of the US Senate and the marketplace, rather than the self-created sideshow of Westminster that has derogated its immediate powers to EU legislative requirements and a supremely indifferent Brussels, politicians should be boosting the BBC.

If the Murdoch empire does crumble, the first bidder for the Sun will likely be our very own home grown media mogul, Richard Desmond, the owner of Channel 5 and look what he’s done to the Express and made of Channel 5, OK! Magazine, the Daily Star and other such high brow media offerings as Television X and Red Hot TV.