The weather in Stockholm today is terrible.

This is precisely the sort of thing that kills me. What happens whenever I feel like going for a nice walk where it’s quiet and dry? The rain pours down and flattens my hair, that’s what.

I wonder what it’s like back in dear old Blighty?

On second thoughts, I don’t really care: I’ve said farewell to that particular land’s cheerless marshes. I swear it’s the last time I sit on a delayed, overcrowded train stuck among the railway arches somewhere between London, Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham. There’s nothing worse than being hemmed in like a boar.

Even so, I’d still like to go back now and then to chat about precious things.

But, really, the things you read in the British newspapers! All those jeremy hunts spouting inane rubbish about love, law and poverty.

Perhaps it’s just me, but don’t the way things are going make you wonder if the world has changed? I don’t trust anyone these days, not with all the lies they make up. True, people don’t have long hair any more. And all the pubs have shut down together with the churches. But the liars are still at large: everyone’s out to snatch your money or wreck your body.

God, my limbs ache. And it feels so lonely, despite being hemmed in by so many bores.

And the media doesn’t help either. I read about a gang of kids peddling drugs. Honest to God, I never even knew what drugs were at their age. I was too tied to my mother’s apron strings to worry about incarceration, castration or coronations.

Actually, that reminds me of one bright spot to brighten up Blighty’s cheerless marshes. Did you see that picture on the front of the other day’s Daily Mail? I know she only suffered mild concussion, but it was a really wonderful thing to see her royal lowness all bandaged up and with her head in a sling.

I wonder what Charles thought when he saw it? He’d probably liked to have been the monarch on the front cover, veiled in some regalia nicked from his mum.

Why is it that he of all people should be next in line for regality? I bet if the libraries or archives were still open any one of us could find some historical facts to prove that they are a pale descendent of some old queen from eighteen generations back.

No-one cares of course. Especially not those flag-waving patriots hemmed in like boars along their rain-soaked street parties that stretch from London to Liverpool, Leeds to Birmingham.

Honestly, the only way to get them to listen would be to break into Buckingham Palace armed with just a rusty spanner hidden inside a sponge.

Sneaking past Charles wouldn’t be difficult: he’d be too busy struggling into his mater’s bridal veil and practicing his coronation steps to notice me flit past.

And I bet his mother would confuse me for someone else:

“Eh, I know you”, she’d rasp, “and you cannot sing”.

“That’s nothing”, I’d reply whilst prising my corroded tool from its soft wrapping: “you should hear me play piano”.

This won’t happen, of course. It’s raining too hard for me to venture out.

So I may as well stay here where it’s quiet and dry.

Perhaps I’ll take a surreptitious peek at the Daily Mail online. Oh, look! It says here that the queen has just taken a nasty tumble...

Morrissey/Marr (with Mills, Godfrey & Scott)
“The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty)”
The Queen is Dead, Rough Trade / Sire, 1986, 6:24

         
             “Great and congrats on Brussels. Just Ofcom to go!”

So goes a text message sent to James Murdoch by Jeremy Hunt, just hours before the Secretary of State for Culture was appointed to oversee News Corporation’s £8bn bid to take control of the satellite broadcaster, BSkyB.

Hunt claims that this was entirely consistent with his publicly-stated position.

Oddly enough, this is probably the reason why Mr Hunt will retain his job. Because the real issue here is whether Hunt was an appropriate individual to fulfil an impartial, “quasi-judicial” role in relation to News Corporation’s bid.

And who was it that considered Hunt to be the “solution”? Step forward Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and his boss, Prime Minister David Cameron.

If Hunt were to resign these two politicians would be dangerously exposed.

Meanwhile, it has today been reported that the cap on tax exemption for charitable giving announced by Osborne in his last budget has been dropped.

No surprise there. What is of note is the very deliberate timing of this announcement, coming as it does on the day that Hunt gives his evidence to the Leveson inquiry into media ethics and during a period when parliament is not in session.

Words like unethical, incompetent, vacillating, self-serving and undemocratic spring to mind.

Now compare those words with the ones spouted by David Cameron when launching a new draft of the Ministerial Code fewer than two years ago:

    We must be different in how we think and how we behave.
    We must be different from what has gone before us.
    Careful with public money.
    Transparent about what we do and how we do it.
    Determined to act in the national interest, above improper influence.
    Mindful of our duty.
    Above all, grateful for our chance to change our country.(1)

So, great and congrats, Dave – there is no doubt about it: you really are changing our country.

___
Note

(1) Oonagh Gay, The Ministerial Code, Standard Note: SN/PC/03750, last updated 27th March 2012, available at, http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN03750.pdf.

Yesterday Rupert Murdoch gave the first of two days of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. A couple of things stood out that, when tied together, lead to one inescapable conclusion.

The first point of interest was Murdoch's insistence that "politicians go out of their way to impress people in the press".

This, he went on to add, was "part of the democratic process. All politicians on all sides like to have their views known by the editors or publishers of newspapers hoping they will be put across, hoping they will succeed in impressing people, that's the game."

Nevertheless, Mr Murdoch flatly denied ever asking for, or receiving, preferential treatment from politicians.

Is this to be believed? Well, consider this: in 1981, Rupert Murdoch was seeking to acquire The Times newspaper. Despite repeated and categorical denials, there is now evidence to show that he had a secret meeting about the matter with the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It took place on 4th January 1981. Five weeks later her government sanctioned his take-over of The Times and The Sunday Times without referring it to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.(1)

Now consider something else Murdoch told Leveson: "If politicians want my views they should read Sun editorials".

This is a tacit admission that Rupert Murdoch - as many people have long since argued - exerts a direct and decisive influence on the editorial opinions of his media outlets.

Remember that, aside from The Sun, Mr Murdoch's media empire owns, among other things, The Times, The Sunday Times and (until he culled it) The News of the World. Recall too that Murdoch's News Corp was within an ace of acquiring outright control of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB without the decision being referred to the Competition Commission.(2) This was thanks in large part to his incestuously close links to Prime Minister David Cameron and his cabinet colleagues such as Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport) and the former Times journalist, Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Education).

For a single individual to control such a large chunk of the media landscape is wrong for precisely the reasons that Rupert Murdoch set out in his evidence to Leveson: "All politicians... like to have their views known by the editors or publishers of newspapers hoping... they will succeed in impressing people". How right he is: from Thatcher to Cameron via Blair and Brown - all have gone out of their way to impress Rupert Murdoch.

But Rupert Murdoch was fundamentally wrong about one thing: this is not "part of the democratic process".

It is the death of the democratic process.

This is why his media empire should be broken up.

How depressingly appropriate that it should fall to Murdoch's own evidence to Leveson for this case to be made rather than coming from the mouths of any of our fawning, self-serving and inherently unethical politicians.

___
Note

(1) Andrew McIntyre, "Thatcher and Murdoch met before Times acquisition", New Statesman, 19/03/2012, http://www.newstatesman.com/newspapers/2012/03/meeting-thatcher-murdoch-times.
(2) The matter was eventually referred - but only because of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of The World.

Two politicians have featured on this blog in recent weeks:

• Jeremy Hunt, the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
• Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Sweden's Minister for Culture and Sports

I playful pondered which of the two was least awful, finally favouring Hunt over Adelsohn Liljeroth.(1) However, in the light of today's revelations to the Leveson Inquiry, I now realize that this was misguided. For any Swedes who are dissatisfied with their culture minister should spare a thought for their British neighbours. Hunt has emerged as an utterly inappropriate individual to hold public office.(2) Confidential emails reveal that he completely abused his position in relation to the attempted take-over of BSkyB by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. For example, in January 2011, News Corp's chief lobbyist wrote to James Murdoch to tell him that he had "managed to get some info" on an announcement that Hunt was to make to Parliament the following day – even though this was "absolutely illegal!"(3)

As it currently stands, Hunt says he did nothing wrong and James Murdoch dismissed the email comment as a joke.

But this is no laughing matter.

Yet don't be surprised if Hunt clings on to his job: the government needs him to stay in post in order to protect the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.* Cameron is just as guilty of unethical behaviour in his dealings with the Murdoch empire.

One positive thing has emerged out of all this. In his evidence to Leveson, James Murdoch conceded that greater efforts should have been made to "cut out the cancer" of phone hacking at his organisation.(4) Good to see Mr Murdoch accept something that Dennis Potter pointed out many years ago: Rupert Murdoch is a cancer that has infected and undermined British society for decades.(5)

The parlous state of Jeremy Hunt’s political health is a direct consequence of that cancer.

Get well soon, Jeremy!

___
Notes

(1) "Let them eat cake, Lena", 18/04/2012, http://www.stuartburch.com/1/post/2012/04/let-them-eat-cake-lena.html.
(2) A hint of Hunt's partial handling of cultural affairs is outlined in my blog posting, "Hunt's cunning stunt", 23/03/2012 http://www.stuartburch.com/1/post/2012/03/hunts-cunning-stunt.html.
(3) "James Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry - live coverage", http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/24/leveson-inquiry-phone-hacking.
(4) Ibid.
(5) "Dennis Potter and Rupert", 19/07/2011, http://www.stuartburch.com/1/post/2011/07/dennis-potter-and-rupert.html.

____
Supplemental
25/04/2012

* Another figure to watch out for is Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education and a former journalist at The Times. He is apparently "greatly admired by Rupert Murdoch". For his part the politician is less enamoured by the Leveson Inquiry, describing it as having a "chilling effect on freedom of speech". The man is clearly beyond parody.

See Nicholas Watt, "Leveson inquiry has chilling effect on freedom of speech, says Michael Gove", The Guardian, 21/02/2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/21/leveson-chilling-freedom-speech-gove.

_ I am a child of Thatcher’s Britain. As such, one of my earliest political memories was a television interview between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Diana Gould, a teacher from Gloucestershire. The exchange concerned the highly controversial sinking of the ship, General Belgrano. This occurred during the war between Great Britain and Argentina regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). Transcripts of the interview are available online, as is the actual television footage.(1)

Gould was motivated by a belief that the Belgrano had been in international waters and on a bearing that took it away from the Falklands at the time it was torpedoed by the British submarine, Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives. She felt, moreover, that this action occurred at a time when a peaceful resolution of the conflict was still possible. Gould presented these arguments in a lucid, forceful manner which clearly rattled Thatcher.(2)

Diana Gould died a few days ago at the age of 85. Whatever one’s politics, she deserves to be remembered for the courage she demonstrated in standing up to the Iron Lady. I find this as inspirational today as I did as a ten year old schoolboy. We need more Diana Goulds: everyday heroes and heroines who refuse to be cowed into silence by overbearing politicians and gutter-snipe journalists.

And remembering Diana Gould obliges us to recall the jingoism of the Falklands campaign. This was encapsulated in a single word: "Gotcha!"(3) That was the infamous headline used by The Sun newspaper on 4th May 1982 to announce the sinking of the Belgrano. Dennis Potter's characterisation of Rupert Murdoch as a cancer in British society finds irrefutable proof in those six letters.(4)

Let us hope that future generations opt to celebrate the humble heroism of Diana Gould (1926-2011) rather than choosing to wallow in the belligerence of Margaret Thatcher and the malevolence of Rupert Murdoch.

____
Notes

(1) See, for example, "Diana Gould", accessed 09/12/2011 at, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Diana_Gould.
(2) "Diana Gould" (obituary), The Telegraph, 09/12/2011, accessed 09/12/2011 at, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8944544/Diana-Gould.html.
(3) Roy Greenslade, "A new Britain, a new kind of newspaper", The Guardian, 25/02/2002, accessed 09/12/2011 at, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/feb/25/pressandpublishing.falklands.
(4) See my first ever blog posting, "Dennis Potter and Rupert", 19/07/2011 available at, http://www.stuartburch.com/1/post/2011/07/dennis-potter-and-rupert.html.

Sadly it appears that the video below is no longer available

My decision to start this blog was inspired by something that the dramatist and writer, Dennis Potter said just before his death from cancer in 1994:

"I call my cancer Rupert... There is no one person more responsible for the pollution of what was already a fairly polluted press [than Rupert Murdoch]. And the pollution of the British press is an important part of the pollution of British political life, and it's an important part of the cynicism and misperception of our own realities that is destroying so much of our political discourse."

The truth of these words has only become clear to me thanks to journalism like this:

Harris, John (2011) "How the phone-hacking scandal unmasked the British power elite", The Guardian, 18 July, accessed 18/07/2011 at, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/phone-hacking-british-power-elite

My personal response to Murdoch's cancerous cynicism is this modest venture into cyberspace.

____________________
Supplemental 21/08/2011

A horrid nightmare woke me with a start this morning. I dreamt that I'd somehow managed to trap Rupert in a can. He'd taken the form of a long-legged insect. This hideous creature succeeded in forcing its way out and proceeded to stab me in the side. This shocked me into consciousness, leaving me rubbing my imaginary wound and marvelling at how deep the Murdoch affair has penetrated my subconsciousness...