Sunday 19th July

The Sun has done it again.  After Hillsborough, after Phone Hacking and all the furore that caused, and the closure of the News Of The World and trials of ex-editors they are sinking to even lower depths.  They have somehow got hold of some eighty-year old home movie of the Queen, aged six or seven giving a Nazi salute along with her sister, mother and uncle (all now dead).  We all know that Edward the Eighth was a Nazi sympathizer and that was probably really why he had to abdicate in 1936.  And believe me I am no Royalist.  In a perfect world Britain should be a republic.  But I do feel that as Head of State the Queen has behaved immaculately for over sixty years, avoiding personal scandals which have engulfed members of her family.  She has also championed the Commonwealth, while many of her Prime Ministers have treated it with disdain.

So, what are we to make of this latest stunt?  And what exactly did the Sun hope to achieve, except notoriety and embarrassing an old lady of almost ninety?  We know that Rupert Murdoch is a Republican and an Ultra-Conservative.  And most important of all he thinks he has the power to help choose the Government of the day.  For years he and his papers supported the Tories.  Then when he discovered that Blair would not fundamentally change anything in 1997 he backed New Labour, only to dump them when Gordon Brown became leader.  The truth is that fewer and fewer people are buying or reading Newspapers, in fact fewer and fewer people are even bothering to watch the News.  But they still have a pernicious influence, and maybe the fact that all newspaper’s readership is falling means they have to rely on more and more outrageous behaviour.  After the Leveson inquiry, which incidentally recommended much tighter controls over newspapers, the Tories colluded with the Press and allowed them to police themselves again.  Some hope of that ever being successful.  As long as the press mostly supports the Conservatives we have an unholy alliance.  Ministers will tut-tut, but nothing will be done (we mustn’t upset uncle Rupert).  Maybe when Rebekah next offers Dave a ride on her horse he will have the sense to decline.  But with Labour in disarray expect more of the same as the roller-coaster ride of politics and our right-wing press descends even further.