Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, is meeting with the top financial officials of the euro zone to discuss Italy. Anxiety is mounting. Italy has the largest national debt as a percentage of GDP in the euro zone, after Greece. It ranks 8 in the world at 119%. To compare, Britain ranks 22 with […]
We do not yet know what Rupert Murdoch will have to say when he arrives in London. I suspect he will be surprised by what he finds. Last evening I saw a brief clip of him walking in a blue shirt talking to a deferential U.S. reporter. Their interview style is a good deal less […]
Well, now we know he cares. He is coming to take control. What a shambles awaits him. BSkyB approval delayed and probably never, with Ofcom now involved. The golden goose of the NOTW dead. Servile politicians now biting back and ravaging the carcass of his spent omni-power, to the point where the votes come to […]
There is so much happening so fast in this viral crisis now gripping the Murdoch media, the police and the government, with all its threads and layers, that it is almost beyond the scope of this style of blog to tackle. Nevertheless we can explore angles and today we look at the politics. Because make […]
The view from the perspective of one of the world’s media giants is, at the very least interesting. His empire is under public attack at a key point connected to the source of his wealth and the seat of his power. For the moment he stands firm in public, outraged and demanding of resolution, backing […]
This is now escalating out of control into a Watergate style crisis which goes on and on to some historic climax. What began as a phone hacking issue for celebrities, which interested few outside the circles of the hacked, has now become a viral drama. Nobody knows where it is headed. All we know is […]
There is something not quite right with all this. When I was young there was no such thing and elderly people were cared for by their families, of which they were a part. There was good support for those on their own because the demands were not universal. On the other hand, now it is […]
How many times in years gone by have I complained about completing consent forms for the school time after time when one of my children was to go on a trip. Why cannot one form cover everything? Well now it can. Nearly two hundred pages of guidance have been reduced to eight. The government wants […]
The American legal system is different to that in the UK, to the extent that information is not only released during the preparation of the prosecution, but it is freely debated in the media. The Americans hold that justice must at all times and at all levels be public. There is a lot to commend […]
It is disturbing to see that rioting has returned as a regular feature in Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own brand of sectarian tension which finds its expression in football rivalry. The divide is between Protestant and Catholic. Both are branches of Christianity, yet the passions behind the tension and the acts of violence and abuse […]