The posh left is triumphant. The people are bamboozled once more by their own sentimentality. A co-ordinated and well-timed plan of attack (judging by the steadiness of the daily leaks) is succeeding.
No-one sees the elephant in the room (the bloated, biased and soon-to-be-even-less-challenged state broadcaster). When people talk of Murdoch owning 40% of the British press, no-one takes any account of Auntie's dominance in forming British opinion.
Once again, the knee-jerk reaction to wrong-doing was not to leave it to the prosecutors. Instead – stupidly – it was to call for even more law. Law that will raise barriers to entry in the media, therefore reducing diversity of ownership and accelerating the decline of the dead tree press. Law that will put a chill on free speech and reduce the newspapers to the same subservience to the liberal elite as the BBC.
It's no-one's damn business who owns a newspaper. No more than it's anyone's business (but mine) who owns this blog. There is no need to regulate the press at all, beyond the ordinary obligations of all citizens (many of which the British tabloids have clearly broken). There is now no hope however – with cross-party agreement on Labour's impudent motion on Thursday – of avoiding even more regulation. Soon, there will be a frenzied settling of the elite's scores, and we will become less free.
Our nation sickens more. All our 'remedies' are poison. It's our own fault.
The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
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