The Toll of The Bell

"GloriRana", I used to call her, back in the day.

Some of us take a vicarious pride in the achievements of our old friend, Manveen Rana.

Today, she began her landmark series of reports for The World at One on Bell Pottinger and the Guptas in South Africa.

This is why, for all its many faults, we have a BBC, and we must continue to have a BBC.

Remember, before anyone starts, that Bell Pottinger was and is so much a part of Thatcherism that it made the official announcement of Margaret Thatcher's death.

It has been on the wrong side in and around South Africa for a very long time, and it is now hand in glove with the Zuma regime.

The truth about that latter has been known for many years to readers of the Morning Star and to attendees at the Durham Miners' Gala.

Indeed, the line that runs from Jacob Zuma, through the Guptas, to Bell Pottinger and the court of the late Leaderene, is something that cries out for further investigation.

That court still contains people who had the closest possible ties to the old apartheid regime, and who now dance with glee at the condition of South Africa under Zuma.

Over, perhaps, to Manveen Rana?