Eyes Down?

Mr Speaker Hoyle has rebuked the Government for planning to make a major policy announcement on Sunday. Announcements should be made first to the House, not to the media. If the Government feared the slightest scrutiny by the media, then it would observe that. 

But the print media, at least, may never recover from their present predicament. The Sun looks particularly vulnerable. In the heady days of Early Corbynism, I was around a project called The Eclipse, which aspired to supplant The Sun in the North East. Nothing ever came of it, although I have no idea why not, and the prime mover, Jessie Joe Jacobs, is now the Labour candidate for Mayor of the Tees Valley.

These days, or at any rate very soon, it might be possible to acquire The Sun itself for next to nothing. There are nothing like the rules about the funding of political parties, or even the ownership of television stations. In practice, pretty much anyone with the readies can buy a British newspaper, from anywhere in the world. Just make the 89-year-old Rupert Murdoch an offer that he cannot refuse.

Of course we would keep the hooks that were the sport and the showbiz. There would be no more Page Three, but it is inconceivable that anyone still bothers to buy a print publication for that. There might even be some arrangement to pension off those current dependants of Sun Bingo, the staff of The Times. For example, the greatest bingo caller that has not yet been, Oliver Kamm. At two o'clock this afternoon, the following letter will be sent to certain select publications, without the last sentence if possible, but with it if necessary:

Anne Sacoolas must be extradited to answer for the death of Harry Dunn. There must be no extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States until that had happened. There must be no free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States until Sacoolas had been extradited. The one-sided extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States must be repealed. And the presence, status and activities of the American bases in Britain must be reviewed in public by the whole House of Commons. Oliver Kamm of The Times, who has sought to insert himself into my support for the cause of justice for Harry Dunn, was invited to sign this letter, but he declined to do so.