A Week is a Long Time......

I've been wracking my brain over the last couple of days trying to think how I could justify a post about recent momentous political developments on a blog with such a restricted remit? What on earth might the connection be between Rupert Murdoch and probation? But then it came to me in a flash whilst in the bath.

Only a week ago prime minister David Cameron had been scared witless of the tabloid press in general, and Murdoch's media empire in particular. In this regard he was no different to all  party leaders including Ed Miliband, and predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair who each spent much time paying humiliating homage at Murdoch's court. Of course it was precisely because of this unedifying power relationship that key aspects of Ken Clarke's carefully-prepared sentencing proposals were unceremoniously scuppered by a rattled prime minister. The tabloid press were able to trumpet the u-turn as yet another of 'their' successes.  

But that was last week. Everything changed this week and the print media know it. It's payback time and suddenly the list of individuals and institutions wanting revenge has grown considerably. You could almost sense the hint of glee as hourly BBC news announced yet more advertisers pulling out of the News of the World. Of course the BBC has had to suffer years of being lectured to by the Murdoch family as representing 'unfair' competition. The power balance has shifted and things will never be the same again for newspapers in this country. The death knell was sounded for the ineffectual Press Complaints Commission and the all-too-cosy relationship between the Metropolitan Police and the print media will finally be the subject of a proper enquiry.

Up until Monday it was astonishing how little the press had to say about the whole thing and one of their own. After all, 'dog never eats dog.' The story had no legs as they say over in the US. There seemed no way to stop Murdoch claiming 100% of BSkyB and the government was resigned to just quietly caving in to him saying 'there was nothing they could do.' Well suddenly the story is everywhere, including the US where people are now asking 'maybe we need to know what's going on over here.'

Internet power proved it's potency with 'Mumsnet' orchestrating an advertising boycott of the NoW and astonishingly 'Avaaz' drumming up 100,000 e-mails from an outraged public to Jeremy Hunt, media minister, in just 24 hours. News International share price started sliding and all of a sudden the world began to look very different from No 10. The BSkyB deal is no longer a foregone conclusion with dark mutterings about whether the licence owner was 'fit and proper' emanating from the media regulator Ofcom.

So first it was the banks, then MP's expenses and now the tabloid press. Those who know say there is far worse to come and speculation is rife as exactly what that might mean? The term 'Watergate' has already been mentioned as suspicion grows that a million archived e-mails at News Corp have been deleted. But you can bet some of the juicier ones exist on other computers - I always keep interesting stuff - so where will the proverbial brown stuff be landing next? Well I'm going to suggest that the next few months are going to be exceptionally difficult for the police and I don't believe it will be confined to the Met.

Once the whole can of worms gets opened to the air I believe it will shed light on some very long-standing, endemic and highly illegal activity between journalists and police officers all over the country. Now that we have an insight into how Met officers were able to hide their activities by setting up scam 'informant' identities, it may well broaden out into uncovering much more sinister illegal activity. 

As a probation officer for many years, I've always been mystified as to why the police never seem able to apprehend any 'Mr Big' drug dealers? Only ever the minnows in their pathetic hundreds. As a probation officer one hears things. Unsubstantiated gossip and rumour possibly. But I've always had my concerns and if truth be known doubts about just how effective internal police Standards and Compliance really are? And then there's the Independent Police Complaints Commission. I think they are treated with derision by the police and not feared at all. I wonder why?

Of course all this is coming at a very bad time for the police with Home Secretary Theresa May at last showing signs of having the bottle to tackle some of the long-standing employment issues ducked by previous governments. The Police Federation may yet come to regret humiliating her at their last conference if public opinion moves as fast as it has done in relation to banks, MP's and more recently tabloid journalists. It's astonishing. Only last Sunday 2.7 million copies of the News of the World were sold. In less than a week the brand became so toxic that ditching it became a reasonable idea, rather than the humiliation of facing a boycott by readers and advertisers alike.    

PS One happy consequence of this fast-moving story was to knock the dreadful Louise Casey off the news agenda on Tuesday when the Victim Commissioner launched her ill-thought-out ideas for victim legislation. That's the thing about politics - it's all about luck and timing. Hopefully it will go the same way as her last big idea on limiting jury-trials.