No one dared question the perversion of politics by and for Rupert Murdoch...

The king is dead – long live democracy. With the immolation of the News of the World last week, we saw the end of the pre-eminent political influence of the last three decades in Britain. Rupert Murdoch's pass to Number 10 has been withdrawn; the access code for his editors and senior executives has expired. All the unseen deal-making, fixing, manipulation and bullying, as well as that princely sense of entitlement emanating from News International headquarters at Wapping, have gone.

These are very big gains from the events ignited by the revelation that Milly Dowler's phone messages were hacked and deleted by the private inquiry agents working for the News of the World, as she lay dead. Faced with that singularly disgusting act, the nation drew a line: this is not who we are; we won't support those responsible by buying their product; nor will we advertise in that newspaper or tolerate those who do.

It was a lightning revolt with a whiff of the Arab Spring about it, in that the anger was directed at the power of an elderly dynast and his closest associates. There is a feeling of liberation at the end of this highly charged week and we can say that our society seems better off: our political system is freer and, I would suggest, a little bit cleaner; relations between the media, politicians and the public have changed for the good. More...

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