Chicken and foul egg

Despite News Corp's 'bad egg' image, the PM is

reported to have chickened out of asking Murdoch

to withdraw his BSkyB bid.

Postscript

Shallow is the word that springs immediately to mind.


Kick the ball into touch until it becomes yesterday's news in six months time or so, perhaps closing his remaining titles in the meantime, then throw him the much more profitable BSkyB prize. Who is running Britain? Murdoch!

The listening party at work

The latest retreat

Judgement

No, not bankers with their noses in the trough, completely oblivious to natural justice, but judges themselves who persist in trying the patience of ordinary law abiding citizens.

Yesterday it was the turn of Mr and Mrs Johns from Derby who had already fostered many children but were disallowed from further fostering homeless children under the equality laws because of the way they expressed their Christian faith. The judges said, “We sit as secular judges serving a multicultural community of many faiths. We are sworn (we quote the judicial oath) to 'do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will’.” An ironic comment following the Prime Minister's remarks following on from Angela Merkle's that multiculturalism had failed. Once again it appears that any views can be expressed provided they are not Christian or perceived to question other faiths.

Also in our one size fits all society, the European Court has decided that insurance risk assessment must be abandoned in the interests of gender equality resulting in higher premiums in general and for women in particular. Coming hot on the heels of the votes for prisoners farce, many law abiding citizens must be wondering where all this is leading and would be justified in thinking that 'equality' and 'human rights' judgements have become a load of cobblers - unless they are football fans.