UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
Constitution in crisis as tyrannical journalists devour cowed politicians
A sordid tale of excess and brutality, of a world dominated by journalists with their ears to the keyhole, of tyrannical newspapers wielding remarkable power and of a political class not only cowed, but consumed, by that power.
Sound familiar? With two of Britain’s most senior policemen out of a job, the prime minister under pressure for his serenading of News Corp and one of the world’s most powerful press barons, in the form of Rupert Murdoch, summoned to testify to parliament, it would be one way of describing the current state of affairs. 
In fact, it is how Irish writer and wit Oscar Wilde saw the state of Britain 120 years ago.
“In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralising,” Wilde wrote in 1891, several years before a court case in which intimate details of his own private life became the centre of a media storm.
In Britain – 7 days in 7 pictures
Wednesday: A homeless man sits outside the entrance to Green Park Tube Station in central London on Christmas Eve, while a man and a woman kiss goodbye after a shopping trip. There was yet more evidence this week that the world’s economies are limping into the new year, with Britain contracting more sharply than first thought and further signs that the U.S. economy is in a sharp decline. REUTERS/Andrew Parson
Tuesday: A homeless man has his hair cut at the charity Crisis UK temporary day centre for the homeless at a school in London. Crisis UK opens its doors to the homeless over the festive period from 23 until 30 December. A survey for Crisis suggests nearly one in 10 people are struggling to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, and the charity fears there will be a surge in homelessness in 2009. REUTERS/Luke McGregor
-
The Wall
