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Some thoughts on the News International/ News of the World/ Murdoch events ...

• Who, really, can be surprised? You mean you didn't know ... ?
• Isn't it evident that if you deal with that kind of money and at that kind of scale you think you can get away with anything? (As Zappa put it - concerning other sleazery - : When the lie is so big ... Or cue Harry Lime in the Ferris Wheel car looking down at the people on the ground below: "Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man ...")
• So we have a corrupt police force, a corrupt political system, a corrupt journalistic profession, a corrupt banking system ... just what is left of the 'great' in Great Britain (other than Kate's dresses and Pippa's assets)?
• You can only sell a newspaper if someone is prepared to buy it. Therefore ... Let's look at the other side of the transaction. What desires are being catered for? Did you buy it? Are you buying it?
• And talking about Harry Lime, what about the third man who prefers to keep in the shadows?
• And as George Monbiot has suggested let's cut the talk about 'populism', the 'voice of the people' and reveal it for the charade it always was ( = dupe them into thinking this is what they wanted & we'll make a packet). Instead of 'grassroots' read astroturf.

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And here's some kitchen sink wisdom from your Uncle Jeremy (bet Rupert has a copy of his poems on his bedside table) ...

"And unlike Cerberus

we all share the same head, our shoulders

are denied the nuptial joys of television,

so that what I am is a special case of

what we want, the twist-point missed exactly

at the nation's scrawny neck."

('Die A Millionaire', J.H. Prynne)

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Meanwhile, if anyone has any wisdom or advice to dispense on folding bikes ("un velo pliable" round these parts), please let me know. The Dahon Vitesse D7 seems to the Bike Of Choice - given I'm not in the market for the Aston Martin option of a Brompton and I don't want something that will fall to bits or fold itself up as I cycle away from the shop.

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Till next time ...