NoW Is The Time To Say Goodbye

So, the middle class intelligentsia has had its way and decided that the working class proles should not be allowed their newspaper of choice.
Ok, maybe not quite that simple. But it comes to something when the high moral ground is taken by grasping, thieving, members of Parliament, the whoring Hugh Grant and every two bit celebrity with a Twitter account. Thanks, Lily Allen, for telling us what we should boycott and what we're allowed to read!
Whatever the grand plan is for a Sunday tabloid from the News International stable, the simple truth is several hundred talented and creative people who have never hacked a phone in their lives are without a job while the executives who are responsible are allowed to investigate themselves as part of a 'thorough' inquiry.
I have a lot of good friends at the News of the World. Mind you, I also used to know Andy Coulson very well. And Simon Greenberg, now spokesman for News International, but not so well.
Funny enough, I only knew Simon through Andy. Coulson and I, along with Coulson's brother Paul and his son Billy, used to sit together at Spurs home games. Originally we used to stand together before grounds became all seater. Then we got seats together. That carried on for a good 15 years or so until Andy got the NoW job and gave up his season ticket.
Simon at that time was sports editor of the Evening Standard but a big Spurs fan too so we would all meet up occasionally for a drink or for an away game.
Then Andy took Simon on at the News of the World. Then Simon, despite his allegiance, went to work at Chelsea for Abramovich before going back to News International as whatever it is he is supposed to be doing and failing.
By the time you read this, Andy may well be arrested. I can't help thinking, despite everything, that he is a scapegoat.
I'll tell you what happens at a newspaper. Journalists do whatever they think they can get away to get a story in the paper. But at different papers, the definition of what they can get away with varies. So reporters at The Guardian wouldn't hack into telephones if they thought they would get into trouble for it.
If journalists at the NoW thought they could hack into phones and hire private detectives (and detectives have also been used by The Guardian, Mail and Mirror or course) without the editor sacking them, they would. And that implies the editor approves.
There is a certain 'don't tell me how you got the story, just get it and make sure it's right' at tabloid papers but that doesn't excuse the fact that the buck stops at the editor's desk.
I never had any problem working with Rebekah Wade/Brooks on the odd occasion we would come into contact. But the buck stops with her and not the 200 or so journalists who have lost their jobs.
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I'm going on safari. To Scotland. So I may not blog for a week. Thanks for reading. Please keep reading when I return. Cheers...Solly