A former colleague of mine recently asked, why are you bothering with the House of Windsor? Good point. One could ask the same thing of the media, especially The Times. In the recent three part BBC documentary on the Murdoch dynasty, we learnt that Brexit and Trump would not have happened without Rupert’s devotion behind the scenes. He always had kudos around the globe, especially with British prime ministers, but never had the influence in Europe he would have liked. All pretty obvious that, but what many might not know is that Disney purchased most of the Murdoch empire recently for >$70 billion, leaving him with his most loved media, including Fox News.

The level of trash, bile and hatred within the media has never been stronger, often aimed at those that have attempted to challenge the establishment. How dare they! On the flip side, innumerable articles and documentaries have recently been trying to resurrect, Camilla, Princess Anne and even Sophy, Countess of Wessex. The Queen needs these people, apparently, but do we? In my last blog I praised Prince Charles’s reaction to yet another crisis in Britain, and at least Charles sees the sense in reducing the size of the monarchy. But it now seems that many in the media are still so desperate for a gong, they will go to extreme lengths to resurrect these royal figures.

The worst kind of journalism is the Harry and Meghan story, of course, a permanent Punch and Judy show. Meghan this week lost the first round of her legal battle against the Mail, a hateful rag if ever there was one, and agreed to pay costs of >£67k. My point is my friend and former colleague is right, forget the royals. This is all just a smoke screen; the horrendous way Covid-19 has been mismanaged in the UK benefits from these non-stories, but it seems editors at least can’t get enough of it. I have a sneaky optimistic feeling, however, that the general public are now waking up to this cover up.