I did wonder at one time that the one thing worse than blood sports was the sight of the press and paparazzi in hot pursuit of their quarry. But a pack of self righteous baying politicians turning on their tormentors is something else.
Why should we be surprised at the tricks and stratagems used by journos to get a story? Are they called hacks for nothing? Why do we need to spend a fortune on a public inquiry to tell us what we already know about right and wrong in all of this. Am I the only one to detect a faint smell of opportunism in the air as MPs sense the time is right to put the newshounds firmly in their kennels and make it that bit harder to ferret out the stories which they would rather we did not know.
Last Saturday the solemn last rites were played out over Wapping and the closure of the New of the World on the BBC to such an extent that the Reith lecture from Aung San Suu Kyi was removed from the evening news channel. You would think from listening to it all that something like the works of Shakespeare was to be lost to the nation for ever. My friend the Cornish wizard was so incensed he bought me a copy of the NoW to bring home. Rest assured mon ami it will make an excellent litter substitute in the cat's tray.
The cartoon from Peter Brookes of the Times says it all. So Messrs Cameron Clegg and Miliband get a grip and get some focus on what really matters in our world.
