Untimely Vindication

Those staunch self-regulators at the Press Complaints Commission have administered a quick kick in the groin to the ever-hapless Gordon Brown; better yet, like all the most enjoyable kicks in the groin, it has been delivered under the guise of a soothing balm. Last July the Sunday Torygraph claimed that Brown, with his usual talent for calm strategic thinking, had threatened to "smash the tycoon's media empire" during a telephone conversation with Rupert Murdoch. Brown was not solicited for comment, and there was no indication that the story was based on the babblings of "confidential sources" and thus nearly as close to the realms of fact as an official New Labour press release. Hence, on the day when it emerged that the News of the World was hacking lawyers' telephones, presumably for blackmailing purposes, and on the day before James Murdoch is due another chance to deny everything he hasn't forgotten, the PCC has taken full advantage of its own opportunity and ruled that Gordon Brown's credentials as a Murdoch sycophant are intact and unassailable.