Goodbye News of the World..

Politicalbetting has of course gone into meltdown following the announcement of the closure of the News of the World. As with the Sporting Life, Daily Sketch and News Chronicle, it disappears into history and to be honest there's not a lot to lose a lot of sleep over.

The cynic in me notes the considerable behind-the-scenes preparation to launch the Sun as a seven-day newspaper and one is tempted to argue all this is a giant convenient smoke screen ahead of that event.

The pro-Conservative partisans are rushing to blame the left-wing press and of course Ed Milliband and saying he should be more sympathetic for the 200 redundancies (albeit getting three months full pay first) at the newspaper. Perhaps the Right should be more sympathetic toward Shropshire County Council staff, faced with the sack unless they agree to a 5% pay cut but as always, one set of workers is more important than another when it suits.

As to how the hacking scandal will play out in the medium term, it may be that it undermines the reputation of the written media as the expenses scandal has for politicians. As to whether this scandal's victims will include people in the political sphere, time will tell. It has exposed some disgraceful practicces in areas of investigative journalism and the degree to which new technology has not only liberated its users but also its listeners.