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When it was announced that Rupert Murdoch would be handing over his role at the top of News Corp in Europe (including Britain) and Asia to his youngest son James it evoked a sigh. But was it a sigh of relief or a sigh of discontent?

After Rupert claimed to be ‘bored with Britain’ in the Guardian last month (Mon 10), it was most definitely a sigh of relief, as it meant that maybe his unfair and frankly frightening influence over British politics in the last few decades was at an end.

Two of his most scary displays of power, but by no means the tip of the iceberg were, firstly, his alliance with Margaret Thatcher in the ‘80s, which led to Murdoch’s move to Wapping and revolutionising of the British newspaper industry. At the same time putting many skilled manual workers out of business and causing a tenfold rippling effect, with every newspaper group copying him and making many printers (in the old sense of the word) obsolete. The second would be his decision in turning The Sun to support New Labour in 1997, thus providing one of the key factors in ushering Labour into power that year.

It’s no secret that the Government will stoop to please a man with something of a 42% share of the British newspaper market, but it’s no secret that Rupert Murdoch is an extremely Conservative fellow. Perhaps that’s why he has become bored with Britain and her politics. So, maybe with Rupert out of the way it’s worth a sigh of relief, as what’s to come can’t possibly be worse than what has already been.

Still, to address the sigh of discontent, will we be getting much of the same? Does the apple really fall far from the tree? From what has been published about James already it is clear that he is more liberal than his father and that they hold different views on things. But the reality is that the differences are only going to be as different as the views of the Labour and Conservative parties, which are no longer that different.

So the sigh was to serve two purposes after all. That of relief was short lived as the reality set in that Murdoch’s stranglehold on the British newspaper industry was not going to loosen any time soon, turning the sigh into a painful, unremitting sigh of disgruntlement.

Sam Park , Deputy Editor

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