It's another week of good news, if you happen to be a member of the 1% (that figure being the percentage of the population who find David Cameron likeable enough to sit down to dinner with) because it turns out that in return for a small six-figure annual donation you'll get to suggest your ideas to our Prime Minister in person.
That's because the clocks went back this weekend, all the way back to March 2010 when the labour party were doing almost exactly the same thing. In fact the video of Peter Cruddas effectively selling political power looks so much like the Stephen Byers sting two years ago that you could be forgiven for thinking it was a Crimewatch re-enactment.
However as much as I love a good Sunday morning political scandal, the fact that it was the Sunday Times who exposed it just didn't sit well with me. The main reason for this is because for years News Corporation did pretty much the same thing. The only difference was that instead of offering donations in return for helpful policy, they offered favourable coverage. Even as recently as last year (April and June 2011) Rupert Murdoch was visiting Downing Street to have private meeting with David Cameron, probably to discuss his now shattered dreams of controlling BSkyB. The cameras never saw him arrive because he used a back entrance and they never saw him leave either because instead of walking home after dinner he would simply explode into a flock of bats that would fly out though an upstairs window.
Perhaps the Wapping executives are just bitter that their access to power has been curtailed and may soon be reduced to visiting hours at Wormwood Scrubs and are getting their own back. But it's not just the hint of News Corp hypocrisy that makes the coverage this story antagonising; it's also the timing. As with many investigative articles there is detail to be found in the information the article omits and the Sunday Times has neglected to mention the date of the sting. The front-page story merely says that meetings took place "this month"; if it had been in the last week it would probably have said 'this week' so it probably wasn't filmed in the last few days. Why is this relevant? Because for well over six months the Sunday Times has been editorially campaigning against the 50p tax rate for high-earners. Perhaps the Leverson enquiry has made me paranoid but I am left with a lingering suspicion. Is it possible that newspaper deliberately withheld a scandalous story highlighting the unfair influence of the very wealthy because it would have been a gift to the chancellor's critics on the eve of the budget? We will probably never know but I'm guessing the editor, John Witherow, probably enjoyed last weeks budget on a political and personal level.
Whatever their motivation the Sunday Times did an excellent and audacious job of exposing the conservative party, be it for the their cynical corruption or simply the vainglorious 'bluster' of Peter Cruddas and the newspaper should be commended for doing so. In the height of the Leverson fallout they have reminded us why investigative journalism is a vital institution that must be supported and protected at all costs. Let us not forget that it was the Wapping compound that eroded our trust in newspapers and the people who write for them. Hopefully with a newly acquired separation from political power News International will find itself in a better position to print the best stories and regain a little respectability.