The gap between an official view of reality & the experience of it from below. Piers Morgan to Just Stop Oil protesters
On Friday 15th December a judge ruled that Mirror Group newspapers had hacked the phone of Prince Harry and the then Editor of the Mirror Piers Morgan knew about this. In a statement on the same day Morgan denied he had anything to do with it.
It’s a serious matter because while the Prince had the money to pursue a Court case the hacking of people’s personal phones went further than the rich and famous. Privacy was comprised, a serious matter to Cobbett’s Freeborn Englishman.
What will happen about the judges view on Morgan? In all probability nothing. Britain has a very poor record on holding the powerful to account, a democratic deficit of significant proportions.
In the same week a Just Stop Oil Protester was sentenced by a Manchester Court to six months in jail. His crime was taking part in a walking protest on Holloway Rd in North London. Given the usual speed of traffic there its doubtful much if any inconvenience was caused. Yet under a new Tory law designed to stifle democratic protest, such acts can attract a jail sentence of up to 12 months.
The gap between official politics and the view from the street is yawning. It will be filled by politics. Whose politics is a work in progress.
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