Seeking an apology..

The recent headlines concerning the decision of the Mail to portray the father of Ed Milliband as a UK-hating Marzist have attracted widespread interest. The majority seem to be siding with Milliband. Or are they? Looking at this story beneath the surface, I think the opposite is true. The behaviour of the Mail for a long time has tested the bounds of acceptability. Rathe rthan people feeling badly for Milliband, and I'm sure that there are those who do, I think the majority is just dead against the modus operandi of the Mail. The owner must surely know the extent to which his views are vilified? This does not seem to stop him though - and neither do the current Press regulations. We might have been forgiven for thinking that a change might have been due following proven allegations of phone tapping and the like. What we have instead is a few meek apologies and a system remarkably similar to its predecessor. In other words, the y print pretty much what they like safe in the knowledge that they will, for the most part, get away with it. I do feel though that Milliband would have emerged better if he had just shrugged this off as the typical behaviour from the Mail. The minute he starts demanding apologies, they have, in effect, achieved their goal. That is what sells papers and that is their sole aim. The rights and wrongs are mere sidelines for them. It was ever thus. Of course, history shows that some politicians do indeed get the full apologies which they seek. A case in point occurred in 1967 when the pop group The Move issued a full apology to then Prime Minister Harold Wilson after printing a cartoon of him in the nude to promote their forthcoming single "Flowers in the Rain". It is therefore little wonder that the first song played on the soon to be launched Radio 1 was, of course, "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move. Strike a blow and expect one back. Sometimes better to take these things on the chin and be pragmatic about the whole thing.