Michael Gove, the education secretary, was there. On Saturday 2 July, Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth and her millionaire PR husband Matthew Freud hosted a party at their 22-bedroom mansion in the Cotswolds. It's almost as if the light has suddenly come on, and everybody has said: 'Good lord вЂ“ were we doing that?'' is now so toxic that any mention of it is. 'Any association with Murdoch and his papers, which quite naturally everybody has had in some form. 'It's almost as if the whole establishment вЂ“ the political-media elite вЂ“ is in a state of wobble,' he said. But when he popped up towards the end of the Today programme, he seemed to agree that something absolutely remarkable wasВ afoot. As far as I know, he has not talked about the 'British Spring'. Yesterday, in the wake of yet more arrests and resignations, I listened to another media appearance by Steve Hewlett, the Guardian columnist and presenter of Radio 4's Media show вЂ“ who, in the midst of droves of talking heads coming close to losing theirs, has sounded a dependable note of calm and real insight. Why would he, when the most powerful among them would gladly grant him regular audiences, opening the back door of Downing Street so they could check that everything in his world was as perfect as it could possibly be?

In the 43 years he has been operating in the UK, Rupert Murdoch has never formally faced British MPs. And besides, the event will be defined by one massive piece of symbolism. Body language will be picked apart pauses will acquire huge significance the merest slip-up might open up very damaging lines of inquiry. That may be true, but even if the trio hide behind half-answers and obfuscation, there will plenty on which to feast. 'There is not going to be a killer blow on Tuesday,' he said. Tom Watson вЂ“ the Kidderminster-raised Labour MP whose dogged pursuit of News International forms one of the key threads of how the hacking scandal has played out вЂ“ warned the Guardian against getting too excited. There, they will face a committee of MPs, from a wide array of backgrounds вЂ“ among them, a trade unionist's son from Kidderminster a privately educated chick-lit novelist who has recently married the manager of Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a woman who was once the finance director for the company that makes Mars bars.Д®xactly what will happen when Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks face the culture, media and sport select committee is anyone's guess. An elderly AmericanвЂ“Australian billionaire and his 38-year-old son will be transported to the Houses of Parliament, along with a 43-year-old woman from Warrington, long used to the company of the rich and powerful, but freshly departed from her high-powered job and just released from a central-London police station. A t 2.30 on Tuesday 19 July, the story that has spread itself over the news for weeks will reach one of its most spectacular moments.

Alexander dawn of an empire hacked