What Jeremy Hunt’s letter this morning started, Nick Clegg has just finished. Thanks to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is now even
clearer that the coalition is reluctant for Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB deal to go ahead. “Look how people feel about this, look how the country has reacted with revulsion to the revelations,”
he exhorted in interview with the Beeb, “so do the decent and sensible thing and
reconsider, think again about your bid for BSkyB.” The question now is what’s meant by that “reconsider” — whether it means the government is pushing for a delay, or for
Murdoch to drop the bid altogether. But, either way, it’s several degrees firmer than anything they’ve said previously.
Whether this closes off yet another avenue of attack for Ed Miliband, I’m not sure — the Labour leader could still go ahead with his vote on Wednesday, to expose exactly who thinks what about the BSkyB takeover.
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