Power

The spectacle of Gordon Brown and David Cameron turning up to celebrate the wedding of 'Sun' editrix Rebekah Wade among cohorts of the rich and influential was a timely reminder of where real power lies in this country. You can be sure that both party leaders were granted an audience with Rupert Murdoch, since it is probably impossible to win an election if you displease him (just look what happened to Kinnock). The Sun has, in my view, done a great deal to coarsen and demean our public life, and it is ironic that the paper's strident and yobbish schtick is a million miles from the grand country-house lifestyle led by Ms. Wade.
Much of the damaging populist tinkering of the Blair years was a direct response to the Sun's urgings.
If you have the stomach for it there is a report here and a bit about her social milieu here.

I'm off to get out my old anthology, and re-read Kipling's 'The Sergeant's Wedding'.