Thatcher helped Murdoch corrupt The Times

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Thatcher met Murdoch over buying the Times

Sunday 18 March 2012

It was revealed at the weekend that two of the most reviled people in Britain cosied up to each other to discuss the future of two newspapers at a tryst which didn’t officially happen.

Sordid details from former prime minister Margaret Thatcher‘s private papers revealed that she met Rupert Murdoch, who already owned the News of the World and the Sun, in 1981.

The off-the-record and very hush-hush get-together was about Mr Murdoch‘s desire to snap up the Times and The Sunday Times – at that time two of the most respected newspapers in the land.

The official history of the Times had stated there was no direct contact between the pair at that stage.

Ministers eventually allowed the sale without referring it to the monopolies commission because the Times was under threat of closure.

Sir Harold Evans, 83, who edited the Sunday Times from 1967 until 1981 said that denying the talks was “hypocrisy on stilts.”