Murdoch has often raged against our toffs. But they’ve had the last laugh.

Rupert Murdoch’s proprietorship of the News of the World began in 1969 and caused headlines in 1973 when the paper exposed aristocratic Tory minister Lord Lambton in bed with prostitutes, smoking drugs. (Lambton afterwards retired to his 17th century Italian palazzo, Villa Cetinale, with mistress Claire Ward.) It ended yesterday with another grandee, ex-Formula 1 boss Max Mosley – whose sado-masochistic party with prostitutes the News of the World featured in 2008 – gloating on Sky TV (part owned by Murdoch) about its death. Mosley won £60,000 damages after they’d wrongly described his party – in which he spoke German and the ladies wore prison uniforms – as ‘Nazi-themed’. Murdoch has often raged against our toffs. But they’ve had the last laugh.