Guido is an admirer of Rupert Murdoch and the global role he has long played in political affairs. During the Cold War his media assets supported political leaders who stood firm against the Soviet threat, his papers banged the drum in support of the free enterprise system; in Britain he broke the print unions’ resistance to change and progress at Wapping, his satellite television networks brought competition and choice around the world. For decades his broadcast networks and newspapers have given editorial support to parties and politicians fighting collectivism around the globe. Nor should we forget that Bart Simpson entertained the world’s children in a reckless way that has always annoyed the woke.

Nevertheless, the power and influence that he has wielded for good should not, perhaps, outlive him. Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox, appears to be the only heir in his father’s image, and Guido has long feared that – outvoted by his siblings – control in the hands of James and Elisabeth Murdoch would result in a very different drumbeat from the Murdoch Media Empire. It would be progressive, woke and carbon neutral. We would no longer hear or read the voices passionate in their support of free enterprise and the free markets that have brought prosperity to hundreds of millions people since the fall of communism.

Filings just released in the US show that James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn spent $20 million opposing Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election while funnelling another $100 million through Quadrivium, a not-for-profit they control, to support left-wing political groups. James backed Democrat candidates, according to CNBC, who found the large contribution while reviewing the 2019 tax return documents of Quadrivium. James quit the News Corporation board over “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”  The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal both have conservative opinion sections.

Could Rupert ever bring himself to break up his life’s work? Well he has already divested himself of Twentieth Century Fox to Disney and British Sky Broadcasting to Comcast. Maybe he thinks the same as Guido…