Penelope Gilliat used to say the characteristic sound of an English Sunday was Harold Hobson, theatre critic of the Sunday Times, barking up the wrong tree. Times have changed. At the brash, nouveau right Sunday Times the characteristic sound of a Tuesday morning is fair-minded reporters, especially those unfortunate enough to have had anything to do with the coal strike, ringing round their contacts disclaiming what has appeared under their names the previous Sunday.

The strike has been the clearest possible evidence that, under the editorship of Andrew Neil, the paper has abandoned pretence at even-minded coverage in favour of printing stories designed to please members of the present cabinet. It has consistently and prematurely predicted the collapse of the strike; it has inflated