Keep in touch
Follow the i journalists on our Twitter list
Are children naturally better with computers than their parents?
Or are they just not scared to get stuck in? Either way, don't expect the gap to close, says Rhodri Marsden.
Subscribe to the i print edition - or on iPad
i is available on PRINT subscription or on our iPAD APP at just £45 for twelve months
Today's letter from the Editor
Today's Matrices
Letter from the editor: The weakest link
BBC Parliament (504 on Sky, 81 on Freeview) is likely to garner record viewing figures at 2.30pm today when a reluctant Rupert and James Murdoch will appear before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee, to be followed at 3.30pm by their ex-CEO Rebekah Brooks.
Mind you, there’s pretty stiff, somewhat apposite, choices on the other channels should you so prefer: BBC2 has The Weakest Link at 3pm, and Channel 4 airs Carry on Dick at 1.25.
This 1974 “classic” is notable not only for the last acting appearances of Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Hattie Jacques in the Carry On series, but for a bonkers plot that sees King George found the Bow Street Runners in a desperate attempt to crack down on crime, and to apprehend the notorious highwayman “Big” Dick Turpin.
Despite using “all manner of tricks” to catch other criminals, the hapless Bow Street chief Sir Roger Daley, and his officers Captain Desmond Fancey and Sgt Jock Strapp are run rings round by Turpin, time and again.
If you rename the saga Carry on Wapping and transport the characters to today, would the plot seem any more surreal? Sir Roger and Captain Fancey have fallen on their swords, and Dick Turpin looks like he is being finally brought to book, but...
To be serious, this is a historic day. Could any of us imagine two short weeks ago when the Milly Dowler hacking news broke that it would result in quite so much carnage so soon?
Today we will see the world’s most powerful media baron, his son and long-presumed heir, and their most trusted ex-lieutenant brought before our MPs. Are those MPs up to the challenge? Or will the Murdochs run rings around them? Will Rupert remember his recent crash media and legal training and not say something outrageous off the cuff? Can James rise above his propensity to business jargon and appear at all sympathetic? Will Rebekah’s insecurity and hatred of public speaking stymie her attempts to improve on her previous, poor committee appearance?
Be it on BBC Parliament or Sky News, a nation will tune in with bated breath to discover just who is “The Weakest Link”.
- 1 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Bloody attack brings terror to capital’s streets
- 2 Mothers' diets may harm IQs in two-thirds of babies
- 3 Gay couple beaten in park urge MPs to moderate language on gay marriage
- 4 After woman sells virginity for $780,000, here are the results of our prostitution survey
- 5 Far-right French historian, 78-year-old Dominique Venner, commits suicide in Notre Dame in protest against gay marriage
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them
Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness
Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last
How to say ‘I’m a sellout’
