The elderly magnate's evidence – given under oath – was notable for some deadpan statements that some might find surprising

Kelner's View

For some reason, people keep asking me about Rupert Murdoch. "You're a journalist," they say, "is he going to sell News International? Is he a ruthless bastard? Does he tell all his editors to hack the phones of murder victims?" And when I reply that I have no idea, they ask, "Have you ever met him?" To which the answer is Yes.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North East Somerset, is to the Conservative Party what Dennis Skinner is to the Labour Party. He is the voice of what makes his party unique.

Ed Miliband's decision to end elections to the Shadow Cabinet leaves one MP with the never-to-be-equalled record of being elected to this body 14 times.

The accomplished controversialist Lars von Trier may endure a few sleepless nights in the next month: Denmark is starved of darkness at this time of year, after all. But he can rest easy in the knowledge that his exile from the Cannes Film Festival – quite apart from garnering him countless precious column inches – will likely lapse in due course.

Broadcaster Andrew Neil on Jeremy Hunt's decision to allow Rupert Murdoch to buy BSkyB.

The candid and dark poetry of Jo Shapcott, which draws on the poet's recent battle with cancer, has walked away as the surprise winner of this year's Costa Book of the Year.

"We're bringing transparency to government," David Cameron said yesterday. Maybe. But the Conservatives are certainly not being transparent about the health of their own party. There has been no confirmation or denial of the interesting claim by the editor of the ConservativeHome website, Tim Montgomerie, that party membership has declined by 80,000 under David Cameron's leadership.

"The great thing about playing this festival is that there's music to fill any awkward silences," says Shappi Khorsandi of the jazz pleasantly leaking from an adjacent tented venue. Khorsandi, however, is not one for leaving silences; she's ever effervescent and with all the more reason to be these days, thanks to a growing audience, in part swelled by TV appearances that range from Friday Night with Jonathan Ross to Question Time.

Anyone with a heart during Thursday's Question Time on BBC1 will have found themselves toying with the remote, pondering whether the act of watching constituted an intrusion into private grief. The post-Budget agony manifested by Vince Cable was better suited to a renaissance painting of Christ on the cross than a chat with David Dimbleby.