Ideally, it should be game, set, match

And I'm not talking about Wimbledon. I'm talking about the spectacularly ill-advised pending complete takeover of British Sky Broadcasting by Fox and friends at News Corp, which I've previously commented on from . . . time . . . to . . . time.

In a rational world, the latest stomach-churning revelations would be fatal to Rupert Murdoch's dreams of media consolidation in Britain.

But, sadly, Britain is not a rational world:

". . . Business Secretary Vince Cable set the terms of the investigation of the takeover as being exclusively about whether the deal would harm plurality or choice in the media.

"Mr Cable could have specified that there should be a review of whether News Corp is a fit and proper owner, but he chose not to do so. That means, according to my source, that Mr Hunt's hands are tied.

"That said, the media regulator Ofcom is not constrained in this way, according to a government official. Ofcom does have the power to determine whether News Corp is a fit-and-proper owner of all of BSkyB, or even its current holding of 39%.

"However, Ofcom can't make the adjudication until the police have completed their investigation of the extent of hacking and other invasions of people's privacy by the News of the World."

How fortunate for the Murdochs. Funny how that worked out.