* ON Tuesday much doffing of hats and Norman French as Parliament was formally prorogued.

I have never before taken part in this touchingly arcane ritual in which men in tights summon the fistful of MPs left in the chamber to hear the Queen’s Speech read out in the Lords thus anticipating the state opening next week. Half an hour well spent.

* A damning select committee determined unanimously that executives of the Murdoch empire misled Parliament.

That’s very serious.

By a majority, but dividing on party lines, it also decided that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run a major company. The committee’s report will be extensively debated in the next session with the possibility that News International executives will be summoned to what is confusingly called the bar of the house to explain themselves.

Do I accept James and Rupert Murdoch’s words of contrition? I regret to say, I do not.

Closing down the disgusting News of the World was followed by its re-emergence as the Sun on Sunday which some think was the intention even before the hacking scandal.

That struck me as highly cynical, dispelling any residual sympathy I might have for the pair and their organisation.

* After the unflattering remarks I’ve previously made in this column about the mayhem at our airports and the poor impression it gives in advance of the Olympics, I was pleased to note the immigration minister visiting Heathrow to see the chaos for himself. Please sort it out.

* This week’s rise in interest rates is deeply worrying for people on variable rate mortgages. It is likely that repossessions will rise.

However, although we are not immune from the underpinning EU financial turbulence, UK rates have been kept relatively low by the markets’ approval of UK austerity measures.