Israel: Bye, Stefano!

Even in the remote Carmel Mountains, swaddled in pine, damp on forest vapour - with the shaky fate of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in the balance - curious ephemera from the UK reach my ears. Over dinner last night, someone I'd never met but in whom I confided something about Arcati, informed me that Thelondonpaper "is finished". Surely not, I said, Murdoch never gives up on his papers, he's invested millions. "It's over," my companion insisted. "It's just a question of time."

If true, my heart goes out to poor old Stefano Hatfield, the editor of the freebie, the man who openly discriminates against "mature" hacks, the man who traded in his old life for a new one (see previous posts) as his own rollercoaster career reached its apogee. If, instead of maturity, we were talking about colour or sexual orientation, the society nannies would be expectorating with moral outrage at his overt ageism - keenly aware as they are of public appearance (their own). But ageism is not the new black or pink, not yet: the new grey is not sexy as an issue, yet, so the Guardianistas stay quiet, asleep, indifferent.

But the Google bomb on ageism is coming. Don't imagine for one moment that Arcati has been massaged into docility. Rest presages the storm.