We are waiting with eager curiosity to see the strength of Mazher Mahmood’s resolve to keep his identity secret. The News of the World has previously sought and been granted injunctions against the publishing of photographs showing his likeness, notably against the Guardian, after George Galloway rumbled him in February 2006. In the new paperback edition of News of the world? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings, we have published a clear, unequivocal shot of Mahmood in his bogus middle eastern garb when he came to sting Princess Michael of Kent. He is standing with his friend, travel agent Aseem Kazi, who posed as Pervaiz Khan, potential buyer of Prince Michael’s house, Nether Lypiatt. Behind them is the pilot of the helicopter, hired by News International to bring them there, and to enhance the deception.

As a thoroughly discredited journalist on a morally bust newspaper, it seems unlikely that he would have any case to put to a judge to preserve his anonymity. He has wasted millions of pounds in police time, court time, and prison service costs by causing innocent men to be held on remand for months at a time, following some of his highly fanciful investigative stings. He is a menace to the public and, as demonstrated by his story in last Sunday’s Screws, pointing up security weaknesses at Buckingham Palace (for any potential terrorist to see), a serious danger to national security.

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It’s obvious, is it not, that if you were to produce a trough, fill it with money and place it in front of a 650 average English persons, it would be inevitable that snouts will be immersed in it, trotters, too sometimes, up to the hocks. The extent of abuse will vary from Western Saddleback to Gloucester Old Spot, but the more elastic the criteria by which the trough is kept topped up, the less incentive for individual restraint.

The way the Westminster trough has grown, and the reasons for it are symptoms of a classic British fudge.

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It was surprising yesterday to hear Radio 5 Live invite News of the World investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood into their studios to puff his recent book. Simon Mayo’s show is usually more discerning.

Starting with a fatuous charade to obscure Mahmood’s identity, the lights in the studio were dimmed so that those viewing through the webcam wouldn’t see his visage, despite that fact that it can be seen on several well-used websites, including Wikipedia.

You might ask – Who gives a shit anyway? The man’s a busted flush. His brand of sloppy, largely fictitious journalism is less in demand than it was as the GB Public become more sophisticated (not enough yet, though; over 3 million morons still buy the News of the World every week to grubby up their Sundays.)

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The News Of The World is indignant this Sunday about local authorities using surveillance techniques to catch Council Tax cheats. There’s always an enjoyable sense of the ridiculous to be had in seeing the Screws working themselves up into a righteous frenzy about someone else doing exactly what they’ve been doing – extensively and sometimes illegally – for years.

In their usual scrappy way, without naming one authority or citing any specific examples, they tell us that ‘Town Hall’ snoopers are using anti-terrorist powers to monitor mobile phone signals to see who is sleeping over with whom, and doing it regularly enough to nullify a single occupancy discount. They quote MP Eric Pickles “the country is walking into surveillance state where spying on citizens has become the norm.”

Yes – and more often than not by the News of the World.

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