Some years ago, Sylvia bought a mug with this on it for Barbara, her lifelong friend: “You will be my friend for ever. You know too so much about me.”

She thought it was funny but true and it has been in a prominent place in Barbara’s kitchen ever since. As teenagers, Sylvia Wroe, as she was then, and Barbara Leadill, as she was then, were inseparable.

“Particularly in our teens, we did and said things we didn’t tell our parents about and don’t tell our children about now.”

This simple truth in life, financial persuasion and the promise of media support are the basic fuels for the power used to extremes by Murdoch and his operating managers to build and extend the completely undemocratic relationship between them, the police and our politicians.

It has taken power away from the electorate, where it rightly belongs, and has had the worst effect on the trust of the people in our politicians, police, financial institutions and authority in general.

We are left feeling completely powerless.

George Appleby, Clifton, York.