In The Print is a docudrama about the bitter war between Rupert Murdoch and the unions in the mid-1980s. Murdoch was determined to computerise the production of his UK titles and to terminate the far left’s stranglehold on his business. Daily papers are vulnerable to last-minute strikes and his thieving employees made no secret of their larcenous tactics. The print workers, known as ‘inkies’, earned £1,000 a week for 16 hours’ work and their union, Sogat, behaved like a bunch of racketeers. They laughed at Murdoch by submitting wage claims for employees called ‘Donald Duck’ and ‘Ronald Reagan’.

Murdoch fought back with smart, imaginative tactics that Sogat, under Brenda Dean’s leadership, couldn’t handle. He announced the launch of a new daily, the London Paper, and set up a factory in Wapping to deal with the printing. The newspaper was a hoax. Sogat discovered too late that Murdoch had interviewed no journalists for his new venture and that he hadn’t hired a PR firm to celebrate the first edition.

Why Trump stepped back from the brink

The winners and losers of the Iran ceasefire deal

Welcome to the Taco presidency

As soon as he moved his central London headquarters to Wapping, the unions called a strike. Murdoch sacked them on the spot.........

© The Spectator