“The Lords of England have stopped the barbarians at the gate of The Telegraph,” said Due Diligence in the Financial Times .

After a drawn-out sale, described as the “auction from hell”, the media group is set to end up in the hands of Lord Rothermere – owner and chair of Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), whose great-grandfather co-founded the Daily Mail in 1896. If the government and competition regulators clear the £500 million deal, “the tie-up will create one of the most powerful right-leaning media groups in Britain”.

The UK likes to present itself as “open for business”. Not in this case. For more than two years, ministers and the newspaper’s own reporters have “helped fend off potential buyers from New York to Abu Dhabi”. When Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital withdrew earlie

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