Part of the coverage is due to the sense of overwhelming guilt and shame that so many of the Establishment feel about their attitude and behaviour towards apartheid in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The MCC and a whole host of 'sportsmen' who were willing to play in SA ( and be handsomely paid for it), Thatcher and her anti- sanctions stance, Cameron going on a jolly in the 80s on a tr ip paid for by an anti- sanctions lobbying firm, Blair completely silent on the issue in his student years ( unlike Brown), Conservative students wearing 'Hang Mandela' t-shirts. For me , I've always felt that attitudes towards apartheid SA were one of the defining left/ right issues of our generation. After his release, there was a really hypocritical rewriting of history and today apartheid supporters are trying to whitewash their immoral support of what was truly one of the most evil regimes in the history of the world. But apart from those on guilt trips wanting to brush up their anti apartheid credentials , there are those of us who marched, petitioned and boycotted goods to support those amazingly brave people who fought and suffered and died to rid the world of this evil and today we want to remind everyone of what Mandela stood for and what humankind is capable of, so sad as the storms are, it is absolutely right and proper that Mandela's death is being given the coverage it is - had he not died, yesterday's premiere of his film would have been marked by DM coverage of Kate's thigh high split dress. How short our memories are of apartheid