In the wake of recent admissions by certain editors of the British tabloids that they feel partially responsible for the death of Princess Diana, the Independent asks about other regrets. This will mainly be of interest to those who follow the British press, but there are still some good ones, particularly this, from Kelvin McKenzie (the man responsible for the headline "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster," which is the British equivalent of "Headless Body in Topless Bar," influence-wise):

My only regret during my 13 years at the helm of 'The Sun' was that I didn't chin Max Hastings, a piss-poor editor of 'The Daily Telegraph', when he turned his back on me at an establishment lunch which I had been invited to with Rupert Murdoch. Apparently Hastings had no time for a tabloid tosspot like me, So when I offered a handshake to the self-regarding turd, it gave him the opportunity to "snub" me in front of his grand friends including, if memory serves, the Archbishop of somewhere and a smattering of politicians. My instinct was to give him a whack, but my body language must have given me away as I felt a restraining hand on my arm. It was Rupert.

Rupert Murdoch, agent of restraint! What a world. We'd wish for a domestic version of this if we weren't sure it'd be another arena in which Howell Raines would bitch about Jayson Blair.

'My only regret in 13 years at the helm was that I didn't chin Max Hastings' [Independent]