The world has become expert in creating wilful blindness, asserted author and businesswoman Margaret Heffernan when she spoke in London, 12 July, on the theme of her latest book, Wilful Blindness, why we ignore the obvious at our peril (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Wilful blindness is a legal term, she explained, which holds that if there is information individuals could know and should know, but manage not to know, the individuals are nonetheless responsible. She was speaking just as News International was engulfed in a phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of its flagship UK paper News of the World.