Back to Bland - and Beyond!

I didn't see our new national newspaper yesterday - the Sunday Sun or whatever it's called (I suspect my man kept it back to enjoy in the pantry) - but I understand the consensus view among the pundits is that it was 'bland'. This is excellent news. It may only be a blip, or Rupert Murdoch trying to present a squeaky-clean image to the world (and Leveson) - or it might be a sign of a more general movement back from the excesses of recent times towards something gentler, more in tune with the fundamental English character. This, you might remember, was until very recently marked by reticence, good manners, a sense of decency and fair play, a preference for muddling through (and grumbling), a distrust of innovation and excess - in a word, a tendency to something rather like blandness.
If the new Sun is looking back to the past, it is not alone, as this year's Oscars confirm, dominated as they are by the silent masterpiece The Artist, a return to the very beginnings of cinema in Hugo, and a portrayal of that now historic figure Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Even the recent Brit Awards were more retro than they have ever before been, more like an old boys' and girls' reunion than a celebration of a supposedly innovative, cutting-edge music. Could it be that we are seeing the dawn of a new Retroprogressive Age? Forward to the Past! You have nothing to lose but your News of the World (and you've already lost that).