You can't say Rupert Murdoch doesn't know where the power lies. This evening Wapping plays host to the first part of the two-day Times CEO Summit, which is followed by a dinner. Murdoch is expected to be there, and David Cameron has been invited – although it is not yet certain he will attend. It's been a while since they met of course, well last Thursday, where the PM looked in to Rupert Murdoch's summer party in Kensington Gardens (it'd have been rude not to).

Normally, this would be the everyday story of top people in 21st century Britain. Rupert Murdoch is in London for a couple off weeks, so the prime minister turns up (or is asked to turn up) to meet him a couple of times. But the fact the government is to rule imminently on whether to approve News Corporation's blockbuster bid for the 61% of BSkyB it doesn't already own does give all these meetings and potential meetings a certain edge. After all, an important decision is due.

This is a decision that is due to be made by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who is supposed to do so entirely in isolation. No doubt he does so. The scrupulous Hunt, after all, decided it wouldn't be wise to go last week's party. But you'd just have to wonder if a word from Murdoch to Cameron could find itself spread further around Whitehall. What, say, if the PM asked why a final decision on a merger was taking so long? That might be an inducement to hurry things along. And, of course, who knows what is said between consenting adults in corridors.

As for the Times summit, we'll see what happens later on today. A glance at the schedule suggests that while Ed Miliband is due to speak on Tuesday morning, this evening's 7.30pm slot marked "senior cabinet minister" is not yet filled with a name. As ever No 10 declines to reveal anything about the PM's upcoming schedule, and News Corp, at least for the moment, is unable to confirm what is happening. For what it's worth, last week when No 10 was asked if Cameron was going to the Murdoch party there was no answer – a surefire sign (when considered in retrospect) that he intended to attend.

Sadly, non-Times journalists are not allowed to this exclusive event, and nor is any of it being webcast. This evening Bob Diamond, who runs Barclays, with Sam Laidlaw of British Gas company Centrica and Willie Walsh of the renamed BA + Iberia discuss what can the UK do differently to "fire up the economy". Expect them to be at dinner also.

Then, on Tuesday (where the action moves to the Savoy), is the best bit: James Harding, the editor of the Times, in conversation with his boss, Rupert Murdoch himself. Will Harding ask him about regulation and the BSkyB bid, the state of British politics, or better still – phone hacking? You could sell plenty of tickets to that.

Anyway, David Cameron won't be in the audience on Tuesday. He has a country to run, although the way it seems to work is that whenever the world's most powerful media mogul passes through, he gets invited to see him endlessly. Particularly, it seems there is a highly sensitive, £8bn, once in a generation bid on the table.