Murdoch hacking scandal latest

[Stunsworth]

Looking at the Youtube clip (thanks,Stunsworth), he looks to me as though he's been drinking...

He runs a pub in Dover - see below...

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Concerns-bar-s-topless-dance-plan/story-11987724-detail/story.html

[hackneyvi]

And yet that wd in a way be a shame. Syd: Grew often sets out to provoke - but when he is not being silly in this particularly tiresome way he often has original and unexpected thoughts to contribute; I read what he says with with interest: it is not difficult to discard and ignore specific irritating grewistic efflorescences.

I'd need what looked like an apology before regarding him as anything but an ill-mannered chump. I don't see why directly, intentionally insulting utterance on an internet forum should be disregarded any more than it would elsewhere.

Perhaps I'm intolerant. My father always said that no-one ever let his mother down twice (because they never got a second chance). I don't think I'm that bad but, to me, a considered insult is no less an insult for being online. If you were talking to a group of people and expressed an enthusiasm for music which you had enjoyed and received this response:

This sort of thing was not written for cultured, self-confident, superior people

I think you might suppose it was said by a graceless fool with whom further intercourse might be purposeless. No? I would need good reason and take some considerable persuading to listen with any respect to such a person a second time.

I've said my piece. Apologies for dragging the thread off topic.

[Serial_Apologist]

What is the self that takes offense? Certainly not an entity under threat! For me personally an important principle is not to take myself too seriously. Generally applied, I believe it would bring an end to all fanaticism.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As I said earlier, surely the comment in question was not worthy of response, so rather than taking offence, I suggest people ignore it.

[Chris Newman]

Stunsworth. Thankyou for the article in #196 about McMullan: it quotes his plea to the Dover licencees for pole dancing at his pub:

"Landlord Paul McMullan said: "We put up a pole to see where it might go and it got stuck – no one is dancing round it and won't be doing so until we have a licence."

And, I am sure most of us, including Steve Coogan, wish we had some say about up where he should have put it ...

Calling the man a prat is generous.

[ahinton]

Calling the man a prat is generous.

Or, put another way, is Cameron aping The Sun art legal?...

[Lateralthinking1]

To quote Will Self on Friday's Newsnight, this whole imbroglio is epiphenomenal. While we are discussing Brooks’s gender, we could also be reviewing Mulcaire's footballing abilities when at AFC Wimbledon; McMullen's blog on his problems with the local authority paperwork before reopening The Castle pub - one almost sympathises; and the astonishing fact that Grant Shapps MP, also on Newsnight, is a cousin of Mick Jones, once of the Clash. I am more interested in dear Rebekah’s position as a very senior manager. At the moment, the spotlight is on others who have volunteered to be there or been conscripted. Her virtual silence creates the necessary vacuum to be filled by all these scenic routes signposted “diversion“. It really is essential that she isn’t helped by the decisionmakers and the celebs to slide away like a fried egg from teflon. For goodness sake, she admitted in public that payments to the police were made donkey’s years ago and has now backtracked. This must lead the sane to additional suspicions.

Now, I find Alan Partridge hilarious and don't dislike Steve Coogan. I’m not though cheering the latter’s performance on this matter. Like Hugh Grant, his past would perhaps most kindly be described as colourful. That's ok-ish - but at the end of the day, they are not the parents of Milly Dowler. They are therefore not in the best position to be the moral guardians of the country. In fact, as McMullen remarked, Coogan has actually been paid for work by the Murdoch empire. While I find McMullen grubby - notice how he sits forward in his chair and at times he sounds a little like Johnny Rotten - he does at least seem open and almost bewilderingly honest. He points out correctly that a large percentage of the public loves all the television star tittle-tattle. He also notes that public sentiment is on the side of more ordinary victims as indeed it should be. Contrast with the actions of Mulcaire who has ensured that a lawyer should write warnings about journalists hanging around his house. What a big fella!

While we all wait to see when the Sun on Sunday emerges, presumably one significant revelation about yer Sun actual could end that publication before it even hits the shops. I hope it happens. In 2007, on BBC’s Any Questions, the audience reacted with huge cynicism when a journalist from the Sun claimed that his newspaper didn’t intercept phone conversations. Maybe that was because the PCC had censured the newspaper over Cheriegate four years earlier. The practices at the Sun are important because Brooks has claimed that she was there and not at the NOTW when most of the dodgy stuff happened. In fact, some believe that Operation Weeting cannot consider her role because her tenure at NOTW falls outside its remit. Perhaps Murdoch senior will be here discussing its terms with our Prime Minister and what he feels the general public have absolutely no right to see. The sorts of things that are paid for us with a view that they should be undertaken in all of our interests and legally.

What of that remit currently? Here is an FOI enquiry on "whatdotheyknow.com" to the Met Police from the first week in June. It asks to see the Terms of Reference for Weeting. The police had 20 days to send a full reply. However, just a few days ago, they wrote to say that the reply will be delayed. Furthermore, the Terms might be covered by the exemptions in which case they would not regrettably be published - .http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques..._operation_wee . Unless they have had another u-turn, the Lib Dems believe in FOI. The need for clarity is crucial, not least for all Lib Dem supporters. One senses, what with Ashdown now wading in and Clegg appearing to have acted reasonably appropriately, that this could be the moment for them to turn the tide. Who knows? They could even bring the coalition down but only if they show unprecedented mettle.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Lateralthinking, I have no time for so-called celebs, but the likes of Coogan and the Grant fella have done no more than go to work on a job. We, the public, have never been obliged to cheer or applaud their efforts.

That either may have made films financed by Rupert Murdoch and for this to somehow make them implicit in this current farago is an absurd suggestion, such as propounded by the Newsnight twit.

This is no two way sewer as that idiot apparently tried to imply.

Coogan, for one, is a person like you or I, but who happens to have a job that takes him occasionally into the public eye. Yes, he has to be a part of the publicity machine when it comes to his work. That does not make him some media slave. He has as much right to close his front door as anyone else.

[Lateralthinking1]

Stillhomewardbound - Yes, absolutely, that is fair.

The Strange Death of Christopher Shale

Incidentally, isn't life full of coincidences? Behind the scenes, the Tories are divided on News Corporation. We could yet see a coalition of three - the Lib Dems, the Conservatives against Rupert and the bluer Mates of Murdoch. It is Osborne who is believed to have persuaded Cameron to take on Andy Coulson. He had an awful lot of Murdochy friends around his birthday cake. And that could account for the glum expression this week. He stands to be about as popular with Dave as Gordon was with Tony. Still, both are in it all together and the best of British. They deserve it. Coulson of course had significant influence in determining political appointments, including in policing policy, most notably in the departure of Dominic Grieve. Not tough enough apparently. He also remained close to Rebekah Brooks so could facilitate the connections. No worries about those breaking down because of any copper being nicked. Yes, he did a good job. Later there was hot water but in turning on the taps he had, in any case, made himself dispensable. Our Prime Minister was now riding with Rebekah or Charlie and every tricky situation seemed controlled.

As for others in the Brooks and co "Chipping Norton Set", for the record, they include Hunt, Vaizey and Gove, all visitors to her pad or that of Matthew Freud. You will recall that Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture and Media, was given the quasi-judicial power to adjudicate over News Corporation's proposal to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting. Hunt elected not to refer the deal to the Competition Commission, announcing on 3 March 2011 that he intended to accept undertakings given by Newscorp, paving the way for the deal to be approved. Vaizey, another Culture and Media Minister, has written extensively for The Times and the Sunday Times. Gove was once a political columnist for The Times so it really is quite a family. The Met Police have also regularly shared bread with leading figures in News Corporation. Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and his deputy Tim Godwin dined thirteen times with senior Newscorp officials during the period when the force was investigating News of the World phone-hacking. In 2009 after John Yates scoffed with editor Colin Myler, Yates decided not to reopen the case.

Had Arabella Churchill still been alive she could have recreated this spectacle in the circus at Glastonbury Festival. The genuinely dear lady was responsible for the drama and the fireworks there for years. I would have once considered that she was about the only Conservative link to lovable but potty Pilton. How wrong could I have been. You will, I am sure, recall the sad headlines about Christopher Shale, the chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. A close friend of Rupert Soames, whose company provides the power lines to the festival, he died mysteriously in a toilet there in the VIP area. His body was discovered on the morning of Sunday 26 June. Initially, festival organiser Michael Eavis speculated that it was suicide but the coroner could find no obvious cause of death. It was said that his family had a history of heart trouble and it therefore could have happened anywhere. Well, that was the official line even before the coronor began his extrordinarily rapid work. Coincidentally, the death occurred within hours of a leaked article he had written criticising his party luridly. The article was in that weekend's Mail on Sunday. What it proposed was a new national membership strategy for the party. Arguably this trod on a lot of toes given that the aim was to make it less "voracious" and "crass". It wasn't designed to sit well with No 10 strategy and flew in the faces of the Oxfordshire clique.

Now, consider this question. What percentage of time does one spend in a toilet at Glastonbury? Answer - probably longer than average but what shall we say? About 1-2%, even having eaten a dodgy burger? Remember the guy was resilient having spent time in Rwanda. So coincidentally the heart attack occurred not only at the time of the political leak but conveniently during one of the very rare moments when he wasn't in view of family and friends and getting on for 200,000 people. In cumulative terms, then, that makes for a bigger coincidence. If only he had stayed at home. He could have kept his boots clean and avoided having to withstand the less than friendly elements. It is in a nice area too, very popular with those heading the bill, if I might put the management of Britain in those terms. He lived six miles from the Camerons and a short drive from the homes of Rebekah Brooks, Elisabeth Murdoch, and Steve Hilton, Cameron's strategy director. I don't know if one could call all that coincidence. But as it was, coincidentally, Shale's family were camped at Glastonbury next to Caitlin Moran, one time wild child, and a columnist on The Times. How extraordinary is that? Must be something about the lie of the land and the mystic circle!

The Churchills were always a slightly eccentric bunch. They only fought wars with obvious enemies, and then did so effectively, while young Winston was originally in bed with the Liberals. Glasto is still not the obvious 'hood of Tory politicos. Funny then that more are keen on the event, and aware of its complicated layout, than one might realise. Among the MPs who have attended are Boris Johnson in 2000 and Theresa Villiers in 2010 but the big year was 2007. Villiers was there then too, and Damian Green, and Nick Herbert, the current Minister for Policing, all VIP guests paid for by the BBC. The latter was given his portfolio last year within days of Coulson entering No 10. As I explained in an earlier post, that portfolio had been held by David Ruffley, the guy who had been keen in 2007 to protect Cameron and Osborne from cocaine allegations, and jumped in front of a train on losing his post last summer. Unmarried Mr Ruffley, 48, was said to be also concerned about his expenses, but there could have been other issues. Probably one was not about missing the opportunity to see Snoop Dogg and Muse on the Pyramid stage later on that week.

It is not known which MPs attended Glastonbury this year. Herbert's diary link for June 2011 on his website is inactive. However, on Tuesday 21 June, he and Steve Webb met Avon and Somerset Police Authority to discuss funding concerns. On the Thursday lunchtime, Herbert spoke at a conference in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, a fairly small number of miles north of Chipping Norton which if I were driving from Ryton would appear to be on a convenient route to Somerset. If he did go, he should have managed to catch U2 on the Friday. That was the day that the aforementioned Police Authority visited the Drug Strategy unit, the forensic science department, and chief officers at the police compound at the festival. In fact, a drug-testing lab had been set up at the event to help the Government “build a fast and accurate picture” of substance use on the festival circuit with the help of a presumably less than local part of the police force. Whether that required a Ministerial visit is unclear. Meanwhile, Cameron was appearing unusually irritable apparently about proposed new European buildings and a bill on the treatment of animals. An odd end to an odd week.

By coincidence, it was also the day before Christopher Shale is believed to have died although he was found on the Sunday morning. He had received two telephone calls just before his death from a Downing Street aide and the Prime Minister's election agent about the imminent publication and was advised not to speak to journalists. Still happy and relaxed sounding, that was about his lot. Contrary to opinion, there is not a toilet on the farm which is not cleaned in 20 hours, particularly in the VIP area, so he must have found a virtual one. Moran - "I'd rather steal, maim and kill in Grand Theft Auto than do a jigsaw", Sunday Times, 5 January 2009, not that she meant it - rapidly twittered that she had never heard of him, thereby getting the message of his demise out from the farm. Beyonce closed the festival on the Sunday night. By early Monday morning, Murdoch's tabloid The Sun had already concluded "Cameron was devastated....Shale....is feared to have had a heart attack" and this was indeed what the police had said to the family. Herbert was in London answering a variety of unrelated questions in Parliament on the Monday afternoon.

[Sydney Grew]

SG's nonsense [??] reminds me of Kim Il Sung's choice of a woman as finance minister on the basis that women were held to be good at housekeeping.

He is still tremendously revered by his own people, and it is they who are in a position to know is that not so. The reason the capitalists (Americans and other similarly superficial thinkers) are so implacably against him is that he wished to do away with money, but that is we find a most admirable ambition. Our very first pass-port bore the inscription "not valid for North Korea"; this had a self-defeating effect as it led us to wonder why and to analyze the agenda.

We expect Kim's early Presbytarianism - a system wherein all elders are of equal rank, you know - played a part in forming his ideals. And of course his real name was Kim Song-ju not Kim Il-sung at all. He is said to have written the opera "The Flower-Girl."

There is nothing like the News of the World in that part of Korea; that if anything must be an indication.

[scottycelt]

SG's nonsense reminds me of Kim Il Sung's choice of a woman as finance minister on the basis that women were held to be good at housekeeping.

Surely there was a similar view espoused by many women (and much of the media) in the Seventies supporting the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister because 'she is a woman' and therefore 'knows all about housekeeping".

Male Chauvinists and Feminists have very much in common ...

[Mahlerei]

Thank you and goodbye (and good riddance).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's a certain irony in the fact that the media, including the BBC, seem hell-bent on promoting the final issue of the NOTW.

[Mr Pee]

There's a certain irony in the fact that the media, including the BBC, seem hell-bent on promoting the final issue of the NOTW.

I don't think it need much promotion. Selling out everywhere, apparently.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

.... well it may be flying but nothing has stuck yet .... [any similarity to the fate of bankers is purely coincidental] ... oh and what about the Mail and Dacre?