Murdoch: Ouf! Is this meltdown?

[Dave2002]

I feel unease about some being happy to take the Murdoch's money (a million pounds, amazing); perhaps with 20:20 hindsight Max Clifford would have waited to get damages from the courts. It would have looked more seemly.

Yes, but who cares about seemliness when £1 million is up for grabs?

Anyone want to make me an offer? I could post up my number in the hope that it'd be hacked, but I think that suggestion has been made by others before.

[Chris Newman]

I went to WH Smiths today to pick up a magazine and Private Eye and guess what?

"Thank you, sir. Can I interest you in any chocolate?"

"No thank you, very much." I am used to that one.

"And would you like a free copy of THE TIMES?"

Aaaaagh! Times are getting hard for NI.

[PJPJ]

Yes, but who cares about seemliness when £1 million is up for grabs?

Anyone want to make me an offer? I could post up my number in the hope that it'd be hacked, but I think that suggestion has been made by others before.

Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for £5 million pounds......" etc :laugh:

[PJPJ]

I went to WH Smiths today to pick up a magazine and Private Eye and guess what?

"Thank you, sir. Can I interest you in any chocolate?"

"No thank you, very much." I am used to that one.

"And would you like a free copy of THE TIMES?"

Aaaaagh! Times are getting hard for NI.

That's been going on for some time - three or four months ago I was offered a free copy with "Gramophone" :blush:

[amateur51]

Yes amateur, there are certainly many parallels between what is going on in the Catholic Church in Ireland and the situation under discussion here. While colleagues here have been exercised by the hacking affair, I have been equally exercised by the abuse scandal. It did occur to me that there was a similarity but since I did not notice any reference implicating the Church, either in Parliament, or in any of the messages so far posted, I decided to stick to the issue being debated. That is not to say that I was avoiding any mention of that Irish problem, and I don't quite know why you would say it was understandable that I should.

Apologies, PatrickOD - I judged you to be like certain other members of the faith in here. You are obviously made of stronger stuff and I withdraw my 'understandably' :smiley:

[Lateralthinking1]

Oh yes, there is a lot of great stuff in these posts. I feel a bit more reassured now by others' comments on the Labour performance. Have to confess that I missed the beginning because I had an appointment with the Council about a soakaway. I had been watching the proceedings for roughly an hour when Dave said that they had been at it for almost two.

1. My Eddie George reference, - not once but twice - was a really dreadful slip. My apologies. I meant - and was thinking of - Mervyn King but those types seem the same to me in any era. Now corrected. 2. From a neutral standpoint, Theresa May is doing quite well but I'm slightly worried for her. She looks increasingly cream crackered. 3. It is interesting to note how the Guardian is to this matter what the Telegraph was to expenses. With both undertaking good work, hopefully that will mean a further blow to the Times which had already committed the huge sin of charging on its website.

4. I like listening to Galloway. I can't do so without having a smirk on my face, the kind that shows (a) I find him about as "down with the public" as Scargill was in the early 1980s and (b) I agree with the vast majority of things he says, particularly on domestic matters, and thank goodness someone is saying them. 5. Haven't seen Alexander's statement. The problem is that everyone will be paying more for their pension and there is a fair chance they will never get one. I'm largely out of that one. Mine in substance stopped ticking forward on 31 December regrettably. For 25 years and 3 months input, it currently stands at £9,000, not that I can draw it for many years. You won't see that in the Daily Mail, nor the fact that the average for a Civil Servant is less than £5,000.

6. I do think that patrickod's analogy with abuse in the church is well made and I wish that it was said more. Across the board, the institutional corruption and highly questionable practices are not simply about the irresponsible use of power. They are about impacts that are frequently devastating to individuals and their families. Many tend to place greed in a separate moral compartment as if it is essentially about behaviour - what the most affluent person I know described to me as "the politics of jealousy." :doh: - when as the Dowler case symbolises it always has effects on others, even if in the majority of cases it is more about financial security. That too has some very severe impacts on emotional health along with the practical problems.

7. My old Department is adamant that I left voluntarily and it is impossible to win that point when its dubious fiasco was called a voluntary scheme. However, the circumstances they created to cut costs meant that any gamble of attempting to stay was a gamble about immediate homelessness. I will never feel that it was anything other than brute force and it has felt like abuse to me. 8. Finally for now I do worry about the fickle attention span of the news media. The Murdoch story has already dropped down to the relegation zone. Let's hope it doesn't go the same way as Japanese radiation, the Huhne driving allegations, the forests etc.

[PatrickOD]

Apologies, PatrickOD - I judged you to be like certain other members of the faith in here. You are obviously made of stronger stuff and I withdraw my 'understandably' :smiley:

No, amateur, those who are made of stronger stuff are those who have kept the faith. It is much easier to take a swipe at the failings of the Church, which I am prone to do, than to remain loyal to the central goodness of Catholicism, which others here have done. Similarly, it is much easier to strike out at the failings of your own British institutions than to acknowledge their successes. Hopefully the current sets of bad news will provoke the changes we all want to see.

[amateur51]

No, amateur, those who are made of stronger stuff are those who have kept the faith. It is much easier to take a swipe at the failings of the Church, which I am prone to do, than to remain loyal to the central goodness of Catholicism, which others here have done. Similarly, it is much easier to strike out at the failings of your own British institutions than to acknowledge their successes. Hopefully the current sets of bad news will provoke the changes we all want to see.

Surely it is possible to 'take a swipe at the failings of the Church' and 'remain loyal to the central goodness of Catholicism', PatrickOD?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this is looking like it is about to explode with statements and counter statements with more information and revelations by the hour, it ain't over ...

[amateur51]

A piece by Lance Price, A Campbell's no 2, about the rigorous security vetting process that he went through and which apparently Coulson did not.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/21/andy-coulson-vetted-no-10

Fascinating to read him conclude:

" The only possible explanation I can find is that sometimes, if you don't want to know the answer, the best policy is not to ask the question. But what does that tell us about the relationship between Downing Street and the security services? It's one thing for politicians to look the other way sometimes, but the men and women who vet those in sensitive positions should never be asked to do the same." :erm:

[Lateralthinking1]

I had a dream last night that the company which did the screening had the initials NI. Obviously, in reality, it will be a different story.

[scottycelt]

... Lance Price, A Campbell's no 2 ...

Looks like he's right in the soup for accepting 'freebies' as well ... ? :whistle:

[amateur51]

Looks like he's right in the soup for accepting 'freebies' as well ... ? :whistle:

Who is, scotty? :erm:

[amateur51]

Some interesting developments ....

Guardian's Peter Walker writes: It's not been a good couple of weeks for Rupert Murdoch. Today, Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC, has indicated it is likely to block a £1.2bn takeover bid by pay TV operator Foxtel, 25% owned by News Corp, for its rival Austar.

Guardian's leader today about 'wilful ignorance at the top' http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...king-editorial

'Matt Nixson, a former News of the World executive, has been fired from his job at the Sun as a result of News International's internal investigation following allegations of phone hacking.'http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/matt-nixson-news-of-the-world-the-sun

And finally .... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...-2012-athletes

As Cass Elliott sings .... It's Getting Better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqOMuR5Z530

:biggrin:

[Mandryka]

Interesting (though incomplete) feature from the early days of the Murdoch Terror...

http://www.youtube.com/user/sltr1#p/u/0/4M44Bixi9KM

This was the documentary that inspired the Hosein brothers to kidnap Mrs. Muriel McKay, whom they mistook for Mrs. Murdoch.