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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 15-05-2012 12:27 Post subject: |
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| Quake42 wrote: | | Quote: | So it begins. Will she bring the Murdochs down with her?
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Will she bring the Coalition down with her? |
They don't want to face the electorate, they'll Hunt out a sacrifice. |
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| Anome_ Faceless Man
Great Old One Joined: 23 May 2002 Total posts: 5328 Location: Left, and to the back. Age: 44 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-05-2012 23:30 Post subject: |
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| ramonmercado wrote: | | They don't want to face the electorate, they'll Hunt out a sacrifice. |
Are you implying they'll throw Jeremy Hulture Secretary to the wolves? |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-05-2012 23:35 Post subject: |
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| Anome_ wrote: | | ramonmercado wrote: | | They don't want to face the electorate, they'll Hunt out a sacrifice. |
Are you implying they'll throw Jeremy Hulture Secretary to the wolves? |
Probably throw him to Man City instead. |
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11649 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
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| BlackRiverFalls I wear a fez now.
Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Total posts: 8716 Location: The Attic of Blinky Lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 19-05-2012 18:17 Post subject: |
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Oh dear god, that link is going straight to every american I know.  |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 28-05-2012 09:17 Post subject: |
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And talking of crimes against humanity. Tony Blair takes the floor to answer questions at the Leveson inquiry, today.
| Quote: | http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/28/tony-blair-appears-leveson-inquiry
Tony Blair appears at Leveson inquiry
Former prime minister likely to be asked whether he created a culture that brought government too close to Murdochs
guardian.co.uk, Press Association. 28 May 2012
Tony Blair will appear this week at the Leveson inquiry into the British media. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau
Tony Blair is back at centre stage as he appears at the Leveson inquiry to be questioned about his relations with the media.
The former British prime minister is likely to be asked about the nature of his and his government's links with Rupert Murdoch's media empire during his 13 years at the helm of the Labour party, including a decade in Downing Street.
He is expected to face questions over whether he allowed his relationship with Murdoch and News International to become too close, as his former lieutenant Lord Mandelson told the inquiry last week. Lord Mandelson said it was "arguably the case ... that personal relationships between Mr Blair, [Gordon] Brown and Rupert Murdoch became closer than was wise."
Blair famously flew to Hayman Island in Australia to address News Corp executives in 1995 as part of a Labour strategy to gain a hearing with newspapers that had savaged previous leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock.
It emerged in 2010 that he formed a close enough relationship with Murdoch to become the godfather to one of the media tycoon's children in 2010.
Blair's appearance comes at the start of a high-profile week for the Leveson inquiry, with the beleaguered culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, due to give evidence on Thursday. Hunt will also face a grilling over his office's links with Murdoch's News Corp, particularly during its bid to take over the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
He will be challenged over whether his public expressions of support for the bid were compatible with the quasi-judicial role he was given by the prime minister, David Cameron.
There was unconfirmed speculation over the weekend that Cameron is due to appear two weeks later, on Thursday 14 June, and that George Osborne, the chancellor, might also be called.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, and the home secretary, Theresa May, will appear on Tuesday and the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, on Wednesday.
Also due to give evidence on Wednesday is the business secretary, Vince Cable, who was stripped of the role of deciding whether the bid could proceed after he was secretly recorded saying he had "declared war" on Murdoch.
Hunt had asked for his appearance before the inquiry to be brought forward so he could give his side of the story as soon as possible, but was rebuffed by Lord Justice Leveson.
The inquiry has been presented with a cache of emails showing the News Corp lobbyist Frédéric Michel received inside information about the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's handling of the bid from Hunt's former special adviser, Adam Smith, who quit in April after admitting he went too far in acting as a point of contact with the company.
Last week, the inquiry published a memo sent by the culture secretary to Cameron in November 2010, weeks before he took on the quasi-judicial role, in which he appeared to be making the case for News Corp's bid to go ahead. Hunt insists he oversaw the process "with scrupulous fairness throughout" and has received strong backing from the prime minister.
But Cameron has also said that if anything arises from the inquiry that suggests the ministerial code might have been breached, he will call in his independent ethics adviser, Sir Alex Allan, or take immediate action himself. |
Have you ever seen a dream, walking?
Strangely puts me in mind of the scene in, Tin Drum, where a de-fleshed horse's head, being used as bait, is dragged out of a river, squirming with eels in every orifice, including the eyeless sockets.
Quite a striking image, I'm sure you'll agree. |
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| Quake42 Warrior Princess
Great Old One Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Total posts: 5212 Location: Over Silbury Hill, through the Solar field Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 30-05-2012 22:24 Post subject: |
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Coulson charged:
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Andy Coulson charged with perjury
Former NoW editor charged over allegations of lying on oath when he gave evidence in court about phone hacking
Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, has been charged with perjury. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, has been arrested and charged over allegations of lying on oath when he gave evidence in court about phone hacking at the News of the World.
Coulson was questioned over perjury by Scottish police after he was detained early on Wednesday morning at his home in London and then driven to a high security police station in Glasgow.
The former News of the World editor is alleged to have lied to the high court in Glasgow when he gave evidence at the perjury trial of the socialist politician Tommy Sheridan in December 2010, while he was Cameron's chief media adviser and the government's head of communications.
He was detained by seven Strathclyde police officers from Operation Rubicon, a major inquiry into alleged perjury during Sheridan's trial and hacking allegations in Scotland, at his home in Dulwich, south London at 6.30am and taken north by car. Shortly before 10pm on Wednesday evening he was arrested and charged in connection with alleged perjury. He was then released from police custody.
Coulson was held for suspected perjury under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 at Govan police station, the base for Operation Rubicon.
The charge against Coulson comes as the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, prepares to give evidence to the Leveson inquiry on Thursday in a session that could make or shatter his political career just weeks before he oversees the London Olympics.
Hunt will attempt to show that he handled the News Corp bid for BSkyB impartially from January 2011 until the bid was withdrawn.
But he will have to explain how he was unaware that his special adviser Adam Smith – for whom he was responsible under the ministerial code – was systematically funnelling sometimes commercially confidential information to News Corp lobbyists.
The shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman is likely to respond to Hunt's evidence by demanding that Cameron now launch a formal government investigation into whether there have been any breaches of the ministerial code by Hunt.
Leveson has said he is not equipped to adjudicate on such an issue, but Harman will want Hunt referred to the independent adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Alex Allan, on the basis that he is the only public figure charged with mounting this specific investigation.
The news that Coulson had been detained broke just as the business secretary Vince Cable started giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry on Wednesday, adding to the sense that the whole phone hacking inquiry is becoming ever more all-encompassing for Downing Street.
Coulson, who resigned as NoW editor in January 2007 after his Royal editor, Clive Goodman, was convicted of hacking phones used by members of the Royal family, had been called as a defence witness by Sheridan, who was on trial for lying in court when he won a £200,000 defamation action against the Sunday tabloid.
Then conducting his own defence, Sheridan questioned Coulson over the course of two days about his knowledge of a hacking operation against Sheridan carried out by Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective who worked for the NoW and was jailed alongside Goodman.
After the longest perjury trial in Scottish criminal history, Sheridan was jailed for three years and sent first to Barlinnie prison. After serving 12 months in Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee, Sheridan is now living at home under a strict curfew with a satellite tag on his ankle.
During the trial, Sheridan produced documentary evidence that he had been twice targeted by Mulcaire in 2004, and accused Coulson of running a newspaper where hacking and the "dark arts" were commonplace.
Coulson repeatedly denied Sheridan's allegations, and told the court he had never met or heard of Mulcaire before Goodman's trial, and had had no knowledge whatsoever that hacking had been used by the paper's staff.
"I don't accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the NoW," Coulson told the jury. "There was a very unfortunate, to put it mildly, case involving Clive Goodman. No one was more sorry about it than me; that's why I resigned."
It since emerged that close members of Sheridan's family and other associates were also potential targets for Mulcaire, including the politician's mother, Alice Sheridan, and the Scottish politician Joan McAlpine, a former friend of his who co-wrote a book on Sheridan's anti-poll tax campaign in the early 1990s.
Strathclyde police, working with senior prosecutors at the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecution authority, launched Operation Rubicon last July after the NoW closed down following the Guardian's disclosure that phone messages for the missing schoolgirl Millie Dowler had been hacked.
In a brief statement after Coulson's arrest on Wednesday morning, a Strathclyde police spokeswoman said: "I can confirm officers from Strathclyde police's Operation Rubicon team detained a 44-year-old man in London this morning.
"It is under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 on suspicion of committing perjury before the high court in Glasgow."
Despite his allegations about the NoW's hacking operation, Sheridan was convicted of perjury by a majority verdict on 23 December 2010. The jury held he had lied when he won a libel trial against the NoW in 2006, over lurid allegations about his sex life and adulterous affairs.
The jury at that libel hearing at the court of session in Edinburgh found in Sheridan's favour, and the then Scottish Socialist party leader was awarded £200,000 in damages.
Payment of those damages was delayed after NI appealed against the verdict; that appeal case has been suspended pending the outcome of Operation Rubicon investigation.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/30/andy-coulson-charged-with-perjury |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 31-05-2012 11:53 Post subject: |
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The fruits of corruption can be so juicy and sweet, with maggots.
| Quote: | http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/amol-rajan-how-can-leveson-now-fail-to-call-george-osborne-7807620.html
Amol Rajan: How can Leveson now fail to call George Osborne?
QC reveals explosive new evidence of text messages involving Hunt, Murdoch and Chancellor
Independent. Amol Rajan, Thursday 31 May 2012
Jeremy Hunt began at 10.00 this morning confidently, wearing his bright and breezy demeanour in a manner that suggested he wasn't nervous at all. At around 10.45, his body language changed suddenly, as Robert Jay QC revealed explosive new evidence: text messages between Hunt and James Murdoch, and between Hunt and George Osborne.
The first show a new degree of intimacy between Hunt and News Corporation; the latter make it seem absurd that George Osborne won't be giving evidence to this Inquiry.
We heard that, after Vince Cable's comments about "declaring war on Rupert Murdoch" were revealed, Hunt texted George Osborne at 16.08 on the same day saying "seriously worried we are going to screw this up". The clear implication of that is a strong bias towards News Corporation shared between Hunt and Osborne. Hunt said repeatedly this morning that he was "sympathetic to" but not "supportive of" the bid; these texts show that distinction to be tenuous at best.
George Osborne's response by text - "I hope you like the solution" - further suggests bias towards News Corp at the top of government, which goes in the opposite direction to Vince Cable's obvious bias in the opposite direction.
Hunt then sent the following text message to James Murdoch at 16.58: "Great and congrats on Brussels. Just Ofcom to go." Hunt has just told the Inquiry that he had not, when that text was sent, been appointed to oversee the bid - though he did have an 'inkling', which George Osborne's text presumably provided him with.
That text from Hunt to James Murdoch may cost the former his job. It is the strongest evidence yet made public of Hunt's bias towards News Corp, and suggests a desire to curry favour with the most senior figures there.
Hunt has said repeatedly this morning that his very strong personal bias in favour of News Corp didn't disqualify him from quasi-judicial impartiality, because he had already made his views public. This is preposterous, as the Evening Standard's Jenni Russell has tweeted.
The other new and intriguing development this morning is how the Chancellor has been dragged in. We knew that he was responsible for the hiring of Andy Coulson. Now he is exposed as playing a key role in orchestrating Hunt's appointment to oversee the BSkyB bid - at a time when he knew very clearly that Hunt was strongly in favour of the bid.
Given this revelation, how can Lord Leveson fail to call the Chancellor to give evidence? |
And then, of course, the PM, himself.  |
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| Quake42 Warrior Princess
Great Old One Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Total posts: 5212 Location: Over Silbury Hill, through the Solar field Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 31-05-2012 12:05 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | And then, of course, the PM, himself. |
Cameron's already due to appear at Leveson I believe. Given this moening's revelations I can't imagine Osborne can avoid an appearance. |
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rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20323 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 31-05-2012 15:34 Post subject: |
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| Quake42 wrote: | | Given this moening's revelations... |
Been watching to much 'Allo 'Allo, then?  |
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| Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 5970 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 31-05-2012 22:24 Post subject: |
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| rynner2 wrote: | | Quake42 wrote: | | Given this moening's revelations... |
Been watching to much 'Allo 'Allo, then? |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13303 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 31-05-2012 23:28 Post subject: |
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| In this case it should really be G'bye, G'bye. |
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| Anome_ Faceless Man
Great Old One Joined: 23 May 2002 Total posts: 5328 Location: Left, and to the back. Age: 44 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 01-06-2012 10:02 Post subject: |
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I've just heard that Jeremy Hulture-Secretary has given testimony at Leveson that contradicts what he's said in parliament.
Now, which is the worse crime? Perjury, or misleading parliament? |
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| Quake42 Warrior Princess
Great Old One Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Total posts: 5212 Location: Over Silbury Hill, through the Solar field Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 01-06-2012 10:08 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Now, which is the worse crime? Perjury, or misleading parliament?
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Perjury. Misleading Parliament is not, as far as I am aware, a crime as such although it is a resignation matter - although with this shameless bunch who knows? |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13303 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 11-06-2012 18:55 Post subject: |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18386968
| Quote: | NHS chiefs have apologised to former prime minister Gordon Brown after finding it was "highly likely" details of his son's cystic fibrosis were disclosed by a staff member.
The Sun ran a story in 2006 about Fraser Brown's medical condition, but denied accessing his medical records.
At the Leveson Inquiry, Mr Brown criticised the lack of "honesty" over the story and revealed the NHS apology.
He insisted he and his wife did not grant the Sun permission for the story.
Instead, he said, the Sun presented him and wife Sarah with "a fait accompli" when they contacted them and revealed they knew of Fraser's condition.
Mr Brown said: "There was no question of us giving permission for this, there was no question of implicit or explicit permission.
"And I ask you if any mother or any father was presented with a choice as to whether a four-month-old son's medical condition - your child's medical condition - should be broadcast on the front page of a tabloid newspaper, and you had a choice in this matter, I don't think there's any parent in the land that would have made the choice."
Mr Brown went on to say: "I find it sad that even now, in 2012, members of the News International staff are coming to this inquiry and maintaining this fiction that a story that could only have been achieved or obtained through medical information or through me or my wife... was obtained in another way.
"We can't learn the lesson about what has happened with the media anything unless there is some honesty about what actually happened, whether payment was made and whether this is a practice which could continue..." |
I thought Mr Brown was very dignified this morning. He makes a convincing case.
Meanwhile:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18398951
| Quote: | Chancellor George Osborne has said it would be "complete nonsense" to believe there was a "vast conspiracy" to hand control of BSkyB to Rupert Murdoch.
He told the Leveson Inquiry that News Corp's £8bn bid for the broadcaster had been a "political inconvenience".
He said he did not know what Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's or PM David Cameron's views were on it.
He also defended ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson's appointment as Tory party director of communications.
Mr Osborne told the inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London that Rupert Murdoch's papers pursued their own objectives.
He said that, however the BSkyB bid ended, it would have offended at least one media camp.
"I regarded the whole thing as a political inconvenience and something we just had to deal with," he said.
He said it was a myth to believe that no party could win a general election without the backing of the Sun newspaper.
Mr Osborne also dismissed suggestions of a conspiracy around Business Secretary Vince Cable being stripped of responsibility for the BSkyB bid... |
That was why they got rid of Cable's tokenistic posting at the first opportunity, of course. So who do we believe? |
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