GET VIA EMAIL!!

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Osborne met News Corp chiefs 16 times

Wednesday 27 July 2011

BRITISH CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer George Osborne has met senior News Corporation executives 16 times since he took office, including one meeting that took place after a Conservative minister was put in charge of deciding on the company’s bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The information was contained in a long list of contacts between British government ministers and News Corporation and its UK subsidiary, News International, published yesterday on the orders of prime minister David Cameron.

Last night, Mr Osborne’s spokesman said the BSkyB takeover bid had been raised at one meeting while Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable was in charge of deciding on the issue, but was not raised again after Mr Osborne made it clear he had no role in the matter.

Mr Osborne met Rupert Murdoch twice since May 2010 – with former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and News Corp’s deputy chief executive James Murdoch in April 2011, and with Mr Murdoch jnr’s sister Elizabeth in June 2011.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who took charge of deciding on the takeover after Mr Cable lost authority over it last December, met James Murdoch twice in January, but he also met businessmen opposing News Corp’s bid.

Meanwhile, a former senior News International lawyer, James Chapman, who appeared to be left with the blame by James Murdoch during his appearance before the Commons culture, media and sport committee, now wants to correct alleged “serious inaccuracies” in Mr Murdoch’s testimony.

However, committee chairman John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP, said he had not heard from Mr Chapman.

Meanwhile Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Daily Mirror , the S unday Mirror and 160 regional British titles, has announced a review of editorial controls but denies this amounts to an internal investigation into hacking claims.

A six-week review is to be carried by the company’s top lawyer, who will report in mid-September.

 


0 comments

Friday 22 July 2011

David Cameron and George Osborne are said to be considering taking advantage of the euro crisis to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union.

Friday 22 July 2011

Senior Conservatives believe Britain may be able to regain control of some social and employment regulations and secure the future of the rebate as a condition of allowing closer integration among countries using the euro.
The plan would lead to tensions in the Coalition as the Liberal Democrats are likely to block any move for Britain to dilute its relationship with the EU.
This week, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, was asked whether Britain should seek to capitalise on the crisis. “We want a successful Europe, full stop,” he said. “Anything now which suggests we are somehow trying to distance ourselves from that would in the long run be economically self-defeating.”
Mr Osborne is thought to be pushing to combine negotiations over the bail-out with forthcoming discussions over the EU’s budget between 2014 and 2020.
EU leaders this week agreed a new €159 billion [£140 billion] bail-out for Greece, which will technically be allowed to default on some of its debts.

 


0 comments

Thursday 21 July 2011

DAVID Cameron was yesterday hit by shock claims that a senior civil servant had his phone hacked while Andy Coulson was in No10.

Thursday 21 July 2011




The unnamed official is also said to have been put under surveillance and made the victim of hostile media briefing.

Ex-Labour minister Nick Raynsford hit out at the “disgraceful and illegal conduct” as he revealed the allegation in the Commons.

He told Mr Cameron: “A year ago during the period when Mr Coulson was director of communications, the Cabinet Secretary was alerted to evidence of illegal phone hacking, covert surveillance and hostile media briefing directed against a senior official in the Government service.

“What action, if any, was taken to investigate what appears to have been disgraceful and illegal conduct close to the heart of Government?”

Mr Cameron said he would “have to look closely” at the allegations. But he insisted there had been no complaints against Mr Coulson while he was working in No10.

Former News of the World editor Mr Coulson was forced to resign from Downing Street in January amid claims he was aware phone hacking took place while he was in charge of the paper – an allegation he has always denied.

The Mirror was told that the official – understood to be from the Department of Education – went to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell with his fears that his phone was being hacked and that he was under surveillance.

It was claimed Sir Gus ordered Special Branch to investigate. A source said: “Special Branch told the official where the hacking was coming from and they had traced his phone and identified who was hacking it.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The Government would take any such accusations very seriously and would have referred them immediately to the police.

“However, this story is absolutely not true. No conversation took place – no one thinks it took place.”

Mr Raynsford said this claim was “extraordinary”. He added: “It is completely at odds with everything I have been told.”


Nick Raynsford

Mr Cameron insisted that Mr Coulson had always behaved properly when in No10.

He said he accepted responsibility for employing him: “What I would say in my defence is that the time he spent in Downing Street he did not behave in a way that anyone felt was inappropriate.

“And that is important, because the decision was to employ him, the decision was then his to leave.

“During that period people cannot point to misconduct and say that, therefore, was a misjudgment.”


0 comments

Wednesday 20 July 2011

PM also is now under pressure to sack his chief-of-staff, Ed Llewellyn, for his alleged failure to bring important warnings to his attention.

Wednesday 20 July 2011



Yesterday's revelation by Rebekah Brooks that it was George Osborne, in fact, who gave the advice to appoint Mr Coulson, only adds to the Tories' embarrassment. If Mr Cameron is lucky, the recess will mean there are fewer opportunities for damaging public debate of the issue, but it shows few signs yet of burning itself out.

But yesterday's hearing of the Commons media select committee hardly gives MPs grounds for self-congratulation. With the exception of Labour's Tom Watson, they hardly landed a punch on the Murdochs. There remain many important unanswered questions about who in News International knew what and when. The admission that it paid legal fees for the two men convicted for hacking in 2007 raises important questions about its responsibility for their actions.

Meanwhile the report of the home affairs committee is unsparing in its judgment on the Metropolitan Police: the MPs accuse the force of a "catalogue of failures" to investigate the phone hacking allegations. The resignation of the most senior officers in the force has not taken pressure off the Met to explain its close involvement with News International.

Today's debate shows no sign of relieving pressure on the Prime Minister. Rather, it reminds us of the distance that this profoundly damaging scandal still has to run.


0 comments

Tuesday 19 July 2011

I Was 'Hacked Off', Met Chief Had to Go - 'Angry' London Mayor now gunning for Assistant Commissioner John Yates as phone scandal rumbles on

Tuesday 19 July 2011

BORIS JOHNSON helped push through the resignation of Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson over the phone-hacking scandal and is now gunning for Assistant Commissioner John Yates.

Stephenson handed in his cards last night in the wake of news that the Met had employed former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallace as a PR man.

"I was very angry that I hadn't been told about the financial relationship between the Met and Neil Wallis," said Johnson.

"I was very hacked off."

London's Mayor said the the decision to jump was ultimately Stephenson's, but there seems little doubt Johnson gave him a hefty shove along the way.

"We looked at all the options and where the thing was going," Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

 


0 comments

Hacking Hearing: Who Are The Interrogators?

THE INTERROGATORS:
:: JOHN WHITTINGDALE, CHAIRMAN (CON)
A Tory traditionalist who was Margaret Thatcher's political secretary in No 10 before becoming an MP.
He has had a good scandal so far, making measured and sensible contributions on both hacking and News Corp's bid for BSkyB, and was one of the first Conservative MPs to acknowledge that the bid was doomed.
He was embarrassed at the weekend by reports that Mrs Brooks was one of his friends on Facebook.
He successfully laughed off the criticism by pointing out that he has been specialising in the media for many years, first as a Conservative spokesman and then as chairman of his select committee and so has met media bosses many times.
He has proved to be a firm select committee chairman and was unlikely to let his members go over the top with their style of questioning. He is well respected by Labour as well as Conservative members of the committee.

:: THERESE COFFEY (CON)
Elected last year for Tory grandee John Gummer's seat, she has established herself as a frequent Commons performer and a solid inquisitor on the select committee.
She is one of very few MPs who are prepared to defend Mrs Brooks and other News International bosses when she believes it is appropriate.
In the emergency Commons debate on the News Corp-BSkyB bid, she claimed there had been a "witch-hunt" against Mrs Brooks.
She also responded to the Murdochs' U-turn on appearing at the select committee in a measured way, telling Sky News: "Fair play to them."
:: DAMIAN COLLINS (CON)
Elected to former Conservative leader Michael Howard's Folkestone seat last year, he has made a steady start to his career in Parliament.
As well as working for Mr Howard, he worked in advertising and public relations before becoming an MP and is therefore something of a media specialist.
:: Murdochs v MPs - follow it live with Sky
:: PHILIP DAVIES (CON)
A terrier-like MP from Yorkshire who is a former Asda supermarket boss. A populist right-winger who hates political correctness, soft jail sentences and the European Union.
He is no fan of David Cameron - the feeling is probably mutual - and was expected to quiz Mrs Brooks on the cosy social gatherings of the "Chipping Norton set", which is said to include the Prime Minister.
:: PAUL FARRELLY (LAB)
A former journalist who achieved notoriety when he was involved in a bar brawl in the Houses of Parliament. Earlier, he scored a major propaganda victory when he exposed a multi-national company which took out a super-injunction to cover up dumping at sea.
A feisty campaigner, he was expected to be a tenacious interrogator without respect for reputations.
:: LOUISE MENSCH (CON)
The former Louise Bagshawe, the chick-lit novelist who recently married the manager of a rock band. She is also a former journalist and has been impressive with her sharp and forensic questioning at earlier hearings of this committee.
Perhaps when these hearings are over she will write a saucy novel about a media boss married to a former racehorse trainer, a crumbling international dynasty, a super-smooth Prime Minister and, of course, the goings on in a fashionable Cotswolds set.

Few smiles are expected when the pair appear before MPs
:: ALAN KEEN (LAB)
Now 73, this former scout for Jack Charlton when he was manager of Middlesbrough FC probably knows more about football than any other MP. But the media is not his forte and some of his questions in this area can be clumsy.
The Feltham and Heston MP is married to Ann Keen, who was MP for a neighbouring constituency in west London until she lost her seat at the last election. They were dubbed "Mr and Mrs Expenses" and were among the most notorious expenses claimers in the last Parliament.
:: ADRIAN SANDERS (LIB DEM)
Worked for Paddy Ashdown before becoming MP for Torbay, his home town. He favours a tough line on the Murdochs and was planning to demand at the start of the select committee hearing that all the witnesses should be compelled to give evidence under oath and face prosecution if they are found to have lied.
:: JIM SHERIDAN (LAB)
An old-school Scottish trade unionist who is chairman of the Unite group of Labour MPs in the Commons. He has been a tireless campaigner for workers' rights and the low-paid in the Commons and has attacked News International's decision to close the News Of The World because it has thrown hundreds of employees out of work.
:: TOM WATSON (LAB)
This larger-than-life Gordon Brown cheerleader has been dubbed one half of the Woodward and Bernstein of the hacking scandal, along with fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant.
He has made some explosive claims in the Commons in recent weeks, including accusing James Murdoch of a cover-up. He was to pursue these allegations during the hearing. Apart from John Whittingdale, he was the 'member to watch' at this hearing.

 


0 comments

Man Rushes at Murdoch During Hearing

stakes parliamentary hearing was halted Tuesday afternoon after a man rushed News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, who was testifying in defense of his company's handling of its tabloid newspaper scandal.

A person lunged at Mr. Murdoch with what appeared to a cream pie as he and his son James were seated at a hearing table more than two hours into a hearing on the phone-hacking scandal engulfing the company.

An unidentified man appeared to attack the elder Mr. Murdoch before onlookers including his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, rushed to his defense.

Mr. Murdoch appeared unscathed by the attack and he remained in his seat as the attacker was dragged away.

Earlier in the hearing Mr. Murdoch had said he was not responsible for the phone-hacking fiasco at the media conglomerate, even as he declared it "the most humble day of my life."

 


0 comments

Monday 18 July 2011

Britain's Prime Minister Is In Deep Trouble

Monday 18 July 2011

David Cameron presented himself to British voters as the candidate of change. He certainly hasn't let them down. The Prime Minister can claim personal responsibility for triggering a series of unexpected and convulsive changes to public life in Britain that have left Britons, in the words of one habitually understated government official "gobsmacked and agog." Over just two weeks, the turbulence has toppled Britain's top cop and thrown London's Metropolitan Police Service (widely known as the Met or Scotland Yard) into crisis, shuttered the nation's biggest Sunday newspaper, led to the arrests of some of the most prominent names in journalism, revived the moribund career of Labour opposition leader Ed Miliband, and shaken a global media empire to its foundations. And this is only the beginning as questions mount over the damage to Cameron's own credibility.

It all goes back to a single decision taken by Cameron in 2007: to make Andy Coulson, a former editor of the now defunct tabloid News of the World from 2003 to 2007, his communications supremo. Coulson had resigned from the News of the World after the prosecution of its royal editor Clive Goodman and a private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, retained by the newspaper. The pair had hacked into the phones of the royal princes and their household. Coulson accepted "full responsibility" for what happened on his watch but has denied any knowledge of illegal activities during his editorship or at any time during his Fleet Street career. "The have been rumors about that kind of activity, I suppose, and media commentators have written about it," he told members of the House of Commons Culture Media and Sport Select Committee in 2009. "It has been in the ether of the newspaper world for some time but no, I have never had any involvement in it at all." Cameron deemed such assurances sufficient to give Coulson "a second chance," and upped the stakes on this gamble by bring Coulson with him into 10 Downing Street after scraping into power at the head of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010—this despite the emergence of fresh evidence a year previously that suggested the number of hacking victims might extend into the thousands and well beyond palace walls. Coulson's second chance expired this January when he left his Downing Street post; he was arrested on July 7 by police investigating allegations of voicemail interception and corrupt payments to police.

Coulson and the nine others arrested so far in relation to these two separate police inquiries must be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty by law. In overriding advice to appoint Coulson, Cameron must be presumed naive or arrogant or unduly focused on schmoozing the tabloid press and especially Coulson's former bosses, Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch and his son James. If Coulson had not provided such a tempting target, Britain's Guardian newspaper may not have pursued its investigations with such diligence and backbench critics of the Prime Minister probably wouldn't have kept up such insistent pressure to reopen inquiries into the News of the World. Even if they had, and the allegations that the tabloid had commissioned the hacking of messages left for murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler duly surfaced, Cameron could have responded to the shocking development with calm and authority. Instead he has found himself playing catch-up to Miliband, his novice opponent suddenly transformed into a caped crusader against what he calls "a culture of irresponsibility" that underpinned not only #hackgate but also the banking crises and the scandal over MPs' and peers' expenses. In the latest demonstration of Miliband's new-found power, the Labour leader planned to use a speech on July 18 to call for Parliament to delay its summer recess to discuss the hacking affair and its extraordinary repercussions. Before he stood up to speak, Cameron used a press conference during a long-planned visit to South Africa to say he was minded to extend the parliamentary session.

That is likely to mean a rambunctious Commons debate on July 20, which should have been the day MPs packed their speedos and headed for the beaches. But the highest drama may take place 24 hours earlier, in the modern annexe to the Palace of Westminster called Portcullis House. Both Murdochs are preparing to be grilled by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on July 19. The parliamentarians had also expecteded to quiz Brooks, who stood down as Chief Executive of News Corporation's U.K. subsidiary News International on July 15, but her arrest two days later raised doubts over her ability to testify. Latest reports from the BBC suggest that she will.

And a separate committee of parliamentarians, the Home Affairs Committee, has called outgoing Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, who resigned on July 17, to explain his links with Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, arrested on July 14. The Commissioner employed Wallis as a freelance public relations adviser and speechwriter; and he accepted free hospitality at Champneys, a health spa that also retained Wallis as a PR. In his resignation statement Stephenson denied any impropriety regarding the his spa sojourn and said:

In 2009 the Met entered into a contractual arrangement with Neil Wallis, terminating in 2010. I played no role in the letting or managment of that contract. I have heard suggestions that we must have suspected the alleged involvement of Mr Wallis in phone hacking. Let me say unequivocally that I did not. I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice and the repugnant nature of the selection of victims now emerging; nor of its apparent reach into senior levels. I saw senior figures from News International providing evidence that the misbehavior was confined to a rogue few and not known about at the top.

Beware of resignation statements. Margaret Thatcher's ouster was initiated by the resignation speech of an embittered, long-serving Cabinet Minister, Geoffrey Howe. Stephenson launched a barely veiled broadside against Cameron as he defended his association with Wallis:

Unlike Mr Coulson, Mr Wallis had not resigned from the News of the World or, to the best of my knowledge, been in any way associated with the original phone hacking investigation.

As the plea that a rogue few were responsible for any illegal activity at the News of the World comes under fresh scrutiny, Stephenson and other high-ranking officers will be called upon to explain why they failed to sift through the masses of relevant evidence already in their possession and whether their professional and social contacts with former employees of the newspaper clouded their judgment. Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, who decided against reopening the hacking inquiry in 2009, followed Stephenson's lead and stood down on July 18. Officers are also investigating whether bribes were paid to their own colleagues for information—and they are not alone in this inquiry, with the  Serious Fraud Office in Britain and the U.S. Department of Justice both taking a preliminary look at this most serious of allegations. Less than a year from the London Olympics and the huge and complex policing operation that entails, confidence in the police—and within the force—is at rock bottom.

Many of the same questions—about the scope of the hacking and bribery, about who knew it and when they knew it—are likely to be posed to Rupert and James Murdoch by the select committee, providing television at least as compelling as anything their broadcast networks have ever produced. The board of British Sky Broadcasting is reported to be mulling whether to ask James Murdoch to stand down as its chairman, at least "until News International has been stabilized," according to the BBC's well connected Business Editor, Robert Peston.

 


0 comments

Murdochs face music as scandal claims top cop

RUPERT and James Murdoch were due to be grilled by MPs today as the phone hacking scandal deepened, with Britain's top policeman resigning and hurling parting shots at Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, turned on the British leader in his resignation speech, saying Mr Cameron was at risk of being compromised by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

The bombshell came hours after former Murdoch favourite and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was arrested over allegations of hacking and bribery. She was questioned for 12 hours before being released at midnight. No charges have yet been laid, the normal process immediately following arrest in Britain.

 


0 comments

Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates has resigned as the phone-hacking scandal fall-out continues.



He checked the credentials of Neil Wallis before the Met employed the ex-News of the World executive, arrested last week over hacking allegations.

Mr Yates indicated his intention to resign to the chairman of the Met Police Authority, which was accepted.

Mr Yates's decison to quit comes after Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigned on Sunday.

The resignation of Sir Paul, the most senior policeman in Britain, came after he faced criticism for the recruitment of Mr Wallis as a PR consultant.

Mr Wallis, a former NoW deputy editor, was arrested and released on bail on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.

Mr Yates's resignation came after he was informed he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his relationship with Mr Wallis.

The officer had been confronted with new information about the friendship between the two men, sources told BBC political editor Nick Robinson.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson's spokesman said Mr Yates's decision to resign was "regrettable, but the right call".

Scotland Yard said in a statement: "Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the MPA.

"This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon."

In other developments on Monday:

David Cameron said the Commons would be recalled on Wednesday to debate the latest developments in the phone-hacking scandal
Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks confirmed she would appear before a committee of MPs on Tuesday, alongside Rupert and James Murdoch, despite her arrest and questioning by police on Sunday
The Serious Fraud Office said it would give "full consideration" to a request by Labour MP Tom Watson to investigate out-of-court settlements made to hacking victims
Shares in News Corporation dropped by 7.6% to a two-year low in trading in Australia


0 comments

Sunday 17 July 2011

Tring Health Spa Mentioned In Hacking Scandal

Sunday 17 July 2011

A Tring health spa has been forced to defend itself after being caught up in the hacking scandal.

It's emerged that Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson stayed at Champneys while recovering from a serious illness.

It's claimed the former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis was a PR consultant for the spa at the time.

The resort's MD Stephen Purdew is a family friend, and says there was nothing inappropriate about the stay.

 


0 comments

ROYAL LAWYERS IMPLICATED IN NOWS OF THE WORLD SCANDAL

According to the Mail on Sunday, the royal family's lawyers, Harbottle & Lewis, the firm that looks after the interests of the Prince of Wales and his son the Duke of Cambridge, are allegedly involved in the UK phone hacking scandal. The newspaper revealed today that the firm is suspected of having helped the tabloid's management "hide" the scandal by keeping hundreds of internal emails that reveal the extent of this scandal . .

 


0 comments

ugly sight of MPs gloating over the Murdoch scandal

While some journalists at News International have sunk so low that the expression “gutter press” is now almost complimentary, it is the self-righteous displays of humbug from our elected representatives that demonstrate how far British governance has fallen.
Not long ago these people were caught with their hands in the till pilfering thousands of pounds in unjustified expenses. When they finish kicking News International, perhaps they could start doing the job they were elected to do and sort out the mess this country is in.

 


0 comments

Sir Paul Stephenson accepted £12,000 freebie while both he and Champneys spa employed ex-NoW deputy editor Neil Wallis

Britain's top police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, who is under fire for hiring the former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as his PR adviser, reportedly accepted 20 nights free of charge at the luxury health spa Champneys earlier this year.

The revelations, published on the front page of the Sunday Times, will pile further pressure on the Metropolitan police commissioner, who has been under attack since he admitted employing Wallis on a fee of £1,000 a day, just hours after the former News International executive's arrest last week in connection with the phone-hacking inquiry.

The revelations are particularly damaging for Stephenson because Wallis, known to his Fleet Street colleagues as "the Wolfman", was also retained by Champneys to manage its public relations. A spokesperson for the Met said the commissioner was unaware of Wallis's connection with the Hertfordshire spa when he accepted its hospitality.

Stephenson and his wife stayed on full board over a five-week period while he recuperated from hospital treatment. In a statement, the Met said the meals and accommodation, estimated to have been worth around £12,000, were arranged and paid for by the spa's managing director Stephen Purdew. The statement describes Purdew as a "personal family friend".

"Following his operations, the commissioner stayed with his wife at Champneys Medical from Monday to Friday over a period of five weeks earlier this year where he underwent an extensive programme of hydro- and physiotherapy. This enabled him to return to work six weeks earlier than anticipated. As with many officers, the Met paid the intensive physiotherapy costs."

The commissioner's stay will be declared in the Met's hospitality register, due to be published shortly.

The London Assembly chair Jeanette Arnold, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, which supervises the force, said she was "flabbergasted". "Yesterday the confidence was low, today my confidence in him is completely shattered," she said.

Stephenson has also come under pressure to resign over his handling of the hacking scandal and his decision to hire Wallis. The Labour MP Chris Bryant tweeted on Saturday evening: "I am firmly convinced now that the Metropolitan police was corrupted to its core by NI [News International]. Stephenson and [John] Yates have to go." Yates conducted the 2009 review of the police investigation into hacking at News of the World and concluded that it did not need to be reopened.

 


0 comments

THE Opposition Leader, Ed Miliband, has called for Rupert Murdoch's empire in Britain to be broken up

THE Opposition Leader, Ed Miliband, has called for Rupert Murdoch's empire in Britain to be broken up, saying the media baron has ''too much power over British public life''.

He will push for cross-party agreement on new media ownership laws because the company's response to the News of the World phone hacking scandal was not enough to restore trust and reassure the public, he told The Observer newspaper.

''I think we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 per cent of the newspaper market, the Sky [pay TV] platform and Sky News,'' he said. ''I think that's unhealthy, because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power, then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous.''


0 comments

Friday 8 July 2011

Miliband said that the Prime Minister was, "someone who didn't seem to be able to lead the change we need in the way the press works in this country."

Friday 8 July 2011

 

Miliband said that the Prime Minister was, "someone who didn't seem to be able to lead the change we need in the way the press works in this country."
"He couldn't even bring himself to apologise for hiring Andy Coulson, a man who had already resigned from The News of the World over phone hacking and the man who has been arrested."
David Milliband added that the British public wanted the Prime Minister to "face-up to what he did wrong."
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, David Cameron defended his decision of appointing Andy Coulson, saying that he was giving the former editor of the News of the World a "second chance".
The Prime Minister added that people would "judge" him for the appointment.
"I made a decision to employ Andy Coulson. He had resigned from the News of the World, he said at the time he didn't know what was happening on his watch, he should've known what was happening on his watch, he paid the price and resigned," he said.
On the subject of former News of the World editor, Rebekah Brooks, Cameron said, "it’s not right for a Prime Minister to start picking and choosing who should and shouldn’t run media organisations."
"But it has been reported that she offered her resignation over this and in this situation, I would have taken it," he added.


0 comments

BRITAIN'S News of the World, a Tattle favorite due to its lurid tabloid coverage of scandal and violence and home to some of the most detailed accounts of celebrity sexcapades, is closing after more than 100 years.


The last issue is Sunday, and 200 people will lose their jobs.

In a bizarre counter to the current trend, News of the World is not closing because of low sales but because its owner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has suddenly found a moral compass - one that was located with the help of boycotts, departing advertisers and possible litigation.

News of the World, a tabloid that makes the New York Post seem like the New York Times, and Britain's bestselling Sunday paper at over 2.5 million copies, is being closed by Murdoch's media empire over an alleged phone-hacking scandal.

The paper has long been known for its questionable undercover reporting techniques, especially when it came to politicians, soccer stars and rumored hacking of the cellphones of relatives of terrorist-attack victims and British soldiers killed in combat - but it went too far when it hacked into the cellphone voicemail of a missing teenage girl, possibly even interfering with the police investigation into her murder.

According to the Los Angeles Times (which still, surprisingly, has a reporter in London) James Murdoch, a senior exec at daddy's News Corp., said in a statement that the company accepted responsibility for the distress inflicted by the hacking allegations and the paper's breach of journalistic ethics.

"The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account," the statement said, "but it failed when it came to itself."

The scandal surfaced earlier this week with reports that NotW's freelance private investigator had illegally accessed – and deleted – messages on the phone of the 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped and later found murdered.

Brits are rightly furious.

News Corp.'s British subsidiary, News International, which also owns the Times of London and the Sun tabloid, also has been feeling the heat of NotW's callous behavior due to a boycott organized on Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, the scandal may hinder media-mogul Murdoch's bid to win government approval for a takeover of British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The scandal has so inflamed the normally reserved British public that politicians have been calling for the resignation of Murdoch loyalist Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News International and the editor of News of the World when the alleged hacking took place.

So far News Corp. is standing by Brooks.

The younger Murdoch said he's satisfied that Brooks had no knowledge of the phone hacking, and Brooks insists that she will stay on to get to the bottom of the scandal.

It's classic Murdoch - fire the workers and keep their boss.

Tattbits

* Good news, soap fans: A pair of canceled ABC soaps may find new life on the Internet.

ABC has licensed "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" in a multi-year deal allowing their stories to continue beyond their imminent broadcast termination.

For more on this story, check out TV critic Ellen Gray's blog at go.philly.com/ellengray.

* Elizabeth Smart, 23, the Utah woman who was kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint, raped and held captive at age 14 by a Salt Lake City street preacher - and is not Jaycee Dugard, whose similarly disturbing story has been in the news this week - is taking a job with ABC News.

She'll be a commentator focusing on missing-persons and child-abduction cases.

"We think she'll help our viewers better understand missing-persons stories," ABC spokeswoman Julie Townsend said. "This is someone with the perspective to know what a family experiences when a loved one goes missing."

* Jon and Al Kaplan have turned "The Silence of the Lambs" into an unauthorized off-Broadway musical, complete with a chorus of dancing lambs.

"It all comes from a place of respect," says Al.

Some of the show's more than a dozen songs include "Are You About a Size 14?" sung by serial killer Buffalo Bill, which includes the lyrics: "I've got her in my sights/She's appropriately fat/I'll wait for her to notice me/I hope she fed her cat."

There is also "It's Me," a duet between Hannibal Lecter and the police that culminates in a classic - and deeply gross - film moment: "This cop is already dead/You'll see/I'm wearing his face on my head/It's me.


0 comments

Conceivably, your girlfriend’s hacked into yours to see if you’ve been having an affair

Nervous, unkempt former News of the World executive Paul McMullan appeared on BBC2’s Newsnight talking about hacking mobile phones, impertinently telling Jeremy Paxman: ‘Conceivably, your girlfriend’s hacked into yours to see if you’ve been having an affair.’ A friend comments: ‘In the most unlikely event of Paxman straying from the nest, his girlfriend, Elizabeth Clough, is far too dignified to do any such thing.’


0 comments

Murdoch has often raged against our toffs. But they’ve had the last laugh.

Rupert Murdoch’s proprietorship of the News of the World began in 1969 and caused headlines in 1973 when the paper exposed aristocratic Tory minister Lord Lambton in bed with prostitutes, smoking drugs. (Lambton afterwards retired to his 17th century Italian palazzo, Villa Cetinale, with mistress Claire Ward.) It ended yesterday with another grandee, ex-Formula 1 boss Max Mosley – whose sado-masochistic party with prostitutes the News of the World featured in 2008 – gloating on Sky TV (part owned by Murdoch) about its death. Mosley won £60,000 damages after they’d wrongly described his party – in which he spoke German and the ladies wore prison uniforms – as ‘Nazi-themed’. Murdoch has often raged against our toffs. But they’ve had the last laugh.


0 comments

There are only two people in Britain supporting Rebekah Brooks – Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron’s meeting with Labour leader Ed Miliband next week, to discuss the Murdoch Press phone hacking scandal, sounds like the beginning of a new, non-aggression pact. Labour and the Conservatives have both enjoyed an unseemly – some might say corrupt – relationship with News International. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both flirted with NI’s Medusa-haired networking chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, as has Cameron who employed Andy Coulson as his director of communications. But, as campaigning Labour MP Tom Watson said last night: ‘.’


0 comments

Monday 4 July 2011

Tories 'lied about impact of benefit shake-up that could leave 40,000 families homeless'

Monday 4 July 2011

MINISTERS were yesterday accused of misleading MPs over the catastrophic impact of the ­Government’s welfare plans.

The claim came after a leaked memo revealed David Cameron was warned his housing benefit cap risked making 40,000 families homeless.

Advertisement >>

A letter from the office of Communities ­Secretary Eric Pickles said capping it at £500 a week could also increase child poverty.

And it warned the estimated £270million savings would be wiped out by the cost of having to rehome people driven out by the cap.

WARNINGS

The fears about the £500 limit were set out in a letter written by Nico Heslop, Mr Pickles’s private secretary, six months ago.

He warned the plans – announced by Chancellor George Osborne at the last Tory conference and due to come into effect in 2013 – would have a “disproportionate” impact on families.

He wrote: “Our modelling indicates we could see an additional 20,000 homeless as a result of the total benefit cap.

“This is on top of the 20,000 additional (homeless) already anticipated as a result of other changes to the housing benefit.”

The letter continued: “We are concerned the savings from this measure, currently estimated at £270million from 2014-2015, do not take account of the additional costs to local authorities through homelessness and temporary accommodation. We think it likely that the policy as it stands will generate a net cost.”

DENIALS

Mr Heslop also warned of a looming “controversy” because families may be forced to use their child benefit to pay the rent.

Ministers have repeatedly denied the cap will cause problems. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Commons last month: “This is not about punishing people.”

His deputy, Chris Grayling, also rejected claims the benefit cap would hit families. He told MPs in March this year: “I do not believe the measure will exacerbate an existing problem.”

But Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne claimed ministers needed to come clean.

He said: “Perhaps now Iain Duncan Smith might explain if his ministers were being straight.

“If they have been hiding the truth to the House of Commons, that is extremely serious.”

Campbell Robb, chief executive of ­homelessness charity Shelter, said: “With 21% of people ­struggling to meet costs, you cannot cut support without risk of people losing their home.

“The Coalition needs to stop bulldozing through bad policies while ignoring independent evidence and its own expert panel.”

Mr Pickles said he was “fully supportive” of the Government’s benefit policies.

3A SURVEY for Shelter out today reveals the growing problem of rogue landlords. The YouGov poll found 7.5 million tenants have had issues with their landlord in the past 10 years. The findings comes as a Channel 4’s Dispatches programme tonight exposes landlords’ underhand tactics, including illegally renting out sheds.

 


0 comments

Police raid former home of Chris Huhne

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne's former marital home in Clapham, London, has been raided as part of a probe into claims he persuaded his wife Vicky to take responsibility for a speeding offence.

They confiscated the mobile phone of their son Peter (18). It is alleged to contain texts between Huhne and Peter discussing the probe into the 23 speeding offence

 


0 comments
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...