DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

the sun's coverage of this story:

http://liberalconspiracy.org/images/media/sun_millydowler.jpg

it's in a fairly prominent position on the mail's website (and has been moved up since it was first put up last night), don't know what the print edition looks like though. (and obviously it's nowhere near as prominent as william & kate fluff or - good god - "Nigerian mother who cost NHS £200k after having quintuplets is working illegally as an Avon Lady")

Cameron sounded a bit shaken just now on the top-of-hour news of R4.

Now, the rumour is that Brooks was shakily hanging on to her job as it was, but a few months back Cameron intervened with Murdoch to keep her.

I still think the phone hacking scandal may blow over, which is a disgrace. When I was working in recruitment in the late 90s/00s I believe that clients answer messages were being hacked in this way to gain confidential information. The default PIN for retrieving messages was generally '0000' and most people didn't bother to change it. A relatively well known 'trick'.

I reckon it was going to blow over before but, y'know, people care about murdered children in the way they don't about the privacy of Andy Gray/Sienna Miller/John Prescott.

Bet this isn't the only time something like this has happened as well. Depends how much more is left to be shaken down.

They seem on point of Going There about Soham - and if they do find evidence of a hack there, I predict chaos and angry, angry Little Englanders.

amazed how little labour exploited coulson-gate

and here is another open goal

(i still care about u, sienna)

A Downing Street source played down the significance of the social engagement and pointed out that Brooks is one of the prime minister's constituents. The source said: "To suggest some kind of impropriety is laughable. The prime minister regularly meets newspaper executives from lots of different companies."

Cameron visited Brooks and her husband, the racehorse trainer and writer Charlie Brooks, at their Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period.

To suggest some kind of impropriety is laughable. To suggest some kind of impropriety is laughable. To suggest some kind of impropriety is laughable.

It probably will blow over. The relative lack of interest on the part of other tabloids could be explained several ways - the Sun’s got stuff on them, journalistic code of honour, back-scratching – but the most likely one is that the papers don’t think, probably correctly, that the public are that bothered. Because Dowler’s killer has been identified and sentenced, the whole thing then becomes a bit of an abstract with the public and so with news like this they go “grrr!” for a few seconds and “typical” for a few more then shrug their shoulders and carry on reading the paper which they only buy for Page 3 and the sport anyway.

Perversions of justice? Immoral behaviour? Who cares* #itsagoodstory

*slightly surprised if NoTW don’t hit back with CONFESSED PERVERT DAD-type headlines next Sunday but even they might think that would be a bit much.

Even with Soham dirt - if proven - I suspect the public will howl "NEVER AGAIN" like they did with Diana for about a week and a half and then go back to normal because #itsagoodstory

Me: So they all knew? Wade probably knew all about it all?

Him: [...] Cameron must have known - that's the bigger scandal. He had to jump into bed with Murdoch as everyone had, starting with Thatcher in the Seventies . . . Tony Blair . . . [tape is hard to hear here] Maggie openly courted Murdoch, saying, you know, "Please support me." So when Cameron, when it came his turn to go to Murdoch via Rebekah Wade . . . Cameron went horse riding regularly with Rebekah. I know, because as well as doorstepping celebrities, I've also doorstepped my ex-boss by hiding in the bushes, waiting for her to come past with Cameron on a horse . . . before the election to show that - you know - Murdoch was backing Cameron.

Me: What happened to that story?

Him: The Guardian paid for me to do it and I stepped in it and missed them, basically. They'd gone past - not as good as having a picture.

#itsagoodstory

<3

Cameron's decision to wangle a ticket through the "friend-of-a-friend" route (editor of the Sun, Rebekah Wade, and her husband, the soap star Ross Kemp helped out) puzzled onlookers who displayed high standards in their celebrity spotting. "He shouldn't be there - it's not that kind of day," said Tracey Green, 41, from beneath her umbrella.

Marcello - the public care. They care, partly, because the press, including the News of the World, amplify personal tragedies to such an extent. So if and when there's an enormous backlash its because they themselves have created the climate of enormous national sensitivity to tragic events like this. But I'm not sure it'll brush off quite that easily - sales of The Sun have never recovered in Liverpool after Hillsborough. It's not quite the same obviously, the scale of loss was much bigger, many more people knew someone who was involved or directly affected. But a the same time the press makes smaller private tragedies like the Dowler case into public property so the emotional involvement is still there - the right (or wrong) fuckup can kill the reputation of a newspaper in the same way it can any other person or organisation.

Not saying its terminal - obviously this won't kill NewsCorp or the NOTW - but it'll have a serious effect for a while, especially if advertisers pull their money out. The rest of the tabloids either have their own skeletons or they're worried that Murodch and the Sun will unleash fucking hellfire on them in the future.

The only way I can see this going is that Murdoch claims complete ignorance, makes a very public show of purging everyone involved and carries on. People will stop buying the NOTW as a result though, definitely.

Cameron will get off scot-free obviously.

Cameron is well known to love all this celeb crap, but who can blame him? He saw it work for Blair (mostly, for a while at any rate) and saw that Brown's obvious discomfort in the presence of, well almost anyone, clearly did not go over well. He's just playing the game. Mind you dressing up as the Stig to record a message for Clarkson's birthday is probably going too far.

Rebekah was surprisingly matey with the Browns as well when they were in Number 10 as well. I don't think "Cameron definitely knew about it" is necessarily a given, unless it's something the last few PMs all knew about.

It's what Cameron does now that matters obviously. Destroying potential evidence and misleading what turned out to be a murder investigation is a much bigger deal than merely listening in on voice messages.

I'm not expecting the Labour leadership to be anything other than completely supine in all this, the only noise you'll hear will be from figures who don't need to worry because their career is either behind them (Prescott etc) or just never going to happen (Abbott, Corbyn etc).

I'm not expecting the Labour leadership to be anything other than completely supine in all this,

i know platitudes are platitudes but ed really has a way of making his outrage seem particularly tepid and worn. he actually said we must get to the bottom of this, about this. it's like he's one of the guys who'd stand outside the activity room and yelp, in the crystal maze, while one of his clerical colleagues was amid a gruelling physical challenge.

Getting this nagging feeling the other tabloids aren't that bothered about this, because they know it could've been them, too? Or will be inevitably next time. So it's a back scratching thing like Marcello said, I think.

Well it's the job of the PM (party, obviously) to get the message out which will undoubtedly mean drinks with newspaper editors and, ahem, giving them jobs if necessary. I don't like it, but it's the way it is, you need to get a certain number of Daily Mail/NOTW/Sun readers on your side (no matter how hopeless that task might seem) if you want to win elections, and losing elections sucks, so yes, don't expect anything of any substance (ever) from Milibrand.

I doubt very much that Cameron knew about it. Why would he? Unless he asked Coulson whether there was anything dodgy in his past in his 'interview'. In which case we can presume Coulson said "Not that I know of, wink, wink".

xps

http://twitter.com/#!/keverrst/status/88170986737909760

The thing is that right now the public cares more about Cheryl and Ashley or Kate and Wills. Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory.

I just remember everyone throwing their hands up on the Sunday morning we woke up to the news about Diana and it was all “tabloid scum we’ll never buy their rotten papers again” and then five minutes later in Sainsbury’s people were fighting over the last three copies of the Mail on Sunday.

The thing is that right now the public cares more about Cheryl and Ashley or Kate and Wills. Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory.

they care a lot about murdered children too, dude.

and also mobile phones.

diana's death hypocrisy is a very daily mail thing though, isn't it? the height of prurience - tut-tutting at the tabloids' behaviour, but still wanting to look at the pix the paps get through their underhand behaviour.

like, they've run countless pieces on how awful young women's behaviour is now, alongside many lurid pix of drunk women in states of undress in town centres on a saturday night.

wish those angry angry little englanders would chill out

Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory

?
feel like these things are true of the economy, of budgets, of a million other things but probably not of a newspaper hacking phones. seems really simple, lends itself to concision, black & white, & re: might land some connected people in trouble - one would hope that was, for someone, at least, still a potential strength rather than a limitation. there's a lot of journalistic potential for it.

dan wootton is the fucking WORST

i mean obviously not the worst worst, as far as i know he's never hacked into a dead girl's phone, but he is just an awful bully and reprehensible human being

While we’re on the subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14024079

I predict a £1000 fine and smack on the wrist apiece; that’ll teach them.

Detectives from Scotland Yard's new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting

Operation who? Operation wha'? Important as this phone hacking story is, I don't think it should be allowed to overshadow Iain Duncan Smith calling for British bosses to employ British workers and then two days later 1400 (and the rest) of said workers being made redundant because the government gave a contract to a German firm instead. They said they wanted a manufacturing led recovery, they just didn't specify what country the recovery was to take place in.

Well they were never going to listen to Mr La-Di-Da Gunner Graham (whom IDS always unaccountably reminds me of).

looooool truth

Murdoch's been giving quotes backing Brooks "100%".

If he wants BSkyB to go through he's going to need to spin this as an isolated cancer that doesn't affect the rest of NI. Having Brooks at the top doesn't help with that.

Yes, he seems particularly fond of that harpy

are there other significant steps to bskyb going through though? i sorta assumed that hunt's say so would be it, & that, lol, any change in that now would practically constitute another u-turn. it obviously shouldn't, both after & irrespective of this, but it seems unlikely that some topical development would actually unsettle this ..?
xp

Quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role... repeat ad infinitum

it's in a fairly prominent position on the mail's website (and has been moved up since it was first put up last night)

now the lead story, even the royal fluff banner's been taken down now

I dunno, if the Milly Dowler court case hadn't been last week, and hadn't been the 'outrageous' trial that it was, maybe the GenPub would have gone oh well.

The difference, also, that formerly it was Sienna Miller having her privacy invaded for looking for skeletons that were not there (I'm assuming), and now it's about messages being deleted that brought false hope to the family.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14026369

the way Rebekah Brooks speaks around the topic is so maddening - "sickened that these evens are alleged to have happened" - so she's sickened by the fact of the allegations being made? or by what is alleged?

In a statement to News International staff she said: "I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened. Not just because I was Editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowlers family is unforgivable."
She added: "It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way.
"If the allegations are proved to be true then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.
"I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations."

I HOPE THAT YOU ALL REALISE IT IS INCONCEIVABLE

it's inconceivable that she sanctions these allegations being made!

if she didn't know how the paper she was editor of was getting its information, what kind of editor was she?

Rebekah, is your hope also false?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/FujikoMine/Articles/vizzini.jpg

It's not phone-hacking, it's the combination of phone-hacking and murdered children. And if the public don't care about murdered or missing children then why the three years' worth of Maddy front pages?

Speaking of which, bet the McCanns are consulting their lawyers right now.

Brooks is taking on the air of an inept politician on the Thick of It making a desperate speech unaware of the Malcolm Tuckers running around making gunfingers at her.

If the Daily Mail has not only made it its main story but is explicitly mentioning Rebekah Brooks then that's pretty serious. Good.

News Int execs tell me they fear there may have been worse examples of NOTW hacking than that of Milly Dowler's phone. The mind reels

Jesus. This still feels like the tip of the iceberg. There really should be a public inquiry (though of course it won't happen).

It's not phone-hacking, it's the combination of phone-hacking and murdered children. And if the public don't care about murdered or missing children then why the three years' worth of Maddy front pages?

#itsagoodstory

The Telegraph is going hard at Peston:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100095296/robert-peston-news-internationals-press-officer/

Not sure if that's because he broke the Vince Cable story though that they initially covered up.