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

Meantime:

9.23pm: Scotland Yard has confirmed it was considering allegation that emails as well as mobile phones have been hacked.

It was understood that officers had not yet been decided whether the matter would fall under the new phone hacking investigation Operation Weeting.

I hope it is called Operation Pooting or something similar. Seriously what IS that name all about?

sonned by j prescott in a weeting tweet beef

A+

Oh hey he DOES do anger management:

gilescoren Giles Coren

@johnprescott so i now gather. and so i apologise without reservation. sorry. i was reacting to only one tweet. hasty and foolish of me.

I hope it is called Operation Pooting or something similar. Seriously what IS that name all about?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 July 2011 21:32 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

weeting is a town in norfolk. here's how operation names get picked: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7288489.stm

The aim is to choose names that are completely neutral so they will hopefully be totally unrelated to the case. This system dates back to the 1980s.

"They brought it in after the unfortunately named Operation Swamp in 1981," says John Twomey of the Crime Reporters' Association.

"It involved swamping the inner cities with police to deal with street robberies among a small number of poor, black kids. They have been dealing with the backlash ever since."

This is where I ask if they've ever had Operation Cockfosters.

three cheers for Operation Cockfosters

xp damn you

Hahahah

this is all really fascinating shit.

from a US perspective, this strikes me as being both totally sick and unconscionable on its face but kind of... inconsequential, as a political controversy? a media outlet breaking some laws? your media/gov't/public relationships are different tho.

anyway, thanks for the distraction!

oh and ps rebekah toryface is kind of a fox

Ned, we'll always have Operation Scunthorpe

http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2011/07/07/is-murdoch-free-to-destroy-tabloids-records/

your media/gov't/public relationships are different tho.

That's kinda the key thing here. Also, if Fox News over here were doing what the NoTW was, especially given how much they brand themselves as the Real Goddamn American channel that supports the troops etc. -- the NoTW being a print equivalent to the UK on that front -- and it turned out they were breaking into American war widows' and crime victims' phones, then imagine the reaction...

tbh I imagine fatalistically the reaction would be "ho hum, when does 'Wipeout' come on?"

your media/gov't/public relationships are different tho.

No kidding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRL3WlL1dKE

xpost -- Entirely possible, of course.

OMFG the telegraph may have actually outdone the mail http://twitpic.com/5mo92s

good but a bit broad imo. daily mail one is ice cold.

Murdoch Jr. talking about the going-ons at NotW not being "in line with our high journalism standards" ugh

from a US perspective, this strikes me as being both totally sick and unconscionable on its face but kind of... inconsequential, as a political controversy? a media outlet breaking some laws? your media/gov't/public relationships are different tho.

one of the editors involved went on to be the prime minister's official spokesman. idk, how would the US react if robert gibbs had done this?

Well, to be fair, most people would have wondered who Robert Gibbs was.

Better pun though @ Telegraph. More feeling for drama

a media outlet breaking some laws? your media/gov't/public relationships are different tho.

yeah what this is really about is that for 20 years our governments have basically been in the pocket of the murdoch press (and factor in the police, too)

Well, to be fair, most people would have wondered who Robert Gibbs was.

you could have predicted the same about andy coulson when cameron appointed him - most people have since come to know who he is!

BBC running a Citizen Kane-like report on Murdoch and NotW now

ha was gonna say, the US reaction would be along the lines of "they interrupted 'Mike and Molly' for THIS?"

I may be overly jaded/not giving my fellow citizens enough credit, tho

you could have predicted the same about andy coulson when cameron appointed him - most people have since come to know who he is!

Yeah, granted, but again, different dynamics.

gibbs wouldve been fired pretty quickly, and then if more came out it still wouldnt be regarded as implicating obama to anyone but matt drudge

I think the storm over Valerie Plame shows that US press/politicians/corruption stories can blow up pretty big too.

oh yeah

lol I keep forgetting that happened

you could have predicted the same about andy coulson when cameron appointed him - most people have since come to know who he is!

― lex pretend, Thursday, July 7, 2011 9:07 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

although I imagine this week's events will put this to bed, whenever his name has come up in the last few years my brain has done a fraction-of-a-second calculation thing which starts with it thinking, 'oh yeah, the dude who gave the Spice Girls their nicknames in the 90s'

*I think that was him anyway?

although I imagine this week's events will put this to bed

A high profile arrest is going to put attention like that to bed?

"Don't worry, Ms. Anthony, your acquittal means nobody cares about you anymore."

(Which might actually be true.)

ugh tuned into newsnight too early and what is this disgusting comedy on my screen

Carry On Up the Wapping

eh no I meant I'll finally think of him *entirely* as a crooked Tory hypeman, as opposed to someone whose tabloid showbiz column irritated me 15 years ago

Clarity!

I watched a few minutes of Mock The Week inc the grave disclaimer that "this show was recorded before the events of today" and then it started with some jokes about how Eric Pickles is fat

Newsnight going straight for Cameron

Ha, (xpost)

Also: I thought it was Andii Peters who gave the spice girls their nicknames?

also: I would guess that Private Eye are doing a special right now. In all likelihood to be ready for Sunday..

10.20pm: The closure of the News of the World could be a cunning ploy to legally shred any incriminating evidence linked to the phone hacking scandal, according to a prominent media lawyer.

Mark Stephens, head of media with Finers Stephens Innocent lawyer, said under British law the paper "may not be obliged to retain documents that could be relevant to civil and criminal claims against the newspaper—even in cases that are already underway."

If News of the World is to be liquidated, Stephens told Reuters, it "is a stroke of genius—perhaps evil genius."

All of the assets of the shuttered newspaper, including its records, will be transferred to a professional liquidator (such as a global accounting firm). The liquidator's obligation is to maximize the estate's assets and minimize its liabilities. So the liquidator could be well within its discretion to decide News of the World would be best served by defaulting on pending claims rather than defending them. That way, the paper could simply destroy its documents to avoid the cost of warehousing them—and to preclude any other time bombs contained in News of the World's records from exploding.

i don't see how that works - i don't think anything is being liquidated, because it's surely all owned by news group newspapers, which will still publish the sun.

I think, US ppl, it's the sheer scale of the thing. The dude who has controlled our politics completely for two decades is briefly on the ropes, our bestselling newspaper has closed suddenly, it goes right to the heart of government, it takes in high profile child murders, families of dead soldiers, victims of terrorism, seemingly everything that's happened in this country in 10 years is wrapped up in this in some way. It's horrible, but it also feels like Britain: End of Season Finale.

*plays hallelujah - jeff buckley"

Also Rusbridger was totally failing to convince me that he isn't happy about the NOTW closing.

Miliband looking like a right tit here.

jon gaunt is so bloody loud!

why are QT and newsnight on at the same time?

Hugh Grant killing it on Question Time.

LibDem guy is pretending he would't have fucking loved it if Murdoch had endorsed his party last year.