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

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.

Kirsty Wark playing a blinder on Newsnight right now. Think the team realised even in the course of the show that they messed up last night.

Hugh Grant killing it on Question Time

Details please, I'm Newsnighting it

Remembering how much I hate Question Time. Back to Newsnight.

Grant just pwned Chris Grayling - said it was 'scary' that he couldn't say when a proper inquiry would happen.

Remembering how much I hate Question Time. Back to Newsnight.

oh god yes. so loud. so shouty. so many stupid members of the public.

Hugh Grant just called NI " a protection racket and nothing else". Awesome.

^ this

(erm, xp)

hugh says john prescott's just been hacked to death :O

"Murdoch is one of the best things that's happened to British journalism"

The Sun noticed something

Douglas Alexander getting all moral about NI, Grant weren't you and Ed Milliband at a NI party with Murdoch 3 weeks ago?

Alexander looked like someone had shat in his lap.

Kind of tragic that the NotW ass.ed they got to appear on Newsnight, David Wooding, is a scouser and, apparently, an LFC fan.

BTW this could extend to Les Hinton, currently editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Kirsty Wark did that to Miliband earlier, she made him look completely spineless.

That interview was the first time in my life I have found myself admiring KW!

Blimey, Grant vs Gaunt is AMAZING.

Hugh Grant coming across surprisingly well here.

found a Question Time stream --

http://www.justin.tv/wmc_tv#/w/1439497872

anybody know where I might find Newsnight online?

stream bbc2 through a uk proxy

i wonder what nick clegg has to say about all this...

woops forgot that i don't care

tbf pol pot would look sympathetic next to gaunty

it's quite sad how much better than anyone else on this panel hugh grant comes across

of all the films of the past decade i imagined would come true, love actually was not top of the list

Woodward says he's never heard of anything like this, says the closure is "like a plea deal", says it will "unleash everything"

sorta hate him tho

the photo of rebecca brooks leaving the paper today is a doozy

"Goodbye, Cruel World" - Telegraph wins tomorrow's front page headlines.

Still think Woodward is close to the truth though tbh

WmC, they show Newsnight on C-Span.

what did Woodward say?

oops sorry

hugh grant is pretty much a national treasure now, right?

can't believe i missed the wark/e-mili thing, those were the minutes i was being deafened by QT

hugh grant is the new joanna lumley

did not know the notw was the biggest selling english language newspaper in the world. guess it's not that surprising.

incidentally, this isn't strictly speaking the right thread but it feels appropriate that it happened today: guess who's on twitter now! http://twitter.com/marinahyde

wish i'd watched grant being a national treasure on qt instead of milliband being a national wet rag on nn.

Who has been in bed with NI in more ways than one.
xpost

xxxp supposedly the most read. the times of india claims over 3m copies a day sold - i think the notw claim is based on some bogus "readership" figure, with several people reading each copy.

Who has been in bed with NI in more ways than one.

the kind of comment that makes me realise once again how necessary it is for feminists to yell at people

xps - I thought it was the Times of India?

Sorry missed joe's post. What he said.