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

more on why it's called operation weeting: the other inquiry into payments to police is called operation elveden, after another town in norfolk. who was chief constable of norfolk police before coming to the met? andy hayman, who carried out the first botched investigation into phone hacking and subsequently took a columnist's job at news international. i think there's a message there.

But Cameron emplyoed Coulson post election, by which time maybe Clegg might have said something (unless he deliberately forgot...)

wasn't coulson on cameron's staff during, if not long before, the campaign?

yes

while i'm being fair there are nearly 11 million people who i blame for everything Cameron does before I'd blame Clegg.

EMil certainly isn't gonna help this situation but i think there are other issues that might stop it being the end of a government anyway - too close to last election, vacuum in opposition not wholly down to EMil, LibDems too implicated in the last 12 months to be effective kingmakers at the moment, electorate still confused and shocked by collapse of the economy.

I dunno, like i said before, this is all deckchair-shuffling in the big scheme of things, tho it's always nice to have a chance to burn all the blue deckchairs.

xp worked for him since summer 2007 i think

yeah but PM's official spokesman is a different taxpayer funded job, it's not an automatic transfer.

Anyone see this - not Cameron's statement, fuck that bumwad - I mean the press questions afterwards? Fucking sweet! All his little chuckling jokey asides, which usually work well with such a sympathetic audience, fell embarrassingly flat. He was poking his finger so hard in to the lectern he musta poked a hole in it and he was gulping so much water between questions his bladder must have been the size of a football by the time he waddled off at the end. He found time to shoehorn some little digs at THE LAST LABOUR GOVERNMENT, along the lines of "I might have hired a lying crook against the advice of absolutely everyone, but at least I didn't, uh, start a war or, uh, accept money for tobacco sponsorship (remember that one?)... and this aforesaid lying crook did a really good job, when I was paying him with your money, at least he didn't sex up any dossiers, eh?" This fell flatter than his jokes. What fun!

xp

Yes, what I was saying is that before the election it's reasonable that Clegg wouldn't have passed on a message, but afterwards, you might have though he would.

the leader of the opposition is a small-time policy wonk who'd be happier sat in the library all day

Would probably consider voting for dude if this was actually true. Sigh.

Also, what is it with shitty Labour leaders and them having my name as a nickname to highlight their shitness? Bah.

Met official - "We have arrested a 43 year old man, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more...if you want any more details you know what to do..."

Anyone see this - not Cameron's statement, fuck that bumwad - I mean the press questions afterwards? Fucking sweet!

I also liked the "taking full responsibility" as if that were the enbd of the matter.

PCC finally getting its jotters is no bad thing. A more pathetic and spineless apology for a self-regulator there hasn't been in a long time.

Met official - "We have arrested a 43 year old man, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more...if you want any more details you know what to do..."

Tap his phonemailbox?

Didn't see Little EMil on Newsnight, was QTing it last night, but I think he's done OK so far on this issue (apart from that "My wife said to me..." thing which was 0_0) and that seems to be the consensus in the 'Westminster Village'.

"OK" is woefully inadequate at this juncture

Well, better than OK then

As in, I don't think he's done badly

To be honest, while the bombshells are going off, it's better to keep out until you can be sure the kicking to be applied is going into the right places.

yeah i am kinda w/you there, & don't really see what the missed opportunity is, totally? (this could of course all be relative, in respect to the edbot thing, after which only looking moderately computer-operated and only simmeringly intense are both pluses). i think that he's explicitly voiced opposition to murdoch in the commons has been v well received. i wonder if what maybe means he hasn't gone for the one sentence bumper sticker association of the tories/the press/DC, as above, is just that on further interrogation labour are obviously complicit. kirsty walk pursued this last night, paralysing ed, asking why some deputy had sent out a gross e-mail to lab back benchers asking that they refrain from going to town on NI, and associating bskyb w/hacking, why ed hadn't been quicker or cornered murdoch at a party, etc.
xp @tomd

See, Yesterday we were all expecting "actions", but nothing really happened.

Until the newspaper closedown.

i think that he's explicitly voiced opposition to murdoch in the commons

Which no Labour leader has done since Neil Kinnock btw... according to Andrew Neil on This Week

kirsty walk pursued this last night, paralysing ed, asking why some deputy had sent out a gross e-mail to lab back benchers asking that they refrain from going to town on NI, and associating bskyb w/hacking, why ed hadn't been quicker or cornered murdoch at a party, etc.

yes, and i think any sort of politician better than "OK" could have turned these questions around quite easily instead of looking like a shifty-faced weasel caught out in a lie.

a shifty-faced weasel caught out in a lie

In OED under 'politician'

arggh you know what was killing me was that he kept repeating that he'd "learned lessons" and i just wanted k. wark to say "WHAT LESSONS DID YOU LEARN"

He said we've all learned lessons

well that can't be denied.

What lessons have we all learned?

I didn't see this, so maybe my opinion would be different if I had, given that Kirsty Wark is just a slighly upmarket Lorraine Kelly i'd be worried if she gave any interviewee any problems

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

the question about the party e.mili was at with rupert murdoch a week ago was an ice cold killer and he had zero response for it

word

Clive Goodman re-arrested. He's been a very bad boy.

Ofcom to rule on News Corp's 'fitness' to own BSkyB. I'm 'minded' to flick the V's and go nah-nah-nah in Jeremy Hunt's face.

lol pcc

it's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover up

you guys shouldve made hugh grant the labour leader

It could happen.

"The 2017 bilateral agreement between PM Grant and President Franken heralds in a new era of actorly experience."

was hugh grant one of blair's babes? i can't remember now.

http://keeptonyblairforpm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/blairsbabeswithtb_may1997.jpg?w=416&h=200

Dunno, check the pic!

I find the article joe linked of deep interest because it suggests why this all came about when it did over the past week. I've been wondering this whole time exactly why Murdoch and co. were assiduously interested in shooting themselves in the foot several times over and it sounds like they had this one general plan that they assumed would naturally play out as they wanted it. Which seems pretty stupid.

Meanwhile:

2.31pm: BBC Radio Five Live is reporting that the offices of the Daily Star have been raided by police.
We have no confirmation of this at present.

Would much rather those E*L supporting bastards at the Star went down than the NotW.

if you only count people who can read, doesn't the star have like 15 readers?

the star won't be caught up in this, richard desmond can't pay journalists let alone police. it's just because goodman ended up on their sunday edition.

prescott makes a good point: email deletion took place in january this year - must relate to current NI execs, so that will really fuck up the bskyb bid.

And leave it to NMA!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGegvzU9S8U

Hmm. Outlier or tipping point?:

In a statement today, Renault said: "As a result of the seriousness of the continued allegations of phone hacking by News of the World, Renault is reviewing its media advertising plans.

"Pending the formal investigations, we currently have no advertising planned in any News International press titles in the immediate future."

Meantime, great:

Borkowski added that the newspaper’s closure will start one of the ‘biggest changes in the media ever’.

‘This is bigger that the Murdoch moving his staff out of Fleet Street. If this can happen, who knows what else can happen? I think there’s a tsunami coming – you’re going to see a flood of journalists into PR for one thing.

‘It puts a huge amount of power into the hands of PR people. It’s a massive opportunity for PR to get it wrong or get it right. It’s a seismic shift of power to the PR world.’

This is the story that just keeps giving

xp PR people think everything is a victory for PR.