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

no....

a massive conspiracy between the police, media, and politicians? yeah, we should probably move on to the real "news".

/icke

The Star knows what the important stories are (and deploys a pun they've presumably been sitting on forever): http://twitpic.com/5n60fd

Nice one, Joe. What I'm saying is there IS other stuff going on and that much as we might like to think otherwise, this is really just our equivalent of Cheryl Cole losing her job on X Factor USA. I agree that to an extent it IS news in a real sense, but it's also very very sexy and that's why this thread has nearly 1000 posts in two days.

this is really just our equivalent of Cheryl Cole losing her job on X Factor USA

not really, unless cheryl cole was operating an enormous criminal conspiracy to invade the private lives of thousands of people. and was appointed as the prime minister's director of communications. and bribed police officers. and obstructed murder investigations. really don't see how anyone could regard this as a sideshow.

aye, basically that's the post before yours is one of the worst i've read in a good while.

my language skills are also pretty suspect.

This story has not yet stopped unravelling.

Usually, something happens, then a lot of people pop up on News24 to give their opinions over and over, and the same thing gets repeated again.

Whereas, so much has happened, will happen, and no-one's quite sure what will happen next.

yeah, i'm moderately drunk and will admit to being prone to exaggeration but, while at risk of digging a bigger hole for myself, I'm not gonna distance myself entirely from that post. As I said, I DO think this is a big deal but it's not 9/11 and I just don't think it's warranted 100% of our attention and this scale of coverage for the last week and as long as it's going to go on for.

my language skills are also pretty suspect.

There are people taking to the streets against Murdoch right now.

Well, not now, it's 12:53 at night...

There's a (pretty f. slim but non-zero) chance it could bring down the PM and force Murdoch out of owning any part of BSkyB. It could/will also expose a shitload of corrupt cops in the Met. And it closed one of the world's biggest and oldest newspapers overnight. I reckon the coverage isn't wildly out of proportion, there.

quite.

he also sounds like someone with an IQ of about 80 but an unusually good vocabulary

― caek,

reminds me of a website i browse fttt, if i think through unkind filters

btw agree with ^211, this shit is like catnip to british ilxia, the majority of whom are far more interested in the print media than is the norm- coverage in the media itself is also incestuously far out of proportion to the public interest, even if elements such as police bribery are in the actual 'public interest'

xpost i'm not gonna try and argue my point further but i think we can respectfully disagree.

this pretty much explains McMullen, I think. grim listening.

thanks darragh, for making my point better than I did. to think this all stemmed from my thinking that a 20% increase in people's electricity bills is not nothing.

ya i'm habign a 10 min window of lucidity i think, seemed a shame to waste it completely

It's been pretty much pegged at the top of BBC's "most read/shared" these past few days as well. Not representative of the entire public maybe, but over the years that's been a not-bad guide to what people who're interested in news are interested in, imo.

(catnip to us otm tho. also point about gas bills.)

yeah, granted, it's a big 'news' story alright, but i dunno if ppl are all that interested in news about newspapers. too much more of that and average joe (not our joe, obv) starts hearing the inception dumdumdumdumWAAAAH in his head

me included, like.

i'm not very interested in the pres, but this seems a bit, then again i am a sort of political extremist and anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me.

press, fuck.

it's not really a story about the media, it's the country's biggest crime story. which was historically the news of the world's first priority.

anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me

well yeah not for a second suggesting there's not other angles or that it's a small story or anything

dunno what i was saying, apart from agreeing with n1ck a bit tbh

i can't post, since i seem to be missing full words.

basically it is unveiling, to an extent, years of absolute corruption and lawbreaking amongst the most horrific respectable sections of society, press, politicians, and polis.

phone hacking, no matter how widespread, isn't ever going to be the 'biggest crime story' in britain imo- nobody got hit with a brick or had a window broken by youths, if it weren't for the forces/murder victims being a part of it i doubt it would even have been enough for the advertisiers to pull out

i'm not very interested in the pres, but this seems a bit, then again i am a sort of political extremist and anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me.

and I'm exactly the same. i understand the story and its actual importance, i just think it's important to acknowledge our motivations (and the fact that they might not be the same as those of the general public) when we throw ourselves into a story like this.

xp i mean obviously i can't back that up but i feel vv strongly about this, between sandwiches

speaking of which, in the interest of full disclosure, lenny henry's african famine appeal prior to newsnight, followed by steve coogan, was what originally set ME off tonight.

lenny henry's famine appeal made me hungry for sandwiches tbh

JOKE I DID NOT SEE IT NOR IS FAMINE A LAUGHING MATTER IMO

pretty despicable but nonetheless lolled and now want a sandwich.

South Sudan celebrates its first day. Last US Gov-backed ascent of Space Shuttle. Egyptians protest lack of reform and secret trials by military. Unemployment report in US much worse than expected. Betty Ford dies at 93. Otherwise, and note bit about police telling press what they needed in way of hacks, re cases they were working:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/phone-hacking-police-coulson-goodman

it's not just about the press though is it, like mdc said it's about a whole bunch of narratives, most of which have defined britain in some way for the past decade, suddenly blowing up together. press, politics, celebrity, crime, conspiracy...

A 63-year-old man who was arrested yesterday over the phone hacking scandal in connection with alleged corrupt payments made to police officers has been bailed, New Scotland Yard said.

(We're being evacuated from the building but the live coverage should resume shortly.)

It's not just a media story, it's a potential lesson in 21st century democracy. In an environment where a handful of corporations are arguably more powerful than governments, press and public outrage at News International hints at a corrective that the traditional mechanisms of politics are incapable of providing. Chances are that it'll largely blow over - that there's not really the appetite on the part of the public to take this all the way - but the reminder that the nation isn't necessarily as supine as its leaders should be a valuable one for Murdoch.

is mcmullan drunk

He was sober but I would guess that's an unusual state for him to find himself. Seems to be something disturbingly masochistic about his need to be debased and insulted by celebrities in public.

coverage in the media itself is also incestuously far out of proportion to the public interest,

Uh, bit of minor detail here, but you live in Ireland don't you?

yeah, but i mean it's not like we have our own media service, really, except for the standard localised topup covering the national specifics- and i think the industry meta-fixation point stands anyway.

We're getting all the same coverage anyway, watching as much of this story as i did need to catch on sky news for instance

church of england joining the pile on a+

We cannot imagine circumstances in which we would be satisfied with any outcome that does not hold senior executives to account at News Corporation for the gross failures of management at the News of the World.

While the EIAG welcomes the decision to close the News of the World, this action is not a sufficient response to the revelations of malpractice at the paper. Nor does it address the failure of News International and News Corporation executives to undertake a proper investigation and take decisive remedial action as soon as the police uncovered illegal phone hacking in 2006.

phone hacking, no matter how widespread, isn't ever going to be the 'biggest crime story' in britain imo- nobody got hit with a brick or had a window broken by youths, if it weren't for the forces/murder victims being a part of it i doubt it would even have been enough for the advertisiers to pull out

― VIRGIN ROO (darraghmac), Saturday, July 9, 2011 1:37 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

to return to this in the sober light of day, it's not just about phone hacking anymore. it's about corrupt payments to police and assisting murder suspects in obstructing justice, all carried out by one of the countries' largest and most high profile businesses, with links to the prime minister. gas bills are important, but boring in comparison.

i think the industry meta-fixation point stands anyway.

no. the specific case of phone hacking, which in itself immediately raised questions about the PM and the met, has brought out into the open a really pretty big, no-going-back fight within the political and media elite, and that is #agoodstory.

granted, but milly & the forces were nonetheless the driving public forces while it was gathering steam, rather than the corporate malpractice angle?

xp

absolutely, but this has more fuel to drive it on than public outrage over that, otherwise the cynical and depraved murdochs would be right that closing the notw would end the matter.

#agoodstory but not, imo, as all-encompassing a media event as has been seen. Hard to speak for 'the public' obviously, but prob the bigger watercooler or w/e story is the immediate NOTW drama rather than the background political/legal machinations.

xp remains to be seen whether they're right on that or not!

deems i know you think a gentle troll on a warm morning is good for the constitution but yr really going nowhere here

ha not it at all, i'm just interested, more ill-informed than challopy tbh