The Official Newscorp/UK end of season finale/Rebekah Brooks did 9/11 thread

the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations
the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations
the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations
the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations
the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations
the professional and restrained approach to unexpected levels of violence in recent student demonstrations

BAD COP NO DOUGHNUT

psyched for when they take this series to film

I'll have better Peter Morgan gossip this time, next week...

Your wonderful London mayor:

I was very sad and very reluctant to accept Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation.
Sir Paul is widely admired by men and women in the police service in London.
He felt this whole business was going to make things very very difficult for him in the months ahead in the run up to the Olympics, and he didn't want that kind of distraction.

And more from Stephenson:

"The purpose of that meeting was, as with other journalists, to represent the context of policing and to better inform the public debate carried out through the media on policing issues.

I had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the original investigation into phone hacking in 2006 that successfully led to the conviction and imprisonment of two men. I had no reason to believe this was anything other than a successful investigation. I was unaware that there were any other documents in our possession of the nature that have now emerged.

I have acknowledged the statement by John Yates that if he had known then what he knows now he would have made different decisions.

My relationship with Mr Wallis continued over the following years and the frequency of our meetings is a matter of public record. The record clearly accords with my description of the relationship as one maintained for professional purposes and an acquaintance.

In 2009 the Met entered into a contractual arrangement with Neil Wallis, terminating in 2010. I played no role in the letting or management of that contract.

I have heard suggestions that we must have suspected the alleged involvement of Mr Wallis in phone hacking. Let me say unequivocally that I did not and had no reason to have done so. I do not occupy a position in the world of journalism; I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice and the repugnant nature of the selection of victims that is now emerging; nor of its apparent reach into senior levels."

Okay come ON dude:

--

8.10pm: Stephenson also addressed the allegation that the contractual relationship with Wallis was kept secret:

"The contracting of Mr Wallis only became of relevance when his name became linked with the new investigation into phone hacking. I recognise that the interests of transparency might have made earlier disclosure of this information desirable. However my priority, despite the embarrassment it might cause, has been to maintain the integrity of Operation Weeting. To make it public would have immediately tainted him and potentially compromised any future Operation Weeting action."

He said the reasons for not telling David Cameron and Theresa May about the relationship with Wallis were "two fold":

"Firstly, I repeat my earlier comments of having at the time no reason for considering the contractual relationship to be a matter of concern. Unlike Mr Coulson, Mr Wallis had not resigned from News of the World or, to the best of my knowledge been in any way associated with the original phone hacking investigation.

Secondly, once Mr Wallis's name did become associated with Operation Weeting, I did not want to compromise the prime minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson. I am aware of the many political exchanges in relation to Mr Coulson's previous employment - I believe it would
have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the prime minister, or by association the home secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard. Similarly, the mayor. Because of the individuals involved, their positions and relationships, these were
I believe unique circumstances.

Consequently, we informed the chair of the MPA, Mr Malthouse, of the Met's contractual arrangements with Mr Wallis on the morning of the latter's arrest. It is our practice not to release the names of suspects under arrest, making it difficult to make public details of the
arrangements prior to Mr Wallis's release the same day. The timing of the MPA committee that I appeared before at 2pm that day was most unfortunate."

8.16pm: Speaking about his free stay worth £12,000 at Champneys health farm where Wallis was also acting as PR agent, Stephenson again denied all allegations of impropriety:

"There has been no impropriety and I am extremely happy with what I did and the reasons for it - to do everything possible to return to running the Met full time, significantly ahead of medical, family and friends' advice. The attempt to represent this in a negative way is both cynical and disappointing.

I thought it necessary to provide this lengthy and detailed account of my position on aspects of the current media questions and speculation concerning my conduct. I do this to provide the backcloth to the main purpose of this statement."

dunno why the press are still going on about this minor insular non-story

I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did I am extremely happy with what I did

On Friday, Carl Bernstein said:

it is evident to him the events of the past week "are the beginning, not the end, of the seismic event".

Dude was right.

A shame that Sir Paul has to resign on a full pension now rather than face an investigation and lose some nominal amount of his money.

You horrible cynic.

Andrew Neil says the "carnage has only just begun"

Mark S has it right:

Yog Sothoth invited into cabinet to stabilise political situation, calls for calm

Never mind phone hacking, what about these REAL problems, asks the Daily Mail?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2015004/Never-mind-phone-hacking-real-issues-facing-Britain.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2015591/Phone-hacking-buying-votes-blood-whats-worse.html

Methinks the Mail doth protest a little too much.

Except the problem is not phone hacking now, but corrupt officials.

to be fair the daily mail is actually leading on the stephenson resignation, and one of those links is a ~maverick~ opinion piece

ok, that is true. Sorry, Daily Mail.

For catchphrase frenzy, it's hard to beat this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2014981/Hacking-They-hell-handcart.html

"Hacking They hell handcart" indeed

Who knew the Daily Mail would support the Orange Order and other loyalists in the recent disturbances? I need to remember never to read more of the DM than I have to...

Interesting interview with Watson:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/17/tom-watson-rupert-murdoch

Even though the News of the World has been closed, the BSkyB takeover bid withdrawn, and Rupert Murdoch has promised to co-operate with the judicial inquiries, the bloodlust – orchestrated by a vastly subsidised BBC – continues.

The state records our emails, spies on our rubbish bins and uses airport X-ray machines to peer sneakily at our naked bodies.

hahahahahaha!

Apparently Watson shared a flat at uni with... Neil Codling?

The alternate universe in which Watson was playing keyboards on "Trash" while Codling went on to interrogate Murdoch is an unusual one to be in.

yeah, do you know Neil?

ah fuck d'you know i never realised he was in Suede.

Sarah Gurling was at Hull around this time too.

I don't know NC at all. The one in Suede I know best (though not well) is Brett.

Hold on, NV, you know Neil but missed the Suede connection?

i knew him vaguely, i didn't pay a lot of attention to who was in Suede, or to Suede after the first album really

altho i saw them play at Hull the week before the debut album came out? Neil joined later on tho

^^^He is Simon Gilbert's cousin.

Ah okay, I was just getting my head around the idea you and he were buds but he never mentioned his day job.

"So what do you do anyway, Mr. Eastwood?"

nah this would've been 87 to 92 ish

I don't know, there's a clear BBC link to the DMill, Mandy dinner mentioned up there somewhere.

Does this mean some of the rumoured suppressed threads surrounding the RWade/RKemp marriage will now come out?

Oh, what: affair with chef GR?

is it true rebekah smacked rkemp up because she caught him in bed with some tory boy?

That and the whole beard thing.

haha, that's the story I was thinking of.

i thought we'd decided it was Phil Mitchell

I once saw them together at a book launch and R. Kemp had the most hostile body language ever.

I kind of liked the personal time I spent with RKemp but it was at a charity dinner with a number of people much harder than him.

ah, the Loose Women presenters

looooooool

Apparently there's some hilarious Fox & Friends bit where they have the NOTW as the victims, then they finish with how this foreign news isn't important anyway and that's when their Casey Anthony bit starts? (can't search, my provider has probs with youtube at the moment)

for a sec there i was wondered wtf rainer werner fassbinder had to do with this... still am but in a different way

'i was wondered' - 2:1 degree yall

xps - I once saw them at...ahem...Daylesford Organic (yea, verily, I walked into the very heart of the Chipping Norton set and ate overpriced chocolate with them) and there was a very nasty moment over a jar of organic artichoke hearts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtC4gT-_Nj0&