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

The other considerable factor is the feeling that many politicians have broken loose of NI and seem incredibly excited about it.

He's en route to South Africa.

Someone else just said South America(which is a bit vague). Is is normally a secret when the PM goes abroad (to places that aren't war zones)?

xpost -- Yeah, that's the thing I'm sensing too, if only because part of the story seems to have clearly shifted to how NI in all its forms is reporting (or more to the point, not reporting or misreporting) the story. WSJ interview seen as crass defiance, Fox and Friends piece widely mocked of course, etc., and of course above all that the NotW closing -- rather than tone-setting it's all sounding like an extended flail. Ergo, if they try to attack any politician going at them, what exactly would it achieve?

I thought that when I read the Gordon Brown Is Going Mad Again piece in the STimes this morning. All a bit desperate.

you could see this as another example in a half decade full of them that there is a club at the top of society that appears to just shit on everyone for fun

^^^Apparently Ed Miliband is going to tie this into a culture of irresponsibility ie. bankers' behaviour and the like.

Miliband will use a speech in the City of London on Monday to widen his attack on Britain's "untouchables" – scandal-dogged bankers, politicians and now the media, who think they are above the law – by identifying other groups whose conduct puts them in the same category. After Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation the police too are expected to join the Labour leader's list.

^^^Guardian, just up...

that sounds promising. pretty much everyone who has worked in the_city deserves a mallet to the nuts tbqf.

Hmm seems a bit of a shit angle; this is strong enough on its own, it doesn't need a larger narrative. You dont want this to seem too big to fix; you want itbboiled down "here is a really clear and obvious crime: so sack x and y; do Z; all will be well". Not "oh woe what a massive systemic mess we are, the only answer is nothing simple or pat and leaves lots of room for argument"

Depends how he sells it, I guess. Oh.

Depends how he sells it, I guess. Oh.

haha. yerce.

If he turns up with a mallets for everyone plan I'm right behind him, tho

Miliband will use a speech in the City of London on Monday to widen his attack on Britain's "untouchables" – scandal-dogged bankers, politicians and now the media, who think they are above the law – by identifying other groups whose conduct puts them in the same category. After Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation the police too are expected to join the Labour leader's list.
^^^Guardian, just up...

― natalie imbroglio (suzy), Sunday, July 17, 2011 11:47 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

weird coincidence: the anti-corruption task force in the met that andy hayman led and john yates served in during the late 90s-early 2000s was nicknamed the "untouchables", but allegedly spent a lot of time covering up corruption, pinning the blame on a few suckers and smearing innocent officers who got in their way.

Is this the thing where they were dobbing officers of colour into disciplinaries and terrorism referrals?

From the BBC comments:

If the Met hired Wallis, did the govt hire Grommit?

I am sorry, but I lol'd

Brooks finally bailed. See you all in the morning.

Well that was quick:

12.11am: The Guardian's chief political correspondent, Nick Watt, has some more details about David Cameron being informed of Stephenson's resignation. He says the prime minister was told of the news at 7.20pm, en route from Heathrow to South Africa.

Downing Street made contact with the prime minister while he was on board his Virgin plane shortly before the commissioner's statement was released.

The prime minister spoke from his first class cabin by satellite phone to the home secretary, Theresa May, and officials before releasing his own statement at around 9.30pm.

Downing Street officials said at the time that the prime minister would press ahead with his two-day visit to South Africa and Nigeria.

12.21am: David Cameron has cancelled plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan during his visit to Africa in order to return earlier to the UK.

From a linked story:

David Cameron begins a two-day visit to Africa which has been curtailed to allow the prime minister to fly home early to finalise the terms and membership of Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into the media.

In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as prime minister, Cameron will fly into South Africa with a message that an African free trade area could increase GDP across the continent by more than it currently receives in aid.

He will praise his generation for marching against African debt and for holding concerts to raise funds for aid to the continent.

But in article in the South African Business Day he will call for a change of approach. "They have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good – an African free trade area," he writes.

But Cameron's free trade message is likely to be overshadowed by events back home following the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, who entertained the prime minister at her Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period.

Downing Street aides, who had at one point considered cancelling the trip altogether at the height of the phone-hacking crisis last week, instead decided to cut it back from four days to two. Cameron will now just visit South Africa and Nigeriaon Tuesday. Plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan have been scrapped.

Time has been found in the diary to allow No 10 aides – and possibly the prime minister – to watch the appearance by Rupert and James Murdoch.

Charges re: Brooks:

She was arrested by appointment at a London police station on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.

lol hey africa we care, honest! oh wait we don't because some rich old dude has a problem.

Time has been found in the diary to allow No 10 aides – and possibly the prime minister – to watch the appearance by Rupert and James Murdoch.

jeez david this is not an opportunity to socialise

Australia, obv. Murdoch's mom is already getting her knife ready.

Ned you keep citing Dame Elis as panto eminence gris, but since all her recent treatment in Ncorp press is that she's either senile or brainwashed for going off-message in re Carboncategate, is there really any actual connection w/ Rupert at all post-Deng?

lol

What better way to exact revenge, my friend.

ONE LIZ TO ANOTHER: PM's flight to Oz leads to a trussing

Guardian reviews Stephenson statement.

so much for editorial indpendence for the wall street journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576451812776293184.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Guardian finally manages to implicate Dan Wooton:

The connections between Champneys and News International's papers, in particular the Sun and the News of the World, are extensive. They involve several promotional reader offers promising discounts and two-for-one deals at the spa, and the papers' coverage of the resort has also been generous.

In the last year, the News of the World ran a string of stories about Champneys. One, by showbiz reporter Dan Wooton, reported "a pal" of pop singer Pixie Lott and model Oliver Cheshire saying how they "wanted some quiet time so they had a four-day romantic break at Champneys in Tring in Hertfordshire".

Amanda Holden devoted most of her column one week describing a break at the spa with two friends, in particular detailing Charlie Brooks's kriotherapy centre offering "a new treatment which should blitz our cellulite!"

It did not stop there. Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding eulogised about spa's "non-surgical facelifts", and Flavia Cacace, a dancer on Strictly Come Dancing told the paper: "I like to go to Champneys Spa for a facial and a massage."

Wooton going to jail would give me more pleasure than anything

^^^^yes.

Wooton is significant, why?

Fuck, RAF Leuchars is closing as part of the defense review. I live in Leuchars, and it's really the only source of jobs - everyone I know works for the MOD or is married to someone who does. There used to be a paper mill here, but that closed a few years ago, so it's just dishwashing and bedmaking in St Andrews. Place is going to be a ghost town. Still, people in the forces will insist on voting Tory, no matter what, and Fife votes Lib Dem, until the last Scottish election, so I guess we're reaping what we sow.

Another example of the tories screwing Scotland, of course. But I guess it'll get buried by the NI story to a large degree.

Who's who by Businessweek, don't think it's been linked here before:

http://images.businessweek.com/cms/2011-07-14/004-openingremarks30_2.jpg

Crap, how do I shot it being readable?

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/le_bateau_ivre/004-openingremarks30_2.jpg

Sigh.. sorry guys.

Don't worry, Clive Goodman's Harry Redknapp impersonation is worth seeing twice.

Firefox users: right-click on the pic and select 'View Image'

^^ that indeed helps, thanks Snoball!

@NickB: LOL

James Murdoch, the beleagured News Corporation executive, has received a ringing endorsement from MMR manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline according to Reuters news agency on Friday. GSK who appointed him to their board in February 2009 insist Murdoch has made “a strong contribution” to the group and received share payments worth $158,000 in 2010. Murdoch was appointed to the board of the pharmaceutical manufacturer with a brief to “review…external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation."

Within a fortnight of his appointment News International had published at least 5 articles attacking MMR researcher Andrew Wakefield’s integrity.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EptD7Iul550/SsUcRd8E0wI/AAAAAAAAAmg/d-mAlAu_E3U/s320/drudge-siren.gif

hmm that may be true but wouldn't credit anything from a site that defends Wakefield.

christ

Wakefield didn't really need a Murdoch to discredit him.

from the site that brought you The Age of Autism:
Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic

i.e. it's Mercury Hat time

I keep staring at NV's judgesiren.jpg. Infuriating how it doesn't blare.

*throws Noodle Vague a http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/le_bateau_ivre/UEKoi.gif *

drudgesiren, even

I would rather NI had published pro-big pharma propaganda if that means they were also publishing anti-Wakefield propaganda, if you see what I mean.

i wd rather not pick a side in terms of good guys and bad guys but i guess Wakefield and co. have arguably done more harm over the short term

if we could just roll up every major news story of the last decade into this that would be fab.