Coulson is only a medium-sized cog in the web of industrial scale phone-hacking, lying, deceit, and intimidation that is Murdoch’s News International. If this was any other company rather than one of themselves, the newspapers would be raising a hue and cry demanding a full public inquiry, resignations or sackings of key executives in the boardroom, and the break-up and restructuring of a disgraced and discredited corporation. Continue reading
Tagged with Andy Coulson
How does one stop over-cosy relationships between politicians and media moguls?
Andy Coulson’s arrest for alleged perjury in the Tommy Sheridan trial isn’t just an embarrassment for Cameron. It raises a much wider and more difficult issue: how can a deeply insidious, unhealthy and toxic relationship between politicians and media proprietors – specifically the Tories (Thatcher), New Labour (Blair), the Tories again (Cameron) and Murdoch – be prevented from developing to the point where it contaminates politics and secretly corrupts the whole democratic process? Continue reading
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It’s not Hunt’s neck that’s now on the line, it’s Cameron’s
The evidence revealing the inappropriately close relationship between Cameron and News International in the run-up to the BSkyB bid gathered pace in the last two days with the appearance of Coulson and Brooks before Leveson. First, there was Cameron’s insouciance about hiring Coulson to No.10 without thorough checks on what he may have known about phone-hacking at the News of the World where he had been editor, even when the Guardian later indicated in 2009 that phone hacking at the tabloid was rife. This suggests that the Prime Minister was so determined to get as close as possible to the Murdoch outfit that he was quite ready to gloss over any embarrassing details that might incriminate Coulson, and never raised the subject with him more than once even while the hacking saga was steadily unfolding. Continue reading
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The Digger And The Hackers
Rupert Murdoch is on his way to the annual shindig of global movers and shakers at Davos. Quite what is moved and shaken at Davos is frankly anyone’s guess. But Mr Murdoch will be dropping in to London on his way over and he is not a happy man. Correction; he is hopping mad. Usually he would expect to drop into 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister would be obliged to pay homage. I was in Downing Street many years ago, and saw Murdoch walking arm in arm down the corridor with Angie Hunter, a close aide to Tony Blair. On seeing this, I was sworn to secrecy, as ‘Tony’ wouldn’t want people to know that Murdoch was a regular. I maintained radio silence for approximately seven hours, which was pretty good going. Continue reading
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Accountability breakdown: they keep getting away with it
Four breakdowns in the last three days all point to the same central flaw which is now endemic in British society. Public order policing is out of control and clearly would have remained so for many years had not the undercover police spy Mark Kennedy gone native. Phone hacking of public figures we also now see has been clearly out of control at the News of the World and its existence was covered up again and again by Murdoch’s News International, apparently also with the connivance of the police. Blair at his second appearance before Chilcot puts on full display his Manichaean view of the world as a struggle between good (the West) and evil (militant Islam), and his determination to let neither the views of his Attorney General his Cabinet, Parliament, or public opinion get in the way of implementing his own views and his total adherence to Bush. And Lansley’s NHS ‘reforms’, unmentioned either in the Tory manifesto or in the coalition agreement, boun ced even his immediate colleagues. These all have one fatal link. Continue reading
