On the face of it the evidence for referring Hunt to the independent adviser on the Ministerial code seems overwhelming. Hunt has always maintained his role was “quasi-judicial”, i.e. he should act like a judge in keeping his distance from all interested parties and certainly not showing favour to one of them. Yet, almost incredibly, there were 191 phone calls, 158 emails and 799 texts between DCMS (more than nine-tenths of them with Adam Smith, Hunt’s special adviser) and Frederic Michel, Murdoch’s main lobbyist. Continue reading
Tagged with Rupert Murdoch
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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Leveson chain reaction will reach No.10
In typically British Establishment manner Adam Smith, chief of staff to Jeremy Hunt, fell on his sword but not before uttering the the ritual words required to exculpate his master: “the content and extent of my contact (with News International) was done without authorisation from the Secretary of State”. Pull the other one. For over 6 months from 24 December 2010 when Hunt took over formal responsibility for dealing with the BSkyB bid until 11 July 2011 when the bid collapsed, the emails between Smith and Frederic Michel (the anglicised Frenchman acting as chief lobbyist for Murdoch) were ceaseless. Continue reading
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News International upholds probity? So be it
The righteous, so the rabbinical maxim has it, have their work done for them. After yesterday’s Sunday Times so perfectly skewered the venality of the Conservative Party, all the average lefty need do is sit back with a big wide smirk on his or her face.
Some commentators are suggesting that this operation was carefully planned, by way of a reprisal from the Rupert Murdoch camp for the Leveson Inquiry. The theory is entirely plausible, and if that is indeed the case, the irony that probity is here being upheld by News International should be apparent to all. Continue reading
