not really. there was a sea of anal analysts but they were all wearing saville row and sipping on krug.

If you read the original article in the Guardian........ They name a particular detective agency who with unusual methods sourced all manner of things Brown including medical and financial records. As luck would have it the boss is local to us and the regional TV repeated all the accusations. The guy concerned, rather than suing everyone, has made a "no comment" and didn't turn up for work. Like it or not, Brown is the victim here. The News International organisation and their useful idiots can throw as much mud as they want. It won't stick.

Putting my conspiracy theory hat on:

This sounds like black propaganda to me. It's far too dangerous for The Sun to attack Brown directly (and no one would believe them anyway), so they respond by "debunking" a claim that Brown never made in the first place, and then leak "spoiler" claims to others, letting them do the Sun's dirty work..

It is

 

 

Good to see some decent convo's as well. 

yes

i'm dizzy! am just putting it out there that the former pm and his wife are not above the same subterfuge that the papers are accused of. i'm an outsider looking in for the most part and my detachment and lack of prime loyalty to this nation makes me question the agendas of all involved, even the apparent victims. brown could have and should have shouted shenanigans way before this all came to light. just saying.

Since he was ensconced in government at the time and (mistakenly) gave credence to the notion that the tabloids have any real power in the electoral decision-making prowess of the Great British Public I should have thought the motivation for remaining taciturn was not too difficulty to work out. 

it wasn't too difficulty {sic} but it coulda helped when the chips were down. they all feed off each other and now we're all seeing them eat themselves. who you want to believe and trust is up to you individually. like i said, i'm just cooking on a back burner.

Oh, I definitely agree with you there, and to be fair Brown's (sort-of) acknowledging that. His official excuse is (as I understand it) that it's another example of the power Murdoch wields with everyone running scared of him - even the Chancellor. It's certainly plausible, if not exactly letting Brown off the hook. Make of it what you will...

 

However, I just can't see Brown deliberately making false claims agains The Sun: the risks of getting caught out would be just too great, and it's simply not Brown's style. Similarly, I can't see The Sun bothering to concoct a false defence (with again the risk of being caught-out) while the truth was actually more damaging to Brown...

eugene, you make a valid case. all of what you say is plausible and probable. all i'm saying is that all of them (lets call them the establishment for shorthand's sake) are busy building up cases and protecting their interests. all of them are in this to their necks and this is where public relations gurus rule the day. it would be lovely to be married to one like sarah macauley-brown who knows the lay of the land. 

 

Neil Wallis, former exec editor , arrested this morning .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi...ce-mps-phone-hacking

Oh dear, the US have got the hump now, too. Poor Murdy, couldn't have happened to a nicer fella

 

 

 

 

 

Full story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...ews-Corporation.html

 

Good good! Australia's talking about reviewing the press/ government relationship too..

Just been reported that Ex NotW dep ed Neil Wallis was hired by Scot Yard Comm last year as consultant. Paid £24,000.

 

 

Afternoon Meat n Veg...now what was all that about over the road last night? Someone having a pop at you cos 'you English'?

And 24k's not worth getting out of bed for, especially if you're doing stuff you could end up in jail over

Don't remind me... some bloody Corinthians fan from Brazil If you follow my twitter I often swear about football matters. I will soon need a swear box

I nearly did a RT

Per the BBC Radio news - Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch have now agreed to attend the Department for Culture Media and Sport committee hearing next Tuesday, along with Rebekah Brooks.

 

The hearing is due to start at 2.30 and is likely to be on the BBC News channel.

Copied from the Grauniad .. 

 

Dear Mr Whittingdale,

I refer to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's request that my father and I attend the oral session on Tuesday 19 July at 2.30pm.

I am writing to confirm our attendance. I would like however to draw your attention to a few issues.

I hope that it is clear that we are committed to ensuring that the issues that have affected the News of World are fully investigated and dealt with appropriately and robustly.

To that end we have committed to full co-operation with the police inquiries that are under way and with the public inquiry to be led by Lord Justice Leveson that will begin its work shortly.

We, of course, also wish to co-operate fully with your Committee's consideration of these matters.

In the course of the investigations and inquiries now envisaged, all the relevant issues will undoubtedly be fully and effectively reviewed and, no doubt, many questions will be asked.

I am, however, very much concerned that we are now being asked to answer yet further questions in a different forum.

We have been advised that, in light of the fact that there are to be multiple reviews of the issues, this does carry the risk of prejudicing other judicial proceedings and in particular the ongoing police investigation and any potential subsequent prosecutions.

I would therefore respectfully ask you to take the utmost care in ensuring that the committee hearing does not run any risk of prejudicing that investigation and subsequent prosecutions.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

James Murdoch

 

Cue lots of " Can't answer that question here" responses.. 

ohh, bloomineck! 

Neil Wallis, the former News of the World executive editor who was arrested today in the phone hacking inquiry, was employed to advise Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police and senior officer John Yates from October 2009 to September 2010 

Paul O'Grady is the latest celebrity to discover that his phone was hacked by the News of the World.

The presenter, who hosts a Friday night chatshow on ITV1, revealed that the newspaper accessed his phone after he suffered a heart attack.

"The f**king b**tards hacked into my phone as I was dying of a heart attack. The cheek!" he told the Daily Star.

"They only needed to ask. I'm the gobbiest sh**e this side of London. It's the laziness that gets me. I'll sue if they have. They can pay for my new car, I tell you. Rotten, the lot of them."

He continued: "That poor Abi Titmuss. She's a lovely girl. Why would they do that to her? The list of people who've been hacked will grow and grow."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...-3849737525.html?x=0

 

That would be hilarious if it wasn't so predictable...

 

Only a few days ago - just after Louise Mensch made accusations in Parliament against Piers Moron - Trinity Mirror came out with the statement: "Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."

 

At the time, Mensch picked up on the fact that the statement is carefully worded in the present tense: i.e. they're not actually saying that they always worked within the criminal law in the past.

However, it now looks as if things are even worse than that at the Mirror: why would they need to "review their procedures" if they were already confident of the good behaviour of their journalists?

ahhfergoodnessakes! 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...siberia-2327277.html

BBC has just reported that Sara Payne's mother has been told by the police that her name was included in notes compiled by private detective Glenn Mulcaire and that her phone may have been hacked.

Christopher Hope (Daily Telegraph Whitehall editor) has tweeted there is worse to come out in the next few minutes, apparently re the Daily Mirror)

 

http://twitter.com/#!/christopherhope

Is it just me or are others cynical about Glen Mulcaire suddenly stating that he did not act alone  very shortly after the Murdoch empire stated they would be no longer be paying his legal fees.

No surprise: indeed it was predicted by quite a few at the time.

After all, there were very good reasons why NI had continued to pay his legal fees in the first place...

Clive Goodmans letter.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi...letter-phone-hacking