Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail "hacked by News of the World"

[cointreauman]

If there's any evidence among the revelations that Cameron has lied about what he knew and when then he might be at risk, but for now all anyone can pin on him is an error of judgement that he himself has owned up to. It's politically damaging, but far from fatal as it stands.

Stephenson admitted error of judgement basically as his point of departure - time Cameron stopped hiding and packed his bags....

C

 

[Roadkill]

Stephenson admitted error of judgement basically as his point of departure - time Cameron stopped hiding and packed his bags....

C

I'd love to see it happen, but as things stand it isn't going to be soon...

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Cameron is a PR cockroach though, can't see him having any sense of shame.

 

[stethoscope]

Even Tory blogger Dale reckons it's not impossible that it could swallow Cameron too. Can't see it myself tbh, although I live in hope!

 

[gavman]

I didn't know you could be arrested by appointment. Is that only for posh/rich people?

i've been arrested by appointment. they tell you to come to a nick at such and such a time, say nothing about arrest, then they arrest you as soon as you get there. fairly standard, it's just that powerful people are used to setting the agenda so they make a fuss

 

[cybertect]

iannucci must be tearing his hair out - he must be on the 15th rewrite since last tuesday...

You're not wrong

Honestly, I try to have a quiet Sunday and a woman is arrested by a man who resigns after arresting her. I'm going back on the codeine.

 

[gavman]

The timing absolutely stinks, it suits the met (who are also under investigation) and Brooks to do this now instead of waiting until Wednesday, it just reeks of collusion between them to watch each others backs.

more than a bit whiffy, i agree

 

[cointreauman]

I'd love to see it happen, but as things stand it isn't going to be soon...

I know - it will need a smoking gun that shows he knew more than is being bandied around.... if a breach in that eggshell of virginity he portrays then there may be enough worry in the tory party to push him out - the party is bigger then the leader.

Either that or Clegg grows a pair of balls and breaks the coalition.....

C

 

[Spymaster]

Either that or Clegg grows a pair of balls and breaks the coalition.....

Yeah.

 

[equationgirl]

Bring back Spitting Image, I say.

 

[butchersapron]

Here's some crackers

July 13th, 2009, Guido Fawkes who has gone mental over this story - almost putting himself at the centre of it, offers the Guardian some sage advice

Guardian Get Over It

Hell, forlornly looking for Tory division, they have even roped in ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie for a piece. Seven articles today about Coulson not being destroyed by a Guardian scoop? Isn’t that overkill? The scoop, such as it was, really boils down to the payouts which happened long after Coulson’s tenure. It wasn’t news that voicemail hacking and worse happened on Coulson’s watch. That is after all why he resigned last time.

July 9th, 2009 - here he makes a very confident prediction:
“Coulson, Coulson, Coulson”

Coulson won’t be in any danger of having to resign unless evidence emerges linking him directly to phone hacking – and you can safely bet there won’t be a smoking gun memo or email. When Coulson won the Press Gazette Newspaper of the Year award in 2005 he said “The News of the World doesn’t pretend to do anything other than reveal big stories and titillate and entertain the public, while exposing crime and hypocrisy”. Guido suspects that the newspapers that will be wringing their hands over illegal hacking won’t include the Telegraph, Mirror or the Mail. Now that would be hypocritical…

To top that, he had a lucky escape when Coulsen failed to turn up for dinner with him on December 15th, 2009

And Tim Montgomerie, editor of Conservativehome, with some biting analysis on 12 July 2009

I do not wish to defend every action of the News International empire, but Rupert Murdoch has been an overwhelming force for good in this country's life and politics...Tory high command always expected that Coulson would face an onslaught at some point. His links with Murdoch and the phone hacking episode were too juicy for the Conservative party's enemies to resist. There will be some relief that the onslaught has come now and not closer to the election. There'll be even more relief that it has blown over so very quickly.

 

[shagnasty]

I wonder if Labour want cameron to resign,they would proablly prefer a wounded PM like major began

 

[Pickman's model]

like so much else in life, timing is everything

 

[Kippa]

Bring back Spitting Image, I say.

I strongly agree. Who is the best political comedian at the moment?

 

[Pickman's model]

I wonder if Labour want cameron to resign,they would proablly prefer a wounded PM like major began

i think most of us would quite like to see a wounded cameron, blood dripping from gaping holes and perhaps missing an extremity or three.

 

[Pickman's model]

I strongly agree. Who is the best political comedian at the moment?

ed miliband

 

[stethoscope]

I strongly agree. Who is the best political comedian at the moment?

Clegg. Total comedy.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

butchersapron - just thinking aloud here, as it were, but how much does/did Guido Fawkes/Paul Whatsiface really know about Coulson/Cameron/Phone Hacking links etc? If his (oft made) claims to contacts in "high places" are 100% true, I find it very, very hard to believe he was blissfully ignorant as to what was going on behind the scenes in all this...

 

[Pickman's model]

butchersapron - just thinking aloud here, as it were, but how much does/did Guido Fawkes/Paul Whatsiface really know about Coulson/Cameron/Phone Hacking links etc? If his (oft made) claims to contacts in "high places" are 100% true, I find it very, very hard to believe he was blissfully ignorant as to what was going on behind the scenes in all this...

just because someone knows something doesn't mean they're going to share it with the entire english-speaking world

 

[butchersapron]

butchersapron - just thinking aloud here, as it were, but how much does/did Guido Fawkes/Paul Whatsiface really know about Coulson/Cameron/Phone Hacking links etc? If his (oft made) claims to contacts in "high places" are 100% true, I find it very, very hard to believe he was blissfully ignorant as to what was going on behind the scenes in all this...

Well quite, he's been urging everyone to shoot each other whilst hinting at long having evidence of the crimes people have been up to - why didn't he say anything? Why didn't he go to the police? Does he think bullets won't hurt him?

 

[Pickman's model]

most like because it's all bollocks

 

[MellySingsDoom]

just because someone knows something doesn't mean they're going to share it with the entire english-speaking world

Well, that of course is true. My own take on it (which ain't gospel, of course) is that Guido (whose site I followed for quite a while during the G Brown years) would be very candid about his knowledge/links/contacts (and to give him his due, he did offhand help to do some damage to Brown's premiership c/o leaks etc) whilst Brown was PM....did he have a sudden attack of amnesia when Cameron took power (I mean, he must have heard a load of stuff from anti-Cameron Tories)?

 

[cybertect]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/...ecutive:-Americans-Phones-Were-Hacked?via=tag

Fmr. Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked

Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper has claimed that a special bunker, requiring security clearance for access was created at the company's headquarters to conduct “counterintelligence” including snooping on phone records:

“Has Roger Ailes been keeping tabs on your phone calls?”

That’s how Portfolio.com began a post back in 2008, when a former Fox News executive charged that Ailes had outfitted a highly secured “brain room” in Fox’s New York headquarters for “counterintelligence” and may have used it to hack into private phone records.


After helping chairman Roger Ailes create the Fox News channel in 1996, Cooper was fired for doing an anonymous interview with New York Magazine:

”I'm frightened right now,” said a former Fox employee, noting the vast array of powerful connections Ailes maintains throughout the political and media worlds. “I've been told that if Ailes figures out I talked to you, he'll hunt me down and kill me.”

 

[Lock&Light]

i think most of us would quite like to see a wounded cameron, blood dripping from gaping holes and perhaps missing an extremity or three.

I doubt "most of us". I'd be perfectly happy with a resignation.

 

[agricola]

butchersapron - just thinking aloud here, as it were, but how much does/did Guido Fawkes/Paul Whatsiface really know about Coulson/Cameron/Phone Hacking links etc? If his (oft made) claims to contacts in "high places" are 100% true, I find it very, very hard to believe he was blissfully ignorant as to what was going on behind the scenes in all this...

TBF its not as if this was a great trade secret - for the vast majority of Guido's posts on this you could learn exactly the same information from reading Flat Earth News.... though his older posts on the Hilton / Coulson conflict at CCHQ might suggest a reason why Hilton wouldnt necessarily forward on everything of what Rusbridger told him about Coulson to Cameron.

 

[DexterTCN]

If there's any evidence among the revelations that Cameron has lied about what he knew and when then he might be at risk, but for now all anyone can pin on him is an error of judgement that he himself has owned up to. It's politically damaging, but far from fatal as it stands.

Oh yes I agree, I wasn't implying anything immediate.

I'm just saying, none of the normal buffers are in place. The 'system' these people have been using of casual, private meetings, social occasions, mutual employment transfers and so on...has become a very sharp double-edged sword in these most interesting times.

Certainly the most interesting times for me, this is awesome. All my christmases at once.

I wonder if there'll be anything about the bankers.

 

[Tankus]

Camerons on a plane . apparently .. I feel a global statesman like visit coming on ........ straight out of the Blair brown dummies guide for political dummies ...when things turn to shit at home , pull a foreign visit

So if 8 hours Yates of the yard is now considered unsound ..does that mean his investigation into cash for peerages was also pants ? ..it should be reopened

 

[killer b]

he's been essentially absent for two weeks now. hoping to make it to recess without the focus turning fully onto him?

 

[ferrelhadley]

Camerons on a plane . apparently .. I feel a global statesman like visit coming on .

Hard to appear the stateman when the head of the met just resigned on a scandal your up to your neck in.


Easy to be seen as running away

 

[DexterTCN]

I don't think the recess is going to have much effect.

The plod resignation may be the police starting to take action to cover/protect/fix themselves (along the line of starting to get serious like motherfuckers inside and out). Probably not, most likely damage limitation but who knows. Stranger things have happened. Pipe dream.