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

[gabi]

lulz

Ross Hawkins Political correspondent, BBC News
tweets: (will anyone in Westminster ever text anyone again?)

 

[agricola]

"I declare victory, well done"

 

[butchersapron]

Wasn't Coulson gone by then?

When the Cable stuff came out on the day that news corp got its good news about europe Coulson was sticking his nose in - emailing Hunt in his then role as Director of Communications for Cameron - he resigned 4 weeks later.

 

[elbows]

When the Cable stuff came out on the day that news corp got its good news about europe Coulson was sticking his nose in - emailing Hunt in his then role as Director of Communications for Cameron - he resigned 4 weeks later.

Aha, think we are talking about different moments.

lol that Hunt thought it was ok to meet Coulson for drinks and his other SPAD had to advise him not to.

 

[Schmetterling]

Hunt better have a strong bladder. He is getting through an awful lot of water, isn't he?

 

[elbows]

lulz

Ahhh the practical lessons learnt from inquiries, remember 45 minute inquiry resulting in suggestions that the government would stop using email

 

[elbows]

Hunt better have a strong bladder. He is getting through an awful lot of water, isn't he?

Maybe he is using Camerons EU bargaining technique! (needing toilet helps focus the mind lol)

( http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2011/dec/12/david-cameron-full-bladder-technique )

 

[Wilf]

did Jay just pick his nose? Disappointed.

 

[gabi]

He picks it fairly regularly. Picks his teeth sometimes too.

 

[DaveCinzano]

did Jay just pick his nose? Disappointed.

It's just his way of indicating that he's here for the long haul - unpacking his trunk.

 

[Schmetterling]

Maybe he is using Camerons EU bargaining technique! (needing toilet helps focus the mind lol)

( http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2011/dec/12/david-cameron-full-bladder-technique )

That would be fantastic because that EU summit went well for him, didn't it?

 

[Wilf]

He picks it fairly regularly. Picks his teeth sometimes too.

Chavsilk

 

[gabi]

His strategy is very clear now then. Hang the child out to dry as far as possible.

 

[DaveCinzano]

QC not WC.

 

[Wilf]

QC not WC.

Snotchambers

 

[DaveCinzano]

Rumple of the Bogey

 

[Wilf]

Covonia QC

 

[elbows]

Think they may have lured Hunt into admitting that it was rather hard for him & his special advisor to fulfil a quasi-judicial role given their prior and subsequent relations with the parties concerned. Which leads us back to Cameron & Osbornes judgement.

 

[elbows]

We have a sort of irony here, lol Jay can say that again.

 

[Schmetterling]

He's has gone to hide behind a tree...

 

[DaveCinzano]

I think Hunt was secretly loving all the attention, but we couldn't see his wood for all the talk about trees.

 

[Wilf]

I think Hunt was secretly loving all the attention, but we couldn't see his wood for all the talk about trees.

cranking.

 

[elbows]

Doesn't sound like hunt is going, Number 10 aren't referring him.

I don't care too much, since it makes look Cameron etc look bad anyway.

 

[Wilf]

Doesn't sound like hunt is going, Number 10 aren't referring him.

I don't care too much, since it makes look Cameron etc look bad anyway.

I'm hardly one for pushing the 'he makes a mockery of Parliamentary democracy with his refusal to resign'. However he is pushing the concept of 'brazen' to breaking point. That timeline earlier should have done for anyone.

 

[elbows]

I think the problem they have is that the timeline is at its most damaging before he was appointed to the role, so its Cameron, Osborne etc that should take the most heat for errors at that stage, i.e. choosing to appoint him in the first place.

 

[elbows]

Can someone help me to understand the redaction rules? There is at least one Private Secretary whose name is redacted from Hunts evidence, and I was wondering why.

 

[elbows]

One email from Hunt in Jan 2011 says 'Brill thx, good to be a hate figure, Maggie would be proud of me!'

 

[stavros]

I think Hunt was secretly loving all the attention, but we couldn't see his wood for all the talk about trees.

He's probably thinking about those huge consultancy fees he'll get after having to leave the Commons after the next election.

 

[DaveCinzano]

No one posted up the 'I worked for Jeremy Hunt' piece from The Quietus yet?

...It was quite a shock when, at one of the interminable Monday Morning Meetings, we were informed that Jeremy Hunt would be standing as a Conservative MP. We were surprised, not only because we were amazed that anyone would vote for this affable lummox, but also that he'd never really displayed much in the way of political enthusiasm in the past. As a former colleague relates, "He once said to me during the fledgling stages of his political career, 'Well, both my parents are conservative so it's a pretty much a foregone conclusion I would be too'." The holy hand of patronage had plucked him out to replace Virginia Bottomley in the kind of safe Surrey seat that the Tories wouldn't even able to lose if their candidate was caught, pants down, discussing Uganda with the gardener...

...We of course followed Hunt's progress with interest. To his credit, he seemed to be doing some decent work on disability issues in various debates in the House. But his appointment as Shadow Culture Secretary could not help but raise eyebrows. This was a man who, whenever he tried to engage with you and discuss your interests in music, art, literature or film, would glaze over and stare at a point somewhere in the middle of your forehead. Hunt's interests seemed more to lie in Latin dancing, and especially Salsa, or in his fascination with China and Japan. In interviews, Hunt seemed like a lightweight, unsure of himself in front of the camera. You only have to tune in to the Leveson live stream to see just how inept Hunt is. This was one of the new Conservative Party of 'Dave' Cameron's great white hopes? When the phone hacking scandal began to break, it seemed more than likely that he would become unstuck. As today's revelations at Leveson of worried texts back and forth seems to show, this was a man who was keen to please everyone as he floundered around waiting for blessing from the big boy in the playground, George Osbourne...

...Those three years working alongside Hunt give me an idea of the kind of government we currently have, run by these former public school boys who have barged their way through life not through merit or ability, but by birth. You would not have picked out Jeremy Hunt as a brilliant intellect, a powerful speaker, a man with any convictions other than those he was born with. This is the impression one also gets from the rest of his colleagues in the Conservative party. It was bad enough having him as a boss – the fact that he and his chums are running the country is far, far worse...

 

[elbows]

No one posted up the 'I worked for Jeremy Hunt' piece from The Quietus yet?

Thanks for bringing that to attention. Oh dear.

Already reported in Popbitch (on the day of the 2010 general election) was an incident on September 11th 2001. Now, my memory - and the source for Popbitch, which wasn't me - tells me that it was Hunt who, when we were listening intently to the radio reports of planes smacking into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, came into the office to demand that we turned the volume down as it was affecting the sales team's telephone calls. Whether it was him or not, it speaks volumes about the management culture of the company.
This was not a one-off. For instance, I distinctly recall one presentation after a period of company expansion. All of us, old stagers and new recruits, were gathered together in front of a Powerpoint screen. On it were projected smiling photographs of various members of staff, the heads of sales, IT and so on. The company had recently outsourced much of the data entry work to a centre in India. Jeremy Hunt, smiling away in that peculiarly insincere, head-bobbing way that you've all seen on the news, was leading. We gasped in horror as our "new colleagues in India" were introduced: there glowed a slide that featured row after row of the same cartoon clip art Generic Brown Person, sat behind a computer.