I’m not on twitter, please tell me that this is generating a far far bigger storm than Johann Hari’s small potatoes in comparison infraction. T’otherwise I’m just going to have to assume that the majority of twitter users are sanctimonious cunts not worthy of wasting time or effort on.

“I’m just going to have to assume that the majority of twitter users are sanctimonious cunts not worthy of wasting time or effort on.”

That’s the case regardless of whether the first point is true or not.

The right-wing yah-boo chorus have been very quiet on this so far. I heartily look forward to their first defence of the Murdoch press’s systematic grave-robbing. C’mon guys, let’s have your gems. A non-sequitir about Tony Blair’s vile pandering to Murdoch perhaps? Maybe a humorous aside about Johann Hari’s lax attitude to quotes in interviews? Come one come all to defend wholesale organised law-breaking and pissing on the families of the bereaved by Cameron’s (recent) head of communications and (current) Christmas sleep-over pal! Cjcjcjjjj and So Much For Sense – your magnate needs you! A £5 prize for your first delightful and considered contribution.

Never mind, let’s have an inquiry.

“The right-wing yah-boo chorus have been very quiet on this so far.”

Evidently you have not been over to Guido’s recently.

We should never lose sight of the fact that this guy was not just hacking phones for ‘a Newspaper’, he was hacking phones for the Newspaper group that can, and often does make or break political careers.

That is why there have not been investigations by the police into this. No one dare stand up to Murdoch and his bully boys. Blair needed the support of Murdoch, Brown finally lost it, Cameron got in on the nod and Cable was tossed out on his ear for having the temerity to suggest that Murdoch owning everything was perhaps not the best method of ensuring a free democracy! Remember, the police were all to eager to spot any amount of crimes committed by peaceful protesters, but cannot spot a systematic attack on people’s phones? Yeah, right. This git was working with implied impunity because he was working for Murdoch. Cameron employed a downright scumbag as a press officer because he was a scumbag and not about digging out dirt on the opposition.

You cannot be an effective government in this Country without the direct say-so of Murdoch. I wish it were not so, but look around you.

sick bastards…you think they can’t sink any lower, but man, do they keep trying.

@5 I did look at Guido’s on this. two very small articles offering very little insight – except for the book-maker’s view on Wade surviving, plus an article mocking the guy’s family (who in fairness I have very little symaphy for.

Its hardly a passionate decrying of the situation.

The comments are even more insightful – there are people in there registering anger at the revelations. But they are drowned out somewhat by a mad bunch becrying this as a leftie conspiracy to attack Murdock, and even a whole stream of comments about how the previous government should have done more to prevent EU migration to Britain!

We should never lose sight of the fact that this guy was not just hacking phones for ‘a Newspaper’, he was hacking phones for the Newspaper group that can, and often does make or break political careers.

He was, in fact, hacking phones (among many other nefarious things) for virtually every newspaper on Fleet Street. The idea that this is limited to the NOTW is fantasticaly naive. Note, for instance, how the Mirror is covering this story (hint: hardly at all), and then consider why that is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/31/press-privacy-information-commmissioner

Tim J – the editor of the Mirror during the period in question fucked up and, quite rightly, lost his job as a result.

10 – over phone hacking? I thought that was over fake photos? The editor of the NOTW over that time certainly resigned over it.

Someone (ironically, I think it’s the leader in the Times today) describes this as the journalists’ equivalent of the MPs’ expenses scandal: something that everyone on the inside knew was going on suddenly getting out to a wider public that didn’t know. That sounds about right, and it’ll need a properly Augean clean-up job.

Mr Blair will not be happy his mate is back in the news.

Arthur Seaton @ 3

Why would the few right wing/conservative commenters here want to defend Labour-luvvie Rebekah Brooks?
As Rebekah Wade she and her husband Ross Kemp were always on the top table at Labour events/party conferences with her chums Ali Campbell and Tony Blair. When she married Charlie Brooks, Gordon Brown was guest of honour.

Sorry chum, she’s one of your lot, not ‘one of us’.

@13 Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – left wing? If ure standing on the far-right side of the political spectrum maybe.

Well done Flowerpower! A first class example!

Hmmmm….Or is it…? Brooks keeps in with the party in power of course, but she is a well-known, fully-fledged Conservative through and through. Gordon Brown may have been at her wedding, but she never had sleep-overs at his house!
She is such good pals with Cameron that she stayed at his house over the Christmas period. The No 10 office actually refuse to acknowledge whether it was Boxing Day or not for fear of how pallsy that looks! She indeed, is a regular visitor Chez Cameron. As for Coulson…..er, I don’t really need to continue with this do I?

“One of your lot”….that’s actually really, really poor Flowerpower. Risible. You’re going to have to do a whole lot better to that. Christ, you make Brooks and Coulson themselves sound convincing. Try again.

@ 13 Flowerpower

“Sorry chum, she’s one of your lot, not ‘one of us’.”

Right, we lefties can count among us pretty much ANY editor of the News of the World, a paper known for such left-wing tendencies as pushing conservative dogma and supporting only the Tories or the most right-wing version of Labour in history.

Jesus, Flowerpower, engage your brain. Pretending a major right-wing figure is left-wing, merely because you feel a desperate urge to protect the right from any criticism whatsoever, is utterly pathetic. If you’re that ashamed of right-wingers, the sensible response is either to review your beliefs or to realise that the actions of other right-wingers don’t reflect on you. Your attempt to just edit the embarrassing ones out of existence is laughable.

So Cameron has conceded an inquiry. Is Lord Hutton available?

Meanwhile NI are busily lining up scapegoats and hoping their latest batch of lies will be enough.

We really do have to keep the pressure up on this one. Normally I think the Guardian are wishy-washy metropolitan tossers, but this is a blinder of the scale of the Telegraph’s expenses scandal. Let’s hope it grows in the same way.

She is such good pals with Cameron that she stayed at his house over the Christmas period.

She’s married to one of Cameron’s best friends from school I believe. There’s not much more to it than that.

Arthur Seaton @ 15 Chaise Guevara @ 16

I’m sorry, but the facts are against you. The Sun supported the Labour Party for 13 out of the past 15 years.

As for Chaise’s description of Rebekah Wade/Brooks as a ‘major right-wing figure”…… the woman used to host Labour receptions FFS, she attended the party’s anniversary bashes, she used to get public hugs from Cherie Blair…… here’s a selection of press observations

{Wade} and Kemp are long-standing Labour supporters. Nick Higham BBC

Both her and Kemp are New Labour supporters and he is thought to harbour a desire to be a Labour MP. Media Week

The editor of The Sun at the time, Rebekah Wade – now Brooks – is currently the chief executive of News International and a personal friend of Mr {David} Blunkett. The pair dined together on the evening after Mr Blunkett resigned from the Cabinet for the second time, in 2005, following claims about his ties to a bio-science company. After his second resignation, Mr Blunkett became a columnist for The Sun. Independent

Charles Clarke, the burly former home secretary …..managed to sandwich himself between Mrs Blair and Sun editor Rebekah Wade for a double-kissing and hugging threesome.. Scotsman

@19 The Sun and NotW and The Times all support only one single master. Rupert. If labour is in power and doing things that the digger likes, then they will have his support. If labour is in power, doing things he likes, but looks likely to be out on their arse in a year or two then they won’t have his support. Simple. The same goes for the Tories, though since the Tories policies will always favour the digger’s interests to a greater degree than labour’s, support for the Tories is pretty much the default position, unless labour look like winning big, then he’s a labour man again.
To claim that his minions therefore are Leftys on this basis is frankly risibly absurd.

Murdoch opportunistically supported New Labour as he liked to back winners Flowerpower. As soon as he could safely slope back to the Tories, him and his sleaze-bag right-wing editors did so, Brookes included. Are you seriously claiming that Murdoch himself is left-wing? Are you that divorced from reality? Your attempt to claim that Brookes is some kind of leftist is either surreally bizarre or pathetic, depending on how generous one is feeling.

Come on now Flowerpower, now you’re on a roll, let’s do your best to convince us of the left-wing credentials of Andy Coulson. Did he perhaps once shake hands with Gordon Brown?

Meanwhile back in reality, we have a PM whose closest associate was a career criminal, a man who he repeatedly defended. Is Cameron corrupt himself, or merely incompetent?

By the way, Boris has come out in support of the News of the World.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/15/boris-johnson-news-of-the-world-phone-hacking-codswallop

Deary me, I think this is a “loveable” bumbling “eccentricity” too far for Mr Johnson. People really, really hate the shit that Murdoch, Brooks and Coulson have got up to. Cameron has cottoned on to this, too late. Boris hasn’t cottoned on at all. I think this is known as a “tipping point.”

@21 Arthur Seaton

Are you seriously claiming that Murdoch himself is left-wing?

No. of course not.

But that’s about as relevant to the question of whether Ms Wade is/was as whether your boss shares your politics.

Murdoch employs plenty of Labour supporters…… even the odd ex-commie like Aaronovitch .

Is anyone interested in this?

Here is the front page of the News of the World:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/public/home/

The three leading articles – after the t & b intro – are by our three heroes, Messrs Murdoch, Wade and Myler. They have a common theme. They address their own staff and not their readers. Why do you think that might be? Have you ever seen the like before?

Boris has come out in support of the News of the World.

I think you might need to check the date on that breaking news story.

Conservative-leaning commentator Peter Oborne sees this for what it is.

“David Cameron, who has returned from Afghanistan as a profoundly damaged figure, now faces exactly such a crisis. The series of disgusting revelations concerning his friends and associates from Rupert Murdoch’s News International has permanently and irrevocably damaged his reputation.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100095686/david-cameron-is-in-the-sewer-because-of-his-news-international-friends/

@ Flowerpower

“I’m sorry, but the facts are against you. ”

Um, no. It’s just that you can’t tell the difference between “the left” and New Labour. Or understand why a paper might back its second-favourite party when its favourite party was on the skids.

But go on, do tell us why known leftie Brooks ran a paper dedicated to pushing right-wing propaganda. I’m sure there’s a rational explanation…

Dead soldiers, dead civilans, murder victims. All viable targets if you work for Murdoch, because profit is the top priority. It does’nt matter who you hurt, how you hurt them, the profit margin must be considered above all else. He wants control of Sky T.V. for reasons other than profit, to help his pet politician, Cameron, maintain his grip on the country. But in order to take control, he needs a constant flow of money, provided by his newspaper sales. A boycott of all his media interests, both here and abroad, is what needs to happen. Sunny, any chance you could push this issue across the WWW? Murdoch will want revenge on all those who, in his eyes, have betrayed him. Brooks, Coulson, Mulchaire, they are destined to burn, with the old bastard pouring on the petrol, sacrifices to keep the masses happy. MURDOCH MUST NOT BE LET OFF THE HOOK! There needs to be a bonfire, with him right at the top, the flames fuelled by copies of all his newspapers. Should look really good in HD. Oh, that’s the other thing, I hope Sky do’nt get burned because of this, the vile old twat does own a big chunk, but he does’nt control the company outright. Who knows, maybe this situation could, hopefully, force him out of the UK media altogether.