The real problem is Rupert Murdoch, not Andy Coulson
It was revealed last night that Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, was told by a high court judge to name and shame those who gave him the order.
This is riveting stuff indeed, if – like me – you’ve been itching to know the level of complicity in News International’s upper echelons.
But as Coulson performs the seductive dance of denial, and as we eagerly speculate over whether he’s lying, I feel we miss the biggest issue of all: the one element of the whole saga that is resolutely undeniable..
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Exposed: Capita reveals it is “targeting” NHS Direct as an outsourcing project
The more attentive among you will remember this headline from August: Government confirms plan to scrap NHS Direct helpline.
The story incurred the wrath of Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham, who claimed that the move acted as, “more evidence that Andrew Lansley is on a vindictive mission to break up the NHS, ruthlessly dismantling services before alternatives are in place.”
John Prescott duly leapt into action and a petition with thousands of signatures and lots of public outrage followed.
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Should we believe Cameron’s friends?
In a moment of New Labour-bashing whimsy, Cameron seemed to justify the spending cuts by condemning the opposition’s original plan as ‘not good enough.’ To ratify his assertion, he quickly reeled off a list of organisations who apparently think the same: Bank of England, CBI, OECD, and the IMF.
I can’t help but feel that Cameron’s argument is nothing short of an extravaganza of disingenuousness, and the infuriation I felt as a result was only compounded by the fact that it went completely unchallenged.
So let’s do this.
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A challenge to Mumsnet
In recent years, the website Mumsnet has expanded its interests from travel systems to politics, and in doing so, have incurred fawning from both MPs and the media. During the election, Mumsetters were depicted as demi-Gods whose powers lay in deciding elections and winding.
Fair enough, you might say: political activism should be encouraged, right? Yes, it should. But my problem with Mumsnet is its lack of insight, which is sometimes so glaring that it borders on outright hypocrisy.
Take for example the site’s campaign page, which is currently promoting Mumsnetters’ attempts to ‘Let Girls Be Girls‘.
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Burning books is rarely just about the book, is it?
So, to Qur’an burning then. What the Dickens is that about, eh? Is it just a book?
Well no, it isn’t. I doubt Pastor Redneck would be satisfied if all paper copies of the Qur’an were destroyed but all e-books remained in tact.
Unless I’m sorely mistaken, his issue isn’t with some bound bits of paper you can pick up for £5.99 in Waterstones: it’s with ideas.
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Tales from A Journey
Well it looks like the media’s interest in Blair’s A Journey is finally winding down.
Journalists took a predictable tack on the memoirs: some defended Blair’s achievements, some pondered the issue of war crimes, and others took a salacious interest in the Brown vs. Blair revelations. But there was another side to the memoirs that caught my eye; a side that was barely reported at all, save a few fleeting allusions.
That side is best summed up by the Guardian’s Julian Glover, who casually observed, “There are at least three gushing sexual passages, more Mills and Boon than prime ministerial memoir.”
I’m sorry, what? Cherie is on the what, now?
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