Rejoice, rejoice rejoice!

I doubt the CIA wacks people outside Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. At least not in the UK. The political fallout if they got caught would be so terrible and extremely embarrasing that they'd much rather admit to lying.

:offtopic:

Oi! One government scandal at a time please! :p
 
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Piersmorgan v ExNOTWjourno2
I've never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone.

Piersmorgan v Louise Mensch
Ms Mensch said she couldn't repeat allegations because she wouldn't have parliamentary privilege to protect her. Laughable and cowardly.
Just went toe-to-toe with Louise Mensch on @wolfblitzercnn - I called her a liar, and she refused to repeat the allegations....


Piers Morgan Scolds MP Who Cited Him During Murdoch Hearing: ?Show Some Balls!?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/piers-mo...m-out-during-murdoch-hearing-show-some-balls/


simpsonssmithersburns.gif
 
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I have to say I have no real opinion on Piers Morgan. Douchebag or not?
 
Man, showdown between Cameron and Milliband in the Commons. Funny.
 
Piers Morgan would, I suspect, be an extreme Red Top Newspaper editor.

Well only two MPs seemed to have got their shit together yesterday - pathetic but about right - 20% of MPs deserve the honour of representing the constituents the rest are Duck House / Moat fix fodder I am afraid.
 
Yeah. There are some right now doing quite a good job. Mensch and Watson doing their job. And I have to say that Milliband shines. Cameron appears stressed, grumpy and angry.

You'd think it was Cameron who worked with Gordon Brown.

Edit: Did Cameron just reply to a middle aged MP by saying "I think the old lady is right"?
 
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Labour are being a bunch of little whiny babies just looking to score points.
 
If he were referring to an MP he would always say, The honourable Member, or The Honourable Member for <Insert constituency here>.

One of the good things about our democracy is PM questions IMHO. Something others could well copy.
 
Yes, I'm aware the custom is to direct a reply to "my honorable opononent/the honorable member", however, it didn't sound like that.

Labour are doing what they can to cash in on this. What the bloody hell were you expecting? If this complete meltdown had happened during Browns government, Cameron would do exactly the same.
 
abour are doing what they can to cash in on this. What the bloody hell were you expecting? If this complete meltdown had happened during Browns government, Cameron would do exactly the same.

I was expecting them to at least try to look like they are asking relevant questions. Prime Ministers Questions is the time and place for petty political points scoring, not this.

Milliband sounded like an idiot reading that speech verbatim, ignoring what had been said right before him.
 
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I was expecting it actually. Milliband had been shit so far until this scandle then he seems to have shined, caught the mood and pushed hard. Cameron has been playing catch up, badly IMHO.

There are rumblings in the 1922 committee. He had better watch out. That Coulson debacle, really what an upper class twit.

 
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Any Tory leadership has to respect the power of the 22-committee. No doubt there.
 
Interesting debate, now winding down.

Ed Milliband is getting really irritating by constantly bring up Coulson. He is not the story or even all that interesting. (He may well be one of many people who may end up in jail.) The issues are media and Police malpractice and lawbreaking. Plus a huge apparent coverup by the Murdochs.

* * *

Also mentioned today, was that the then Labour Attorney General in 2005/06 was responsible for the "downsized" scoping of the original Police inquiry. (Mulcair had at least 3500 phone hack victims, but only phone hacking of the Royal family and staff in the Royal household were to be investigated.)

If this is so, then it is not the Police who are responsible for things going wrong at the start of all this mess. It was "Teflon Tony" and his chief Law guy.

* * *

Parliament is now in recess for six weeks, so a lot of the political noise will cease on the story.

The two Leveson Public Inquiries will be somewhat constrained by the two Police investigations and any subsequent prosecutions. The Police investigations may take years and the scope of the Leveson Inquiries are huge will take years themselves. This is a shame but inevitable given the numbers, size and complexity of all the investigations involved.
("We are gonna need a bigger Boat Thread.")

* * *

Members of the Leveson Inquiry Panel announced today.

* Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty
* George Jones, former Daily Telegraph political editor
* Sir David Bell, former chairman of the Financial Times
* Elinor Goodman, former Channel 4 political editor
* Lord David Currie, former chairman of Ofcom
* Sir Paul Scott-Lee, former West Midlands chief constable

BBC News - Cameron widens remit of Leveson probe

Any Tory leadership has to respect the power of the 22-committee. No doubt there.

Absolutely, the Tories have always been rather ruthless at riding themselves of leader when things look like they may loose the next election. The best example was that Maggie Thatcher got booted out since the backbench committee "the 1922" didn't like their chances in the forthcomming election.
 
Interesting debate, now winding down.

Ed Milliband is getting really irritating by constantly bring up Coulson. He is not the story or even all that interesting. (He may well be one of many people who may end up in jail.) The issues are media and Police malpractice and lawbreaking. Plus a huge apparent coverup by the Murdochs.
The thing is, Coulson is still interesting. What impact did it have on the police that the guy they might have to investigate worked for the most powerful man in the UK (I'm talking about the Queen's First Minister, not Rupert)? You don't have to spell it out, people will take a hint. So yeah, I still think it's an issue. But not as much as it was earlier.

Absolutely, the Tories have always been rather ruthless at riding themselves of leader when things look like they may loose the next election. The best example was that Maggie Thatcher got booted out since the backbench committee "the 1922" didn't like their chances in the forthcomming election.
That, and they didn't like her. The 1922 committee has brought down a few great tories over the years, beginning with Lloyd George, and if I'm not mistaken they brought down (or played a large part in doing so) both Baldwin and Chamberlain. And Maggie wouldn't have won the leadership if she didn't have their support.

The 22's are hugely powerful within the Tory party.
 
True about Coulson, it is not the "what" that Milliband is doing but the "why". Scoring cheap political points is all part of the game I suppose, but there are more serious matters to address here. I find this irritating and makes him look like a small minded tit.

* * *

Breaking News:
NewsCorp has wiaved the confidentially clause with the law firm Harbottle & Lewis. They had possesion of "hundreds of emails and internal NewsInt documents" since 2007, which they would not realease to the CMS Committee or the Operation Weeting & Elveden Police investigation.These are believed to be the "who knew what and when" and "where the bodies are buried" documents.

There must be many former and current NewsCorp journalists & Executives, police officers and private detectives, plus maybe others who will now be getting very worried waiting for the knock on the door from the cops.


Also, NewsCorp is no longer paying for Glenn Mulcair's ongoing legal costs and thus trying to keep him quiet about the scale of the NewsCorp mess.

Looks like Rupert has gone into "Ah, Fuck It" mode, let it all come out.

* * *

Re 1922: Did you mean Neville Chamberlain? I thought it was a well known "Austrian Corporal*" plus his own ineptness that did for him.

* Avoids Goodwining the Thread.
 
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It was said Austrian NCO who caused the fall of Baldwin as well. His policies towards certain nations in the perimiter of eastern and western Europe contributed heavily to the backbenchers loosing faith in him. Chamberlains fall comes in several parts, said NCO played his part, but he was also arrogant. I think both Labour and the 1922s supported getting rid of Chamberlain. But the 1922s probably wanted Lord Halifax. Just as well you got Winnie.
 
It was said Austrian NCO who caused the fall of Baldwin as well. His policies towards certain nations in the perimiter of eastern and western Europe contributed heavily to the backbenchers loosing faith in him. Chamberlains fall comes in several parts, said NCO played his part, but he was also arrogant. I think both Labour and the 1922s supported getting rid of Chamberlain. But the 1922s probably wanted Lord Halifax. Just as well you got Winnie.

Didn't know about Baldwin, but I think you are right about Lord Halifax. Few people in the Tories wanted Churchill, perhaps Eden and some others.

Halifax, as an upper class twit, had a seat in the Upper House of Lords. Tricky to do weekly PMQs from there, if they did them back then. That was the famous question the Neville asked Churchill.
NC : "..Winston, do you think a Prime Minister can operate from a seat in the House of Lords?"

WC:" ................................... " (No answer. :lol:)

* * *

Further to the Harbottle & Lewis news reported previously.

NewCorp's condifentiality waiver has strings! :sad:

Not absolutely clear what they are yet, but they can definitely appear before the CMS & HAC Committees, plus answer Police questioning.
 
Halifax, at least, believed that the Prime Minister in a war government had to be from the Commons, not the Lords. It's telling that Alec Douglas-Home was the last Prime Minister with a seat in the Lords, but even more telling is that the last Prime Minister not from the Commons before him was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who was Prime Minister between 1895 and 1902..
 
Harbottle & Lewis: The stories are being written now, but no more detail as yet.

The Telegraph - News International lifts gagging order imposed on its lawyers

The Telegraph said:
In the latest development in the phone hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch?s company agreed to release details of its dealings with Harbottle & Lewis, the lawyers who for four years held company emails containing details of wrongdoing at the Sunday tabloid. Documents held by Harbottle & Lewis, who act for the Royal family, have been described as the ?smoking gun? that could prove that senior figures in Mr Murdoch?s empire were aware of hacking but tried to cover it up.

Despite protests from MPs and pressure from the law firm, News International had refused to release Harbottle & Lewis from legal obligations of confidentiality, meaning that the lawyers could not co-operate fully with police and parliamentary inquiries.

Last night the company relented and said it would allow the lawyers to disclose at least some of the information they hold to detectives and MPs. While the move could help to solve the mystery of the company?s response to the scandal, it remained unclear how much information would be disclosed, and whether it would be put in the public domain.


more via link

BBC News - Why NewsCorp didn't let Harbottle talk
BBC News said:
UPDATE 19.31

That was a quick change of heart.

News Corp's Management and Standards Committee has now decided to allow Harbottle to inform relevant parliamentary committees and the police what the solicitors were hired to do.

I am unclear how soon this fascinating information will be put in the public domain.


more via link

I am not that bothered yet on the PUBLIC domain, I want the cops and the Parliamentary Committees to get hold of the documents.

* * *

Halifax, at least, believed that the Prime Minister in a war government had to be from the Commons, not the Lords. It's telling that Alec Douglas-Home was the last Prime Minister with a seat in the Lords, but even more telling is that the last Prime Minister not from the Commons before him was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who was Prime Minister between 1895 and 1902..


I thought I had remembered something about Alec Douglas-Home, that he had given up his peerage to be PM.
Got confused with Tony Benn (never PM) who was the one who gave up a peerage and he did too! (Anyway, checked with Wiki.)

Maybe we should have a Political History Thread. :think:
 
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