No change on the Coulson front

logdon

I noticed that Brillo devoted around half of his programme on the froth. Some axe to grind perchance?

Selina Scott, ramping up the hysterical angst was almost too much to bear.

Meanwhile soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, seven this week alone, with far less political outrage.

Nice to see how Labour and it's caring, sharing aparatchiks at the Grauniad ans El-Beeb get their priorities right.

RW

1)If as you say neither the Guardian nor any other outlet has anything to further implicate Andy Coulson, why is he obliged to answer tendentious politically motivated questions from the Guardian, or any other newspaper, about events which are now years old?

2) These constant references to "telephone hacking" are becoming absurd. If you phone someone and get their voicemail, and then type "1234" which is the default PIN in such cases, how can this be equated with a sophisticated hacking operation? I'm not even sure it's illegal - dirty tricks perhaps, but is there actually a law against it?

More fool the voicemail owner for being too lazy, technically illiterate or just plain stupid to change the number.

This is a hamfisted, hysterically overblown and hypocritical Labour Party smear operation which has fallen flat on its face.

strapworld

Mr Coulson has absolutely nothing to fear from the Select committee 'investigation'

I am sure he will stick rigidly to his evidence given before and not deviate in anyway whatsoever- whatever the provocation from Labour/Lib Dem MP's

A quiet approach spoken politely and with a smile or two will win the day.

I do hope the dreadful HUUME of the Lib Dems will suffer. I want Cameron to demand his resignation and to enquire from Brown and Clegg if it is now official Labour / Lib Dem policy that a man is Guilty before he is found innocent?

McBride pleaded GUILTY presumably to hide others from any implication of his disgraceful emails.

At least, although against the law, anything they got from bugging telephones would not have been made up!! The Labour Party condoned, for a time, wholly fictitous and disgraceful slurs on public figures.

No comparison at all.

lawrence greek

It's only been made political by the frothing Labour apparat. It's got absolutely nothing to do with Cameron or the Conservatives. Pathetic stuff from Labour, the Guardian and the BBC.

ID

It's wonderful watching this wishful thinking being mouthed in real-time. Try this though: News International have just been squeezed for a million quid. They rolled over because not rolling over would have been *even worse* for them. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other people who are equally well-placed to do the same thing to them. This process will end up in the courts, and sealed documents *won't* stay that way. Coulson will die a death of a thousand cuts, as his central involvement in all this is endlessly raked over. It's that or Rupert says, 'I did it', and that's not going to happen, is it? So Coulson's finished, and Dave's going to let him 'recontaminate' the brand, because nothing matters more than a mate. Selfish, stupid, and utterly predictable.

Peter Buss

Its all getting a bit farcical when the BBC keep trawling Max Clifford to wail about his phone allegedly being hacked.Am I really meant to feel sorry for a man who has built up his vast fortune partlyby selling dirt to the Press and in aid of the Labour Party. And can anybody tell me why the BBC think its somehow credible to keep calling in Prescott as a Star witness for the Prosecution - a man who thought it a good idea to punch a voter and spent some of his time as Deputy PM fornicating with a civil servant in his office during working hours.

Irene

When he is "interrogated" by the Select Committee on tuesday and when one of them surely says to him "as the man at the top you MUST have known" can/will he say - when you are at the top you DON'T always know what is going on, just like Brown didn't know about McBride - apparently.

Graham

Slightly puzzled, is the BBC or Guardian absolutely sure that some part of their organisation has never used private investigators say in the last ten years? If they are on the ball IN will know

occasional ranter

Anyone else see Prescott on Newsnight ? He tried to draw a parallel with McBride, but then idiotically said Coulson should go from his current job simply because disgraceful things happened "on his watch" in his previous job.

Ermmmm - surely Brown should go first, because McBride was doing disgraceful things "on his watch", in his current job ?

Gawain

This is in danger of becoming a bit of a yawn. A combination of a small number of self obsessed "celebrities" trying to protect their privacy and a Labour smear operation. There are already ominous statements from Labour MPs about "independent" regulation of the media. The last thing we need at the moment is a gagged press.

If the Culture, Media and Sports committe are going to investigate this I would like to see a much broader inquiry. If private investigators can tap a few celebrity phones with such ease, what are the organs of the state up to ? How prevalent is tapping and bugging ? Is any telephone communication in this country safe ?

If they are going to call Andy Coulson they should widen their investigation to look at the whole relationship between the political elite and the media elite. Is Coulson any worse than Alistair Campbell ? Why do our politicins need to hide behind "spin doctors" ?

There are important, wider and more interesting issues underlying this story but at present it just looks like a lot of sad politicians, "celebrities" and hacks picking the fluff out of their navels.

Vulture

Yates killed the story stone dead last night, despite the efforts of the Guardian/BBC axis of evil to flog their dead horse into life. It is not topping the agenda in the saloon bar of the Slug & Lettuce, so back to the drawing board for Lord Mandelslime's dept of dirty trix: this dog won't fight.. The silly season has clearly begun early this year

Paul

Sorry Mr Hoskins. This is completely Off Topic because this is such a non-story:

I noticed that one gibbering lunatic met another in Italy today. One called the other admirable, Gadafi remained reticent about Brown (this is who we didn't vote to represent us in things like this, folks).

I wonder if Obama will get the credit for Libya to come out of the cold (or whether the recognition will go to the Bush administration, which fairly made Gadafi poo his pants with demonstrations of hard power).

Nick France

Aargh, Robinson on BBC last night "The Tories certainly have some questions to answer". Like what, you stupid man? Infuriating.

Chris lancashire

Nice to see that Lord Mandy with the largest department in Whitehall and some of the most serious issues that the nation faces to deal with took time out to drip his own particular poison into the wound.

George Butterworth

Graham, the BBC News Intake Desk receives phone calls from people who illegally listen in to phone calls and police traffic. The BBC would no doubt claim that they do not solicit these calls but they certainly log them and arrange for payment to be made and so they are complicit.

rmh

This is such an own goal for the lefties.

Murdoch will now sanction a Sun for Cameron push, which will give him a good few points in the polls and then the booths on election day.

You do not go for Rupert unless you are doing it for the kill......

When will they learn....

patrickinken

The "second chance" line is a fair one. No spinner stays upright forever. But I can think of one who is on his third chance and still performing wonders.

Chuck Unsworth

Yep, don't mess with Rupert. He'll eat you. Do these 'politicians' seriously believe they can best him? Huhne better watch his back - as should the others.....

Prescott is fun though, isn't he? Almost incoherent. Mrs Malaprop in drag. Is English his second language or something?

Gareth

Maybe this is all because Rupert is about to back Cameron, and the government and guardian want to make it look like sour grapes, which is may be how the public see it.

mac

Ha! Now Peston's joined in. Orchestrated or what?
Go for it, Pravda, keep flaking out more of your own gallows rope!

mike

Lets be honest gang, who had even heard of Coulson before this week ? I thought so. Who here would like to see the NotW dragged before the courts ? You bet we would. Who here can remember one promise that David Cameron has made and broken ? No fibbin' now. Who here can remember any policy that Dave has promised to implement when he's elected ? Anyone ? Thought not.

JONNY

And then there was Jon Snow, wearing last night his pinko tie, chewing bitterly on his sour grapes.
The police rebuttal really sticks in his gullet, so it seems.
He's just acquired a taste for blood has decent Jon. Steaks bleu or saignant.
To make his point, he fields the two most reputable witnesses in the business - Prescott and Alistair Campbell.

Flemingcrag

Nevertheless this has been a very successful diversionary political "gossip" story that has got Brown and Balls off the front pages for habitually lying on the economy.
It also provided a smokescreen allowing other Cabinet members to wade in with more lies without creating unfavourable headlines namely, Harriet Harman's whopper that Labour are paying down the National debt and Alistair Darling's contemptuous assertion the Government are creating 250,000 new jobs per month.
Meanwhile the real news goes virtually unreported by lobby journalists who are too focused on the Labour/Guardian inspired Coulson smeargate. Things like;
The Government proposes no significant changes to a regulatory system which failed to notice the biggest financial meltdown in this Country's history.
A bank in which the Government is the majority shareholder has announced that big, big bonuses are back.
The Country's biggest mortgage lender has announced that they intend to restart giving out 125% mortgage loans.

logdon

If this is Fondlebum's McBride moment maybe Cameron is outwitting him?

Osborne's 'dripping pure poison' comment was undoubtedly true yet he was outflanked by not sufficiently covering the sight lines to his own arse.

Hopefully the learning curve has become a touch more vertical and Mandelson's connective circuit board between NoW bugging, Coulson and Cameron is well and truly knackered. Or just yet one more known ploy?

Then there’s the sheer hypocrisy of Labour talking of the sanctity of personal privacy?

How many times have they rolled out the 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear' mantra in defence of their own stasi state intrusion?

When a man can be prosecuted for leaving a small amount of personal junkmail in a public litter bin, what kind of a state are we living in?

Some slimy little jobsworth must have sifted through the malodorous contents of that bin, unfolded all the screwed up wrappers and paper to find the 'offenders' address, then gone through all the legal hoops to get a prosecution. How much did that prosecution cost the public? How many council ‘team members’ involved in this petty exercise?

The list rolls on to a bleak horizon. Chips on bins. Terror laws used against dog foulers and overzealous school catchment area cheats. CCTV on every street corner. The imprisonment of pension age council tax protesters. This is state intrusion on a grand scale. And they have the sheer gall to artificially ramp and resurrect this old guff?

Now all those ‘celebs’ are jumping on the bandwaggon. Sure they’ll court the Murdoch empire’s little helping hand when it suits and now, when it suits, multi million pound lawsuits are in the air. Saddos all.

Will this end up as a mighty battle of the titans? Our very own government taking on News International? Or will it die a quiet and unmourned death?

Whatever. The lines are now clearly drawn and Labour has lost a major cheerleader. In a contest between Trevor Kaverner and Michael White we all know who’ll win. Even the Guardian readers know it too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/09/cameron-statement-andy-coulson?commentpage=2

But why all the modding? Something disagreed with these stalwarts of open democracy?

TomTom

I think phone-hacking is a disgraceful practice

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 says it is not only "disgraceful" but is ILLEGAL.

Surely the Anti-Terrorism Police should be involved and the mobile phone companies should be filing civil actions against newspapers and specified journalists.

Surely if it were journalists having their phones intercepted we would be hearing endless repetition of demands for action

Oscar

Great minds are thinking alike on this site. Even the Today programme were sounding lukewarm on this story today, altho' they still managed to give it their top headline even tho' there was no news. The political class really is out of touch with the rest of the country. Nobody cares if some desperate journo thought it clever to listen in on Max Clifford's phone calls. Own goal for the Brownites.

TrevorsDen

yes mr occasional ranter, thats the point of the difference between Coulson and Brown (appart from the fact that its got nothing to do with his time with the conservatives)

Coulson acted honourably because the event happened on his watch (a bit like Carrington over the Falklands). Brown on the other hand would not recognise the word 'honourable' if it fell off the top of the Treasury building and hit him on the head.

ID

I'm loving this fawning over Murdoch: how wonderful it is to see that you nits really do like living in a country where an ex-Australian American is at perfect liberty to 'get you', whenever you cross him. And apparently by any means he feels like! You can quite see why he's felt able to back Labour for three general elections in a row. Still, no matter how much he can intimidate - with your slavering approval - the police, and the politicians who control, the courts are evidently proving a tougher nut to crack. So it's goodbyeee Andy, and good riddance - it's only a pity that you won't take Lupert down with you. Then again, we've seen one British press baron jailed, another would have been if he hadn't topped himsefl, so who knows?

Labouristaxing

I had this moderated from Grauniad's Comment Is'nt Free so I'll put it here to get it off my chest.

Brown, Mandy and Cambell made a big mistake in using Prescott as the primary/faux victim in this desperate stich up.

As soon as he pops up in the media we are reminded that New Labour foisted a grossly overrated, barely coherent, adulterous dullard as Deputy Prime Minister. Even when he stepped down from this non-post they allowed him to keep his grace and favour homes and perks.

Thus they continue rub salt into our wounds by rewarding failure and enobling those the public are horrified by. They make us further consider just how low they have brought our country and its institutions.

Harpic

In 2003, the offices of private eye Stephen Whittamore were raided by the commission, which found over 13,000 information requests in Operation Motorman. It managed to identify several thousand of those by which publication had requested them. The results are below
THE RESULTS OF OPERATION MOTORMAN

SOURCE: ICO
Trans Reporters
Daily Mail 952 58
Sunday People 802 50
Daily Mirror 681 45
Mail on Sunday 266 33
News of the World 228 23
Sunday Mirror 143 25
Best Magazine 134 20
Evening Standard 130 1
The Observer 103 4
Daily Sport 62 4
The People 37 19
Daily Express 36 7
Weekend Magazine
(Daily Mail) 30 4
Sunday Express 29 8
The Sun 24 4
Closer Magazine 22 5
Sunday Sport 15 1
Night and Day
(Mail on Sunday) 9 2
Sunday Business News 8 1
Daily Record 7 2
Saturday (Express) 7 1
Sunday Mirror
Magazine 6 1
Real Magazine 4 1
Woman’s Own 4 2
The Sunday Times 4 1
Daily Mirror
Magazine 3 2
Mail in Ireland 3 1
Daily Star 2 4
The Times 2 1
Marie Claire 2 1
Personal Magazine 1 1
Sunday World 1 1
TOTAL 3757 333

Makes you wonder the only Paper not listed is the Guardian. Wonder if they have been redacted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jul/09/information-commissioner

Prof. John locke

how much longer are UK licence payers going to put up the BBC being the communication wing of the Labour Party? Nick Robinson (BBC Political Editor) actually said on television last night, whilst reporting from outside he Conservative offices, "Sir Alex Ferguson will want to ask the Tories some questions" ..Excuse me but what does this story have to do with the Tories? Stand outside the Guardian offices, or even outside Metropolitan Police HQ, but the BBC in reporting this story is trying to malign a political party and is showing extreme bias in direct contravention of its charter..

John Law

MANDELSLIME I think.
Rather than focus on the deaths of brave British soldiers, directly attributable to the failure of succesive NuLav ministers to provide enough force protection and helicopters. We are debating a 3 year old non-story.

I hate Murdoch and his tabloid trash as much as any patriot, but really.

Pip

I always thought Andrew Neil was pretty sound but listening to him yesterday, suggesting that Coulson was no different to McBride was a real eye opener. Neil knows very well that McBride invented malicious lies to spread about the shadow cabinet and George Osborne's wife via Derek Draper and others. Remember the slurs put about by Campbell/New Labour about Dr. Kelly? Anyone who crossed New Labour suddenly developed serious flaws or weaknesses. There is no proof that Coulson was aware of the alleged phone tapping, it is all allegation and I agree with the comments above, anything "listened to" was presumably fact and not malicious invention.

strapworld

BREAKING NEWS.

He took Robinson's advice and asked the Tories!

Sir Alex Ferguson has just signed David Cameron as a new striker!

If Cameron cannot, now, end the Licence Tax and end the BBC's monopoly, I do not know who will!

Tony E

'Surely the Anti-Terrorism Police should be involved and the mobile phone companies should be filing civil actions against newspapers and specified journalists'.(TomTom)

And therein lies the rub. The police are not interested, the DPP wants to open up the case again (but he's a political appointee, remember cash for honours where the [police had evidence but the DPP sat on his hands).

They're not doing this because they would have no hope of wining any case, because there is no evidence. The police would have loved to get a high profile scalp when this first came out, if they could have linked Coulson to this legally, they would have done it already.

The Bellman

I hate to sound like Rory Sutherland, but it seems highly significant that the McBride story was breaking news that emerged from an independent blog - a de-centralised, new medium. This bit of old-school muck-raking was re-heating a three-year-old events and broke through the paleomedia of the dead tree press and the state broadcaster. Additionally, it concerned only second-rate media types and has virtually no relevance and even less interest to people outside medialand. The fact that not only is there no new evidence but there has been no traction in the country shows just how out of touch the Guardian and BBC have become, and how their editorial sense has again been trumped by their instinctive bias. It really does seem like the death spasm of old journalism.