Alex Massie Alex Massie

Groundhog Day at Leveson: Dog Still Bites Man

One thing to be kept in mind as we consider the extent of the government’s links to News International is that it helps explain why neither the Telegraph nor Mail groups are wholly in favour of David Cameron and his ministry. It is, I think, fairly clear that the Conservative leadership was happy to accede to Rupert Murdoch’s attempts to purchase the shares in BSkyB that he did not already own.

Following today’s revelations at the Leveson Inquiry, Jeremy Hunt’s jacket now rests upon a super-shoogly peg. Several bookmakers have ceased taking bets on the Culture Secretary being the next minister to leave the cabinet. Even allowing for politicians’ willingness to tell their audience what they wish to hear, Hunt appears, on the basis of the evidence given today, to have had a rather closer relationship with News Corp than might, all things being taken into account, be considered ideal in the present circumstances. As Pete suggests, shares in Prime Minister Hunt are going cheap today. He’s on his own now.

Not that Hunt was the only politician embarrassed today. Alex Salmond’s chummy relationship with the Murdochs cropped up again. According to News Corp, the Frist Minister was happy to make representations to Hunt backing Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB. James Murdoch suggested it was silly to suppose there could be any connection between Mr Salmond’s views on this matter and the Scottish Sun’s views on Alex Salmond. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the coincidence that the Sun decided to back the SNP as this other matter was rumgling around the government mixer. And, of course, Mr Salmond wrote an article for the debut edition of the Sun on Sunday.

We may expect Labour and the other opposition parties to make as much of this as they can.

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