All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I was going to write something about the 2000th test match but was distracted by Murdochpalooza. Happily this is not actually the 200th test. Or it should not be. The ICC, reliably mistaken as ever, have given test status to the (disappointing) 2005 match between Australia and the Rest of the World. The Bearded Wonder
As I wrote earlier this morning, rumours of a ‘common Franco-German position’ on Greek debt were circulating in the early hours. Details are now emerging. Nicolas Sarkozy has dropped plans to impose a 0.0025 per cent levy on Eurozone bank assets, which was opposed by Angela Merkel for being much too cumbersome. In return, it seems
“I’m very worried, this building [the Treasury] is very worried and this government is very worried,” said George Osborne of the unfolding crisis in the Eurozone. In an interview with the FT, the chancellor goes on to say that he is in constant contact with his continental counterparts and urges them once again to “get
Enda Kenny, Taoiseach, delivered an astonishing speech to the Dail yesterday during which he lambasted the Vatican in ways unprecedented in the history of the Irish Republic. It was, indeed, a republican speech of the best sort during which the Taoiseach asserted – reasserted would, alas, be too innacurate a way of putting it –
So I was on Bloggingheads yesterday talking about – what else? – Murdoch and his nefarious ways. Felix Salmon was excellent and lovely and more patient than he should probably have been. Anyway, there’s a whole hour of this stuff! If I look demented or spout nonsense I blame Rupert…
There’s a feeling in Conservative circles that they have finally turned the corner on phone hacking today after David Cameron’s marathon performance at the despatch box today. At the 1922 Committee this evening, Cameron entered and exited to the banging of desks. But, tellingly, there were no questions on phone hacking and Andy Coulson. Instead,
Yesterday’s appalling breach of House of Commons security has made the authorities furious – at the person who helped to bring the pictures to the world. He is Paul ‘Gobby’ Lambert, the BBC fixer who owns the voice you normally hear shouting questions at politicians as they prowl about Westminster. Gobby is known and loved by the best MPs, but
No Labour bounce, no drop in approval for Cameron or his government. That’s the impact that two weeks of front pages dominated by the phone hacking scandal on the opinion polls: Ed Miliband’s numbers have improved, which will come as some relief to the Labour leader who suffered a terrible month of polls in June.
Tom Watson fired a barb at David Cameron during the oral questions following the prime minister’s statement. He referred to a letter about allegations against Andy Coulson he had sent to Cameron on 4th October 2010. The letter had gone unanswered and Watson wanted to know why. After struggling to answer for a while, Cameron
While British papers have, naturally, focused on the eurozone’s slow-motion implosion— and, of course, a Westminster media story—America has been flirting with economic Armageddon. After months of phony negotiations over the government debt ceiling, the deadline is less than two weeks away. Without an agreement by August 2nd the US government will have to
The Guardian’s Comment is Free has given a platform to the self-styled comedian Jonnie Marbles, who attacked Rupert Murdoch with a plateful of shaving foam. He says he did it ‘for the people who couldn’t’, which is ironic given that he couldn’t either after, owing to Wendi Deng’s bejewelled fist. This has sparked a debate about whether it is
The questions following David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons have just finished. As Cameron answered 136 questions, it became increasingly clear that the immediate moment of political danger appears to have passed for the Prime Minister. By the end of the session, Cameron was even joking about inviting Mrs Bone to Chequers for
Cycling fans will recall the Festina Affair that crippled the 1998 version of the Tour de France. The discovery that the peloton could be considered a travelling pharmacy did not surprise veteran cycling aficionados, even if the extent and sophistication of the doping was enough to shock some. Entire teams withdrew from a race that,
Cameron statement
Away from the amateur dramatics in parliament this afternoon, the government is fighting yet another battle with the European Commission over banking reform. European leaders will vote later today on proposals to introduce the rubric of Basel III across European financial institutions. Led by EU Finance Commissioner Michel Barnier and ECB Vice-President Jean-Claude Trichet, these proposals
David Cameron is under pressure now that the phone hacking scandal has slithered its way closer to his door. The news that Neil Wallis informally advised Andy Coulson in the run up to last year’s election will spark questions about Cameron’s judgement and the competence of his leadership, as will the revelations about his chief
Rebekah Brooks’s appearance before the Culture Media and Sport Committee was largely uneventful. Most of the questions addressed her editorship of the News of the World, a period about which she cannot openly speak at present because of the criminal proceedings brought against her. However, Brooks was very keen to distance herself from David Cameron. Towards the
The news that Neil Wallis was informally advising Andy Coulson without the knowledge of any of the other senior figures in the Tory party is a reminder of just how dysfunctional the Tory party machine was pre-election. It is also an indication of the license that Coulson was afforded. The Tories cannot say if anyone
All hail, Wendi Deng. It took her a split second to attack the guy hurling a pie at Rupert Murdoch, slapping so hard that the sound was picked up by the cameras. According to the BBC’s Nick Robinson she then started shouting “I got him, I got him.” First tiger mums, now tiger wives. “Mr
Rebekah Brooks at CMS Committee
The major story of this session was the claim, made by Rupert Murdoch, that Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World, appointed James Chapman to investigate phone hacking and the two were in possession of an explosive document on the subject for years, which has since come to light. It was these
Given how roughly he was treated by the press it’s not a surprise that Neil Kinnock still thirsts for revenge against tormentors. On the other hand, his appearance on the Today programme this morning when he called for the free press to be suppressed or otherwise outlawed demonstrated that, actually, the press was right to
The Murdochs in parliament
Home Affairs Select Committee
Much rides on the appearance of the Murdochs today. Word is that James Murdoch’s role as chairman of BSkyB depends on his performance today reassuring the non-News Corp shareholders in the company. Bloomberg News, hardly a sensationalist outfit, is even reporting that —remarkably— Rupert Murdoch could be replaced as CEO of News Corp after today.
John McTernan has some good advice for MPs questioning the Murdochs and La Brooks this afternoon. The main thing is basically this: see those famous Congressional hearings in the United States? Yeah, don’t behave as Senators and Members of the House of Representatives are prone to do. It’s not about you, it’s about the answers.
It was a problem that would be fixed with a snap of the Commissioners’ manicured fingers, but now fresh euro-storms are louring in the near distance. As predicted over the weekend, the markets reacted to the European Banking Authority’s deeply flawed stress tests with fevered concern and a clear note of contempt. The FTSE shed
We expect and openly tolerate close, even cosy, relations between politicians and the media – each relies on the other for survival in a society that is less deferential and where politicians find it difficult to be heard, let alone trusted. The police need to tell their side of the story. But the police are
The public may not be much interested in the Murdoch Affair but the importance of an issue is not measured by the level of public interest in it. If it were and if the news channels only covered the things the public loves we’d be treated to exhaustive coverage of kittens in trees, car chases
Guido – or Harry Cole, actually – asks Where’s the Outrage? about Maurice Glasman’s declaration that all immigration to these fair islands should cease forthwith. Ed Miliband’s advisor or intellectual guru or whatever he’s termed these days believes immigration makes Britain little more than “an outpost of the UN” and we should cease being so
The untimely death of Sean Hoare is dominating tomorrow’s front pages. But on The Guardian front page there’s also a report on another development in this scandal: Detectives are examining a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin near the riverside London home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International.
Tim Montgomerie suggests that we all at least try and keep the News of the World scandal in some degree of perspective. This is a worthy thought but not one that’s likely to fly very far given the febrile mood at Westminster. Moreover, Tim’s reasons for calling for calm are not, perhaps, quite as persuasive
Addictive though the hacking inquiry is, the average Brit is probably more worried about the slow decimation of his spending power at a time when salaries are flat. Against this backdrop, the price of gold today has broken $1,600 an ounce. With inflation and the Fed’s printing presses whirring, faith in paper money is taking
