48 hours to stop Murdoch's UK media takeover

Stating the obvious, but Boris Johnson's got a lot to lose, given that he rellied on Brooks to get him in office http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2011/jul/07/boris-johnson-friend-of-rupert-murdoch-newspapers

I particularly like:

"[the phone hacking scandal] is a load of codswallop cooked up by the Labour Party" which was "patently politically motivated" and "a politically motivated put up job" and "completely spurious and political" and "a song and dance about nothing" which had been "whipped up by the Guardian and the Labour Party."

Followed by

Boris Johnson is terribly concerned about wrongdoing at News of the World and takes the whole scandal "extremely seriously." This evening he described the allegations as "blatant intrusion," "callousness," "corruption" and said that: "Even if only a small number of people were implicated, these allegations have to be taken extremely seriously and investigated ruthlessly and openly."

Yes, people are fools if they believe Johnson is just a bumbling, affable cartoon figure.

It's also worth noting his time working in journalism wasn't the most ethical, either.

Boris, editor of Spectator, employs disgraced Journalist Andrew Gilligan when no one else will. Consequently when he runs for mayor, Brooks employs Gilligan at the standard to smear Livingstone who Brooks notoriously has a vendetta against.

It's like some shit Superman episode

boycott superman / the london assembly and boris bikes

hah

"
"TheSunOnSunday.co.uk" (& .com) reg'd on 5th July 2011: http://t.co/LHpSPw2 #notw
"

http://twitter.com/#!/danbarker

What a coincidence...

...

Tesco - also cunts

Tesco - also cunts

Love the swing from articulate, wordy posts and this succinct appraisal :)

question time last night was pretty great
not really an admirer of celebrity / celebrities in general, but hugh grant came across as a knowledgeable intelligent man last night, he obviously has an axe to grind as he's made the front page of a few red tops over the past decade but he did really get the chance to air his grievances and he did so very well.
are we boycotting the sun yet peeps ? the times ? cancelled your subscription to sky ?

does anybody know who publishes the free papers that are handed out on the tube ? are they a news corp brand ? is evening standard a part of news corp ?

No the evening standard is owned by the same Russian guy who owns the independent.

Alexander Lebedev is the guys name. Not sure if it is any better than News International though, especially as the dude is ex KGB.

So the "little people" lose their jobs and the people responsible are protected by News International and by the Government. The NotW employees must feel proud that they have been sacrificed for Coulson, Murdock and Cameron.

It would be interesting to know to what extent Coulson was assisting the then opposition tories in collecting information to assist their campaigns. And how much Cameron knew about it. This is the real story.

Last night on This Week Michael Portillo pointed out that if / when Coulson is arrested formally it will be very bad news for the Tories as they will be drawn right back into the thick of things both in the press and in the minds of the electorate. Ironically by setting up an independent judicial review of this whole sorry mess David Cameron may have just committed political suicide for the very reasons that you have just pointed out.

murky world isn't it
i bet coulson brought some nasty little secrets with him for the govt to use in sticky situations
SO CORRUPT

I would also put money on Brooks and Coulson, having saved one or two dirty little secrets about high profile, influential figures to use as a I'll take you down with me type insurance policy.

It would be interesting to know to what extent Coulson was assisting the then opposition tories in collecting information to assist their campaigns. And how much Cameron knew about it. This is the real story.

That could be very interesting in the context of the last London Mayoral election campaign, too.

I would also put money on Brooks and Coulson, having saved one or two dirty little secrets about high profile, influential figures to use as a I'll take you down with me type insurance policy.

I don't think that's how these things work. They're not prison yard rats. They'll take their beating and be given a nice job when the voices of the press die down.

^ well there was the whole thing with the PCC trying to bring Brooks in in the 2006 investigation, and she seemingly managed to scare them off with what look like very similar tactics?

I don't think that's how these things work. They're not prison yard rats. They'll take their beating and be given a nice job when the voices of the press die down.

They may exist in more rarefied circles than prison yard rats, however I believe that the mentality is essentially the same, these are people who if in the unlikely event that they didn't sanction the hacking of a missing 13 year old girl's voice mail, led an organisation where such behaviour is acceptable. They would have known what they were doing was wrong at every stage of the proceedings and still proceeded, it has now been said publicly that Rebekah Brooks has threatened people in the past with the prospect of being persecuted in one of the hateful little excuses for a newspaper that she used to preside over. I realise that they will go down, they are fools if they don't realise this too, it is a shame that neither of them will turn tail and rat on their paymaster Rupert Murdoch but he is hopefully going to be punished by financial losses, which he is already experiencing, these are truly repugnant people who will do anything to try and maintain the status that they have trampled all over other people to acheive.

yeah the scum always seems to flat back to the top sadly

Coulson formally arrested! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14077405

No surprise really and the article gives fuck all information that wasn't public already.

With a bit of luck Coulson will squeal like a pig and spread the muck as far and wide as possible. Next stop Watergate.