Be Excellent To Each Other

From Twitter:

If you haven't already seen it 10 times I'll eat my car.

Coulson arrested:



Max sentence of seven years, says Twitter. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/6/34

Edit -- if he's guilty of that, I think he has to be guilty of perjury too.

Is it perjury when you lie to select committees? Or do you mean something to do with the Sheridan trial?

Gordon Brown: I'd still be PM if hacking claims had been aired earlier


AH- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ne-hacking (note the date)

Hmm. Has he not said anything in an actual court saying that he knew of no further instances of hacking? Perhaps not, I guess.

I dunno -- it certainly would have hurt Cameron badly if this happened at the height of election silly season, and it's not like the Tories took a resounding majority either. Not exactly likely, perhaps, but not totally far-fetched either.

............................................ fuck me.
Words fail me.

Cue Dr Evil voice:

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

/Dr Evil

The Leader of the Opposition engulfed in a scandal over hacking the relatives of murdered children, dead soldiers and terrorist victims just before an election? With his biggest media backers engulfed in the same scandal? I think that could have cost a few seats across the country - enough to make a decent Lib-Lab coalition at the very least.

Quite -- it'd only have taken 11 more seats to go to Labour instead of the Conservatives for a Lib-Lab coalition to have an outright majority. That's not a lot. And if the Tories had taken 37 seats less than they did then the Con-Lib coalition wouldn't have had a majority and would likely have been off the table.

It would be, um, interesting, if, come Sunday, the NotW printed absolutely everything they have on everyone. Just because 'fuck you'.

I really can't believe you're serious and can't be bothered with this one, sorry. I've better things to do; these are nothing more than the delusional rantings of a failed, embittered politician as far as I'm concerned - about as failed as failed gets.

Mr Kissyfur's sentiments pretty well cover it.

But enough about Mr. Cameron's press conference this morning

Cameron hasn't failed anything, unfortunately, albeit thank fuck we've got even him, Conservative "media savvy"[sic] Blair, and as much as I loathe all of these things - instead of that joke Miliband. You can't seriously be telling me, with a straight face, that you actually want someone who has done nothing apart from a 'brief job in television', to be running this country, now of all times?

I hate Cameron, but at least he's got some nowse about him. I deride Miliband and detest Balls, the very architect of our current doom.

As for the likes of even Coulson at No.10, I'll take even him over Campbell any fucking day of the week.

I'd lead with "It was Kate that done it", page 2 would be summat about footballer's, page three tits, then for pages 4-89 all the stuff about people who'd sued, page 90 an advert for some conemieative plates and then slag off as many sportsmen as possible for the rest. And liberally garnish with tits.

Imagine the possibilities.

As opposed to a man who's career highlights include ONDigital and a Chancellor who learnt his trade folding towels in Selfridges? (see, I can play that game too )

The individuals could still be sued for libel, of course.

I mean, you've paid for all this info, dearly. What's the point in keeping the powder dry, the information will be if no use post Sunday.

There is a massive difference between labour winning the election and Brown still being PM...

Mere details, boy. Trifling. Admit it, it'd be awesomely irresponsible, stupid and that's why it's a great idea.

That said, Doc and PSJ do have a point - it would of course had an effect on the electability of Cameron if this story had broken in April last year.

That also said, Brown does sound like a big sulky sore loser. And I laugh in his non-attending-Parliament face.

If Brown had won outright? He'd be difficult to dislodge for a few years. In a coalition agreement, yes, he wouldn't be there now (as he outlined during his attempts to form the rainbow coalition last May)

EDIT: Oh yes, it is a sore loser point, definitely - but he does have a point, especially with the previous Government not being allowed to hold an inquiry because of the employment history of the Leader of the Opposition's press flack.

I've reached the conclusion that you and one or two others would vote for my dog to run this country, if I stuck a red rosette on his collar, such is your blind, abject, frankly unthinking partisanship in such things. On the other hand, I've said many times that I loathe Cameron and especially Osborne, but Miliband and Balls are quite self evidently far, far worse. Plus, it is entirely the fault of New Labour and Blair in particular, that No.10 Downing Street has been reduced to the fetid swamp that it now clearly is, not Cameron's! He's just the twat who's perpetuating what he believes to be a 'winning formula'.

We need to go back to real politics, real politicians and real debate in this country, as I have been saying all along (assuming 'we' are even still capable of such things as a nation, en masse at least - which brings us back to the ever declining standards of the popular media in this country, as compared to pre-Blair some 16 years ago now, the gutter press prime among them).

I'm not fan of his.. well, anything, but if he'd won the election do you think the party would have booted him out less than a year later? I suspect not. I agree with PSJ; he'd have been entrenched for a while.

What's the least amount of time a sitting prime minister has lasted in power after winning an election?

Who allowed Murdoch to own the Times? Or allowed him to kick the NUJ out of Wapping? Who courted NI during the 80s and early 90s? Who allowed him to sidestep the 1990 Broadcasting Act during the BSB/Sky merger and thus save him from bankruptcy? You can't lay the blame all at the foot of New Labour, Cavey, though they do share a lot of it.

I didn't vote in the last election and have never voted Labour in my life, as it happens. Also, you accusing people of blinkered political partisanship is a bit pot-and-kettle, isn't it?

Not at all, given what I've said many times about the likes of Cameron and Osborne. Plus, I voted LibDem at the last election, as I said at the time - that's how 'partisan' I am.

Yeah, I remember that (and you have indeed made many negative comments about modern Tory politicians), but then on the other hand you are a little, um, virulently anti-Labour. If you can have negative partisanship, I guess that's it.

I passionately hate New Labour mate, because I genuinely believe that they have done such irrepairable damage to this country, its politics, its standing in the world and its prospects, entirely on the false prospectus (one of many) of being 'the working class party'. Bottom line? No-one, with the benefit of hindsight, could possibly argue that they weren't shit. They failed. At least that's how it is for me.

I'm working class, I know a thing or two about working on the shop floor with swarf between my toes, unlike many here and certainly amongst New Labour supporters - but I know a bullshitter when I see one. (You'll note that I am also the first to praise the real Labour politicians of old - Atlee, Foot, Smith et al - even though I passionately disbelieve in the efficacy of their politics, as evidenced empirically over the years, despite best possible intentions on their part).

*points irony detector at screen*
*irony detector explodes*
Fuck! That's the fifth one this week!

Oh well, if you say so man.

I stand corrected. Apparently they were stupid enough to keep written records of this sort of stuff.

"What archive officer?"

As I've pointed out several times now, we already knew that because that's why Coulsen was arrested.

"WHICH Archive Officer"
"Sgt Bloom"
"Sir"

please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks please be Brooks

Imagine if it was Little Jimmy Murdoch.

I suggest we all put on these as face masks and go and stand out the gingers house.

Weren't the Guardian going on yesterday about a second person (a NI executive) being arrested?

Ha, yes.
Still, I dislike her more, because she beat up Ross Kemp.

Surely, surely there's no way that NI can be allowed to buy the rest of BSkyB now.

Danny Baker on Twitter:

As Jeremy Cu... ahem, Hunt has correctly pointed out, it's not relevant to the take over issue he has to consider. That said, OFCOM can declare NI not "fit and proper", but I'm not sure if they can do that prior to them taking over or not.

Yes, it was the 'fit and proper' clause I was pondering. There's also a question of motivation. Murdoch has very much thrown Cameron under the bus by scapegoating Coulson; will CallMeDave's frantic efforts to distance himself from NI extend to nixing the deal on any technicality that can be pressed into service?

But OFCOM is an independent regulator. Surely you're not suggesting that civil servants would make a huge decision like this for the benefit of a politician?

Remember what I said about the consequences for NI if they should fail any fit and proper test in this country. The consequences would reach far beyond the UK and into markets NI is very keen on such as China.

The thing is, if he doesn't find a way of stopping it, Labour will beat him over the head with it from here to 2015 (and they'll have to - seeing as how MilliVanilliEd has made it clear this week that he no longer expects any favourable treatment from NI in the forseeable future).

The other bit of possible intrigue is that if OFCOM does find NI improper, will they be able to own *any* of BSkyB?