Be Excellent To Each Other

Vince Cable...

Whose career is done, due in part to his naivety regarding the recording thing, but also because of his honesty. A pity. He's been proven 'right' about News Corp, but that all seems to have been forgotten as has the LDs being the one 'major'* party to not cosy up to NI. In fact, bizarrely, the latest government tracker has that party down again on just 8%. Con also down 1% (at 36); Lab up to 43% (from 42).

* Major until 2015 or whenever the next election is, that is. Plug the current polling into Electoral Calculus and you get:

Lab: 366 (+108)
Con: 251 (+28; -84)
Lib: 9 (-48)
Nat: 6 (-3)
Green: 0 (-1)

If Cameron was toppled, what happens constitutionally? New Tory leader elected to become PM? Clegg to be temporary PM or even argue that the role should be his? Or Hague/Osborne to argue similarly? Or a 'coalition' election, perhaps giving Clarke a chance?

Another possibility would be the coalition falling, leading to either the Libs siding with Labour (and seriously pissing off the public) or triggering another election

, which under current polling would return a Lab majority, a few fewer Tories and as few as two Lib-Dems. To that end, I suspect the Lib-Dems are more keen to keep Cameron around than the Tories are.

I can't think of a single one of them I have any trust in or respect for, possibly with the exception of Vince Cable...

Ermm..

2009





Four months later:



Oh, and he admitted that Osborne was right all along

I don't think anything has to happen. The constitution only goes so far as to provide a means for a minority government to be thrown out (via a vote of no confidence); how a ruling coalition structures itself is entirely up to the coalition to decide and agree upon. So all your scenarios are possible, legally. That's my understanding anyway.

there were questions asking that would indicate that the Mirror has been at it as well!

Private Eye arrived today. They're loving it.

[In other news, rather than read this article I smeared shaving foam on my screen, to make a point.

Do you think the bloke in the Play Boy hoody looks a bit suspect?

BITD T'Pau used to have a weelchair bound fan that followed them around on tour.
Every gig he attended, the band would ensure that there was wheelchair access to the venue, a space at the front for him and even went as far as repaying his loyalty by inviting him to an end of tour party.
The party, and the alcohol were in full flow when Carol went for a chat with the superfan, going as far as to hold the hand of the brave man who took this as a cue to rise from his wheelchair, magically healed by the touch of Decker and attempt to take her onto the dancefloor before beng dragged away and ejected in shame by Ronnie.

Yet another Piers Morgan phone-hacking implication has surfaced from his own misguided boasts. Writing in the Daily Mail in 2006 when Sir Paul McCartney split from Heather Mills, Morgan went into some extremely voyeuristic detail about their relationship:

“Stories soon emerged that the marriage was in trouble – at one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone. It was heartbreaking. The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang ‘We Can Work It Out’…”

The hacking scandal is about nosedive to a whole new low. How could these people do what they did?

Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000, has been told by Scotland Yard that they have found evidence to suggest she was targeted by the News of the World's investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who specialised in hacking voicemail.

Police had earlier told her correctly that her name was not among those recorded in Mulcaire's notes, but on Tuesday officers from Operation Weeting told her they had found her personal details among the investigator's notes. These had previously been thought to refer to a different target.

Friends of Sara Payne have told the Guardian that she is "absolutely devastated and deeply disappointed" at the disclosure. Her cause had been championed by the News of the World, and in particular by its former editor, Rebekah Brooks. Believing that she had not been a target for hacking, Payne wrote a farewell column for the paper's final edition on 10 July, referring to its staff as "my good and trusted friends".

The evidence that police have found in Mulcaire's notes is believed to relate to a phone given to Sara Payne by Rebekah Brooks as a gift to help her stay in touch with her supporters.

On 19 July, as part of the CMS Select Committee, I questioned Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks on phone hacking at the News of the World.

I also focussed questions on whether hacking and blagging was, in fact, widespread throughout Fleet Street.

On 22 July I received the following email, which I reprint here in full and respond to below:

Dear Mrs Mensch

We are informing you that we have come into possession of the following information, about yourself, and would like to ask you for any comments, before we publish this information.

1. Whilst working at EMI, in the 1990s, you took drugs with Nigel Kennedy at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham, including dancing on a dance floor, whilst drunk, with Mr Kennedy, in front of journalists. Photos of this exist.

2. Whilst working at EMI, in the 1990s, you wrote a novel, of a sexual nature, on your work computer, during working hours, and that it was this that caused EMI to terminate your employment. Correspondence of this exists.

3. The resultant novel included derogatory references to a driver called Roger, a character you based on Roger Lewis, your then line manager, Managing Director at EMI, who is now Group Chief Executive of Welsh Rugby Union.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With thanks

David Jones Investigative Journalists
###

My response to the allegations is as follows:

1. Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Nigel Kennedy, whom I remember with affection. Additionally, since I was in my twenties, I'm sure it was not the only incident of the kind; we all do idiotic things when young. I am not a very good dancer and must apologise to any and all journalists who were forced to watch me dance that night at Ronnie Scott's.

2. Writing the first few chapters of Career Girls on my EMI computer is quite correct. However, it was all done after work hours. It was also not why I was fired by EMI. "Leaving work early" and “missing the odd day at work” along with "inappropriate dress" were the reasons quoted to me.

3. “Career Girls” was my first novel. I used the names of many real people I knew for minor characters, such as journalists, chauffeurs, bankers, and so forth. Roger Lewis was probably amongst them, as were (off the top of my head) Therese Coffey MP, now my colleague on the Select Committee, Jeremy Quin, Damian Hinds MP, Maurice Oberstein, Rod Clayton, James Robertson, and many more. None of them have ever complained about my using their names in this way.

I would also like to note that I am thrilled that Roger is now the Group Chief Executive of the Welsh Rugby Union. So many other co-workers from my music business days in the 90s have not found as exciting second careers.

Most importantly, I have not the slightest intention of being deterred from asking how far the culture of hacking and blagging extended in Fleet Street.

Also, publishing it all yourself completely pulls the rug out from under them. Good work her.

Yes, I have to admire her for that, despite not really agreeing with many of her political views.

#votingrecord">http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/louise ... tingrecord

Well, she's basically voted the Tory line for her entire career.

Yes, I have to admire her for that, despite not really agreeing with many of her political views.

#votingrecord">http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/louise ... tingrecord

EDIT - Craster her "entire career" is what, 14 months, isn't it?

Also, publishing it all yourself completely pulls the rug out from under them. Good work her.

She really should have added a "Go harass some more dead kids' families, you gutter trash."

The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking claims "acted on the instructions of others", his lawyers have said.

In a statement Glenn Mulcaire's legal team said any suggestion he acted unilaterally was "untrue". It comes after the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne was told she may have been phone hacked by Mulcaire.

The investigator was jailed in 2007 after admitting to phone hacking while he was working for the paper.
'Solving crimes'

The statement said: "Glenn Mulcaire has already expressed his sincere regret to those who have been hurt and affected by his activities and he repeats that apology most sincerely. He was effectively employed by News of the World from 2002 to carry out his role as a private investigator. As he accepted when he pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges of phone interception he admits that his role did include phone hacking."

It continued: "As an employee he acted on the instructions of others. There were also occasions when he understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more."

A tax lawyer being a Tory? Unthinkable.

Yet she's voted pro-EU integration, which isn't very Tory.

All her votes on the EU have been aligned with the whip.

Un-good.

Shame we don't have a pro-EU (and relatively moderate) conservative party in this country. France, Germany, Italy, Belgium do, everywhere else in Europe basically does. And we're stuck with the nationalistic oddballs...

I think you've missed the point there. If she's voted pro-EU integration then that's what the Conservative party whip told her to do.

Over at the FT Westminster blog Jim Pickard wrote:

Who are "David Jones Investigative Journalists"? Why don't they come up in Google? And why has this broken on the same day that Mensch's apology letter to Morgan made it into the public domain?

A short while later Pickard added this:

UPDATE: Mensch's PR man tells me that David Jones emailed from "[email protected]". Meanwhile there are no records of David Jones Investigative Journalists at Companies House.

Six weeks for hitting an elderly man's jacket with some foam.

FEEX

Double FeeX.

This is the story of one man who tried to alert the nation about the serious security risk he found with Vodafone's voicemail security.

For some reason, despite initial excitement from The Mirror and The Sun, nobody wanted to publish the story..

This was in 1999.