Uk politics

Saturday

James Forsyth

Who knows where this will all end for politics, the press and the police

Rarely has that old adage that week is a long time in politics seemed more appropriate. Seven days ago, few of us would have predicted that we would be in the middle of a crisis that could dramatically effect how politics is run, the press are regulated and the standing of the police.  This morning is probably one of those days when, to borrow his joke from yesterday, David Cameron wants to shut down all the newspapers. The Mail and The Telegraph lay into him for his call to end self-regulation of the press. Indeed, their editorials on the matter speak to a broader anger in both papers that despite

Friday

James Forsyth

Ofcom to rule on Murdoch’s purchase of BSkyB

If News Corporation was not trying to buy the whole of BSkyB, there’s a good chance that phone hacking would not still be in the news today: that decision was one of the things that led to a revival of interest in the story. As has been said many times during the past few days, securing full ownership of BSkyB is regarded as crucial by the Murdochs and that is one of the reasons they were prepared to take the dramatic step of shutting down The News of the World. But the letter from Ofcom about the takeover and the possibility of Labour forcing a vote in the House of

Peter Hoskin

Miliband is running out of attacks — but he’ll use what he’s got

It’s a strange thing, amid all venom and spite over the phone hacking scandal, how the three main parties are actually converging on the same responses. A judge-led inquiry? That’s now party policy for them all. The end of the PCC? Likewise. In his press conference earlier, Cameron even came close to saying that Rebekah Brooks should have lost her job. For once, there are trace quantities of Agreeing With Ed in the air at Westminster. This is both a boon and a bitterness for Ed Miliband. A boon, because he can at least claim that Labour led the debate, and Cameron followed. A bitterness, because the politics of the

Peter Hoskin

Clegg: don’t let’s be beastly to the eurozone

If you strain your ears, and listen very carefully above the din of the phone hacking scandal, then you may just hear Nick Clegg’s voice wafting across the Channel from Paris. Our Deputy Prime Minister is on the Continent today, delivering a speech that, in other circumstances, might have made more of a splash. This is, after all, a speech in which he stands up for the eurozone, and chastises those eurospectics — some of them within the coalition parties — who are eagerly anticipating its collapse. Or as he puts it himself: “A successful eurozone is essential for a prosperous UK. So there is no room for Schadenfreude here,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron makes poor start on the long road back

This was David Cameron’s most difficult press conference since becoming Tory leader. The Prime Minister refused to distance himself from Andy Coulson, a man he said was still his friend. But this loyalty to his ‘friend’ placed Cameron in an almost impossible situation. Cameron remarked defiantly that you’d be ‘pretty unpleasant if you forgot about him’ but the longer Cameron defends Coulson and his decision to hire him, the more this scandal will stick to him. Cameron repeatedly said that he gave Coulson ‘a second chance’. This is an awful line because it sounds like Cameron thinks he deserves credit for hiring him. Cameron needs to say urgently that he

Peter Hoskin

A newspaper has died, and the recriminations are only just beginning

The blood of the News of the World is sprayed right across the front pages this morning. And yet there’s still more bleeding to be done, it seems. The Guardian has been reporting since last night that Andy Coulson is to be arrested today, over suspicions about his knowledge of phone hacking and police bribery at the paper he once edited. The Mail quotes “supporters of Mr Coulson” as saying that, “he could make damaging claims about Mrs Brooks, who edited the News of the World before him, which in turn could result in her being questioned.” Which rather captures the sense that this story could still intensify, even after

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Breaking: News of the World to close

The Murdochs have acted — and how. The News of the World, a 168 year-old publication, is to close, for good, this weekend. The current speculation is that a Sunday edition of the Sun will take its place, but, for now, here’s the official statement from James Murdoch: News International today announces that this Sunday, 10 July 2011, will be the last issue of the News of the World. Making the announcement to staff, James Murdoch, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation, and Chairman, News International said: “I have important things to say about the News of the World and the steps we are taking to address the very serious

Peter Hoskin

What the papers won’t say

Remember Operation Motorman? You may not, because little was made it at the time — and nothing like the current phone hacking furore. Yet many of the themes are identical. In 2003, a private investigator called Steve Whittamore was busted. His job was to simply to snoop out information for various newspaper groups, often using illegal methods. They’d pay him, he’d hand over the information. It really was that simple. Until, that is, the Information Commissioner got its hands on his records, which included details of some of the transactions made between him and his client journalists. By 2006, it had emerged how many journalists had been caught paying Whittamore

Peter Hoskin

The phone hacking scandal tests the ties that bind the coalition

Gosh, this phone hacking scandal is moving at a pace. Fresh from the wire comes news that even the government is reviewing its advertising contracts with the News of the World; signs that Jeremy Hunt won’t budge on the BSkyB deal; as well as further interventions by everyone from Ed Miliband to Boris Johnson. Overarching all that, though, are the hardening differences of opinion between the Tories and the Lib Dems. The yellow half of the coalition is going further and further in pushing for both an enforced pause to the BSkyB deal and a judge-led inquiry into the whole mess. Both Lord Oakeshott and Simon Hughes have called for

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Web exclusive: Extended interview with David Cameron

We interview David Cameron for today’s issue of The Spectator. Here’s an extended version of that interview for CoffeeHousers: The most striking thing about David Cameron is how well rested he looks. You wouldn’t guess that he was the father of a ten-month-old baby, let alone Prime Minister. He has no bags under his eyes — unlike his staff. He also seems relaxed. He jovially beckons us in to his Downing Street office and then flops down into one of the two high-backed chairs and urges one of us to take the other: ‘the Chancellor’s chair’, he calls it, with a chuckle. The last time we interviewed him, during the

Peter Hoskin

The stakes rise for Rupert Murdoch

The business pages have more electricity to them than usual today, and all because of their overlap with the phone hacking scandal. In many ways, yesterday marked a turning point in the whole affair, in that it is now hitting Rupert Murdoch in the pocketbook. News Corporation shares — which had held up for a day or two — finally fell by 3.6 per cent, leaving its chairman and CEO some £120 million worse off. And, as we reported on the new Spectator Business Blog, shares in BSkyB took a similar course; due, no doubt, to prevailing concerns that Murdoch’s takeover might be posponed indefinitely. Ofcom are just one of

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The list of alleged victims grows longer as News International’s problems mount

The emotive list of alleged victims of phone hacking has grown again tonight. To Milly Dowler, the parents of the Soham victims, and survivors of 7/7 can now be added the families of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. It should be stressed that nothing has yet been proved in any of these cases. But this story is just getting bigger and bigger and more and more problematic for News International. Among tomorrow’s front pages, the FT’s will — I expect — cause particular concern at the top of the company. It declares ‘Murdoch investors take fright’. This along with the growing international interest in the story, threaten to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

This scandal will inflict huge reputational damage on the police

There’s only one thing that anyone in Westminster is talking about and that’s phone hacking. But one thing worth noting is that in every conversation I have had on the subject, MPs and Ministers have stressed that the police must not be let off the hook. For some on the Labour side—as John McTernan blogs with feeling—this is personal. But for the majority of parliamentarians, there’s just a feeling that certain policemen have been too easily corrupted, for too long. If newspapers were paying police, then the newspapers have obviously behaved badly. But those who accepted bribes are guilty of a far larger breach of the public trust. I suspect

David Blackburn

Murdoch stands by Brooks

Released by News Corporation this afternoon: “Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News CorporationLondon, 6 July, 2011 – Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership. We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again. I have also appointed Joel Klein to provide

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s Coulson problems may be getting bigger

The Guardian’s story that News International believes that Rebekah Brooks was on holiday when Milly Dowler’s phone was allegedly hacked will place further pressure on Andy Coulson, who was her deputy editor at the time. This is the second piece of trouble for Coulson in the past 24 hours following last night’s revelations. Some in News International are unapologetic about how Coulson is being treated. They say that if Coulson had not gone into Downing Street then the whole phone hacking saga would not have got a second wind and there wouldn’t be all this trouble. Indeed, they allege that Coulson had assured a senior figure at News International that

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband takes the battle honours

Wow. That was a hell of a session. It shouldn’t have been but it was. A few days ago Mr Miliband seemed to be in the dog-house again. Fresh from his Ed Nauseam interview to a TV reporter – when he repeated the same soundbite on public sector strikes about 36 times in a row – he’d been stung by Lord Goldsmith’s complaint that he was failing to connect with the public. But salvation arrived in the shape of News International. The worse things smell at Wapping the rosier it all is for the opposition leader. PMQs today was easy. All he had to do was to appear suitably revolted

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband gets serious about phone hacking

The striking thing about the phone hacking debate is that Ed Miliband is sitting on the Labour front bench, a statement of how seriously the Labour leader is now taking this issue. Miliband nodded vigorously when Chris Bryant declared that if Rebekah Brooks had a single shred of decency she would resign. Dominic Grieve is currently replying for the government and is taking a consensual line. I suspect that Grieve, unlike many ministers, has no great love for News International. His career has never recovered from his clashing, when Shadow Home Secretary, with Rebekah Brooks over how the tabloids report crime. It is said that from that day on, Andy

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A beating, but not as harsh as it might have been

PMQs today was a taste for David Cameron of what he will have to face over the coming weeks as the scandal surrounding the News of the World continues to grow. Ed Miliband asked him whether he agreed that Rebekah Brooks — a friend of Cameron’s —should resign and then mocked him when he wouldn’t answer. The Labour leader than pushed him on whether News International should be stopped from taking over BSkyB and derided him when he said the matter was out of his hands. Finally, he slammed him for his decision to bring Andy Coulson — who had resigned as editor of the News of the World because

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 6 July 2011

VERDICT: A crescendo of a PMQs, which started in sombre fashion but soon swelled into a vicious confrontation between the two leaders. It is strangely difficult to say who won, not least because both men had their moments. Ed Miliband’s persistent anger — including over Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of BSkyB — will have chimed with public sentiment. But Cameron went further than expected by backing a public inquiry into the phone hacking affair, and without much equivocation either. In the end, though, I’d say Miliband probably came out on top, for seeming less on the side of News International. 1242: No surprises from Cameron’s statement on Afghanistan. It was, in

Peter Hoskin

Schooling the judges

The judges are judging the judges, or at least judging by the cover of this morning’s Times (£) they are. “Radical reform of the selection of judges,” some leading figures tell the paper, “is needed to break the stranglehold of white Oxbridge males at the top of the judiciary.” The story continues inside the paper, with a tranche of statistics on just how white, Oxbridge and male the judiciary actually is (i.e. very). It all reminded me of a table we put together for Coffee House some months ago, and which I thought I’d excavate this morning. Here it is, with judges sitting firmly at the bottom: Of course, some