Sunday 10 July 2011

Rupert and Tony (and Gordon and Dave and Ed)

Another scorcher from Peter Oborne, who might be re-classified as an 'honourary leftie' for his recent columns:
David Cameron and Tony Blair both flew round the world to make speeches to Murdoch’s News Corp while they were in opposition. Ed Miliband was primed to follow suit before the latest scandal broke.

There were those who believed that Murdoch had debased and debauched British public life, and there is indeed great evidence that this was the case. For example, the News of the World was a respectable – if racy – family newspaper before Murdoch brought it under his ownership. As we now know, it converted into a flourishing criminal concern that took an evil pleasure in destroying people’s lives.

Though many were appalled, Murdoch himself was protected by his potent political contacts. Tony Blair, for example, would do anything to help out his close friend and ally. I can even disclose that, before the last election, Tony Blair rang Gordon Brown to try to persuade the Labour Prime Minister to stop the Labour MP Tom Watson raising the issue of phone hacking. And as recently as two weeks ago both Ed Miliband and David Cameron attended the News International (News Corp’s British newspaper publishing arm) summer party, despite the fact that the newspaper group was the subject of two separate criminal investigations. (1)
Oborne really goes to town on Cameron's infatuation with Murdoch and the hiring of Coulson, which was apparently driven by George Osborne, who has been out of the shitlight thus far:
It was at this point that George Osborne, then shadow chancellor and also Cameron’s closest strategic advisor, entered the fray. The immensely ambitious Osborne – who was already cultivating his own links with News International – made the case that Cameron should hire Andy Coulson.
Gordon Brown, of course, tried to cultivate the Mail and Paul Dacre, and massive questions need to be asked about that relationship.
1 - "David Cameron is not out of the sewer yet," by Peter Oborne. Published in The Telegraph, 8th of July, 2011. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8626421/Phone-hacking-David-Cameron-is-not-out-of-the-sewer-yet.html)

3 comments:

Robert said...

The problem is of course once all the stories have broken and once all the full bit and bobs have come out, who will be implicated in this scandal.

Only a few weeks ago Miliband was off to speak an News International, all of the big boys had done this Blair brown and Cameron so Miliband would have done the same, of course now nobody wants to be implicated.
Miliband has just stated Labour is new labour we are the party of the middle. good to know.

lurgee said...

I'm naive/optimistic enough to hope that Miliband is young enough and hitherto unimportant enough to have avoided being fully entwined by the Cthulhoid tentacles of News Corp and the rest of them. He might - just might - realise there is a lot of political capital to be had from taking principled stands against them, in the interests of The People (no, not the newspaper). I anticipate being disappointed, of course.

Robert said...

Blair been on TV protecting him self again.... poor old thing.

Blair was worried about about his relationship with the media, what they did not do enough for him

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