Sunday, July 17, 2011

What's the True Extent Of Cameron's Involvement With Murdoch, Brooks and Coulson?

The creeping corruption of Rupert Murdoch's News International is escalating and now looks to have reached the British government and is starting to envelope the British prime minister, David Cameron. What we have yet to discover is how far the infection has travelled and what it has infected in our government machine.

The role of Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and former CEO of News International Rebekah Brooks to help get David Cameron and the Conservatives into power started at least 2 years before the 2010 general election when James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron and George Osborne convinced a dubious Rupert Murdoch to drop support for the labour party/government and come out and back Cameron's Tories.
Rupert Murdoch's newspapers the Sun and the now defunct News of the World, the Times and Sunday Times ran what can only be described as a personal and vitriolic hate campaign against Gordon Brown, barely a day or a weekend went past when Brown was not the subject of lurid banner headlines in those newspapers. Brown was absurdly blamed for everything from the banking collapse, to the *global* financial recession, he was personally abused by the Murdoch press on an almost daily basis for little or no good reason, they ran campaigns designed to stir up pure hatred of Mr Brown. Sun headlines about him included, on the day after the G20, the Sun presented him as Dr Evil and another Sun headline accused him of "killing" British soldiers. Then there is the story of L/Cpl Beharry who said in the Sun, that he felt like he wanted to punch Mr Brown because the then PM did not look him (or others) in the eye in a parade. Also the case of a misspelled soldier's name James Janes, where Mr Brown had written a personal handwritten letter of condolence on the death of Mrs Janes son Jamie.  Mr Brown's handwriting contained errors however, both cases are clearly attributed to the fact that Mr Brown is blind in one eye and has greatly reduced vision in the other and yet knowing this the Sun deliberately distorted the stories and purposefully made it look like Brown was callous and unfeeling when nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact it was the Sun's editor, the Sun's journalists and Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks that caused those people grossly unnecessary pain and distress and yet this dreadfully unprofessional behaviour continued unchecked day after day after day and the toothless Press Complaints Commission systematically failed to act in what was obviously an abuse of power by the Murdoch press and far from condemning this abominable behaviour, David Cameron the then leader of the opposition actively encouraged and cashed in on these disgusting and deliberately misleading stories by spinning his own version  of them.

What was happening to Brown in the Murdoch press was a truly astonishing spectacle and the majority of the British so-called "free" press knew it and they also knew what was happening was grossly unfair however, such was the fear held for Rupert Murdoch they did absolutely nothing to balance it or counteract it, and astonishingly in some cases papers like the Daily Mail, and Mail on Sunday actually joined in the "bullying abuse" with their own misleading abusive sensationalistic headlines.
The fact is that the Murdoch press were rampantly manufacturing news stories and not merely reporting them and the evidence is there for all to see and this behaviour has carried on unchecked for years. It is also symptomatic of how the Murdoch press ran their newspapers and thought it OK to use people and felt they was above the law and could hack into the phones of murdered children and fallen soldiers and the relatives of victims of the 7/7 terrorist attack at will and without having to face the consequences of their illegal actions.

The phone hacking scandal reveals just how illegal, amoral and how dirty the Murdoch newspapers had become and all  in pursuit of their goal of owning BSkyB. Incredulously, all the time the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks were tearing into Gordon Brown for things beyond his control and personally abusing Mr Brown and running stories about his children's health, the Sun, the "News of the World", The Times and the Sunday Times and all who were involved in their stories were lying, cheating, phone hacking and allegedly hacking into emails and personal computers.

The Murdochs and all that fawn at their altar are complete cowards and hypocrites who have thought nothing of callously inflicting pain on innocent defenceless people in deepest grief and suffering their darkest times and lowest points and none of them have shown any compunction whatsoever about destroying the lives and careers of just about anyone who happens to get in their way.  However, even more seriously, the unfortunate victims of their phone hacking have been treated like "commodities" to be spied upon, used and abused and there are no words that can adequately describe the despicable natures of the people that carried out these criminal acts in the pursuance of their materialistic goals. 

The real reason why Murdoch dropped support for the Labour was not because he thought that Cameron would make a better prime minister for Britain, or that the Conservatives would make a better government, it was purely because while in office, the Labour government opposed Mr Murdoch and stood up for what they believed was the public interest. Mr Brown has since said. "As leader of the Opposition, Mr Cameron had “invariably reclassified the public interest as the News International interest.”
Mr Brown says the relationship with the Murdoch press became harder because the Conservative party adopted News International's stance on key media policy issues. He cites: the licence fee, BBC online, the future of sporting events on TV, the fate of the BBC's commercial arm and Ofcom.

Gordon Brown  blocked various Murdoch commercial initiatives long before their final falling-out.
The Labour government prevented Murdoch taking over Manchester United, a plan which was thought to be a dead cert in 1998 but was blocked by the Blair government on competition grounds.

When Gordon Brown was prime minister he argued against Rupert Murdoch's plan to erect paywalls to access the Sun, the now defunct News of the World, Times and Sunday Times online saying that people should not be forced to pay for basic news.

Rupert Murdoch has also attacked search engines, such as Google, whom he accused of stealing journalism from traditional media outlets, he said that the newspaper industry had to stand up for itself and charge for content while using copyright law to defend its journalism from being used without permission, the Murdochs have acted like they own the news and like everything else in their empire if they were not stopped, then we would be charged for it, this was their ultimate goal for the UK.

The Labour government had to rule on BSkyB decision to buy a 16.6% stake in ITV. The government challenged this, and referred it to the Competition Commission.
Ofcom also had to consider the price of BSkyB sports services. Ofcom insisted on fair competition
Under James Murdoch, BSkyB adopted an ever more aggressive approach to the BBC, Brown says. For example, Murdoch wanted the BBC to charge for its web content. But Brown resisted demands like this.
Gordon Brown says he would be happy to give evidence about these matters to the inquiry.
It is clear from all the above where Rupert Murdoch and his son James and Rebekah Brooks wanted to take the British news industry and it is also clear what the Murdochs thought of the BBC and how they wanted parts of the BBC to be placed behind a paywall. In fact it was Rupert Murdoch that has prevented this country from watching some of our national side's football matches and Murdoch was the reason why we were also prevented from watching the England Cricket team play Australia for the Ashes.

2 years ago Gordon Brown called for the Ashes to be one of the "crown jewels" of sporting events that must be available to all TV viewers free-to-air. Yet one of the first decisions taken by the Conservative sports minister Hugh Robertson last summer was to boot that plan into the long grass. Why? When England won the Ashes Test David Cameron came out of hiding over the H1N1 flu jab fiasco caused by his government and and issued a pretty tribute to England's cricketers. But as usual with Cameron it was all talk but he had a choice, he could take the Ashes away from Mr Murdoch but he was too cowardly to do it and the result?  England's Ashes win produces no seedcorn for the future. Meanwhile, Mr Murdoch laughs all the way to his tax-avoiding offshore bank.
Brown also said he proposed an inquiry into the hacking scandal. But he was advised that this would be wrong, because the evidence was not strong enough, because the issue was not urgent and because it was too close to an election. No matter how Sir Gus O'Donnell wants to wriggle his way out of this, the fact remains that he did advise against holding this inquiry and considering how close O'Donnell has now become to the Cameron administration, questions need to be asked about that too. Remembering that it was the head of the Civil Service the Cabinet secretary who urged the Tories and Lib Dems to form a swift coalition for fear that a minority government would spook the markets, he intervened in the dramatic weekend after the General Election to advise the Tories and Lib Dems that they risked market meltdown if there were no stable government in place by the Monday. Once again this country is bowing and scraping to the money markets and the people that actually caused the problems in this country with their greed. It is thought that Sir Gus overstepped his mark and questions need to be asked - why?
It is also becoming increasingly clear that David Cameron and the Conservatives are willing helpers of Mr Murdoch, and perhaps may even be found to be complicit in the Murdochs "wrongdoings" and their bid to get hold of BSkyB and influence policy over newspapers, news programmes and also the future of the BBC.

From the very beginning of David Cameron's premiership it has become clear he is dancing to the "Murdoch tune", there are huge doubts about cameron's ability to be prime minister and there hangs even bigger doubts about his judgement and clearly there are questions that Cameron needs to answer.
Rupert Murdoch was the very first visitor seen by David Cameron in Downing Street on May 10th 2010 after Cameron had taken up residence after the election. Why did Rupert Murdoch enter and leave by the back door of Downing street? and why did David Cameron's staff refuse to say at that time what was discussed at that meeting claiming it was a personal meeting? Clearly it was not and even now with the publication of the list of meetings by Cameron, the details list "general discussion", obviously that was not private and the details of that meeting should be made public, especially in the light of the revelations now being made. cameron also met with Rebekah Brooks on June 10, 2010 in Downing street again for "general discussion"! Since those meetings David Cameron has met with Murdoch's News Corp or parent company News International or staff from the Sun or Times newspaper staff on at least 26 occasions mostly in Downing Street in the year since becoming prime minister. 

David Cameron has also entertained Rebekah Brooks at the Prime Minister's country residence at Chequers on: June 2010 and August 2010 reasons listed as "Media".

 Also at an unspecified date he saw James and Kathryn Murdoch reason also listed as "Media"!


The prime minister lives just 2/3 miles away from Rebekah Brooks and her husband in Cameron's Oxford constituency and they regularly meet to go horse riding together. Christmas 2010, the Camerons attended the Brooks residence for dinner, also a guest at the same time was James Murdoch, who was notable by his absence was the good friend of both Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron, was Andy Coulson, in fact Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January 2011, just a couple of weeks after they all met for dinner at Brooks house. Andy Coulson is said to have been especially close to Rebekah Brooks describing each other as "soul mates" when they worked on the News of the World together and as Coulson was also a close friend of David Cameron, it is strange that he was not on the dinner guest list for "friends" at Rebekah Brooks house over Christmas.  This absolutely reeks of corruption, what was talked about over dinner at Brooks house? The public have a right to know, it is in the public interest and the prime minister should be made  to reveal if Andy Coulson was discussed. It would be difficult to imagine that Coulson wasn't discussed, it would be similar to not talking about the elephant standing in the corner of the room.

Even more bizarrely the prime minister invited Mr Coulson to stay at Chequers in March this year, two months after he quit as Downing Street director of communications following fresh allegations of phone hacking under his editorship at the News of the World and this did NOT appear in the list released by Downing Street which they claim to be an oversight and say it will appear in a full and amended list. Andy Coulson has since been arrested and bailed to appear before the police in October 2011, the police have given him a handy shield to hide behind until then. Andy Coulson was arrested over phone hacking and making illegal payments to the police.
The deep involvement of the Cameron government with the Murdoch empire can be clearly seen in the government's attitude to the Murdoch take-over bid for BSkyB and also their attitude towards the BBC. Cameron straight away refused permission for the BBC to increase its license fees, this was not done for the altruistic reasons that the public could not afford it, it was done purely to starve the BBC of cash for a couple of years and ultimately forcing it into a position of near bankruptcy and no doubt the Conservatives would have announced that the BBC is not paying its way so there  fore will be broken up and sold off,  this is in turn would have cleared the way for a company like BSkyB (if had gone to plan then owned by Murdoch) to have purchased the most lucrative parts of the BBC and then they would have gone behind a paywall too.

Make no mistake the extent of the involvement of David Cameron with Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks is unusually high and convoluted.  Former Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher gave Rupert Murdoch his crucial government breaks, notably exempting the infant Sky TV from the 1990 Broadcasting Act, so Murdoch has a long tradition of being "helped" by the Tory party.

It now appears that Cameron had promised Murdoch BSkyB in return for his newspapers support in the general election and beyond. With part of that deal came Andy Coulson who had resigned from his position as editor of the news of the World who David Cameron was probably made to hire, this was payback for Coulson from Murdoch for resigning in order that the scandal of the News of the World remained suppressed.

Labour's Lord Prescott accused Mr Cameron of being "very much wrapped into the Murdoch operations".
Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the disclosure of the list of engagements offered "yet more evidence of an extraordinary lack of judgement by David Cameron".
"He hosted Andy Coulson at Chequers after, in the prime minister's own words, Mr Coulson's second chance hadn't worked out.
"David Cameron may think that this is a good day to bury bad news but he now has an increasing number of serious questions to answer."

It appears that all roads seem to lead back to David Cameron and now learning of the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, takes us many steps closer to discovering the truth about how deeply Cameron has become embroiled in this mess. Even now after all these allegations and counter allegations there seems to be a whiff of corruption, the Dowler family's lawyer Mark Lewis has said that Rebekah Brooks arrest by appointment "stinks", coming just two days before her appearance at the Select Committee On Tuesday, this gives her a convenient wall to hide behind.

When all is said and done the prime minister has shown an appalling lack of judgement on just about every issue, policy and reform since coming to power, he and his government have systematically caused mayhem and total confusion. David Cameron appears weak, indecisive and totally incompetent, he also appears to be completely out of his depth and not fit to hold high office, but all this pales into complete insignificance when placed against his judgement over the hiring of Andy Coulson, he ignored the advice of Lord Prescott, Paddy Ashdown, Deputy PM Nick Clegg, the Guardian and just about everybody, the question is why? And this question mark will continue to hang over him until he gives a satisfactory answer. David Cameron has shown this country up many times on the international stage since he became prime minister, but the rest of the world is now looking upon us with incredulity that this could be happening in the UK. Especially now as serious questions have now emerged about Sir Paul Stephenson.

The career of Britain's most policeman is hanging in the balance after it emerged that he accepted a free five-week stay at a health farm promoted by Neil Wallis, a former tabloid executive who was arrested on Thursday in connection with phone hacking.

The full force of this has not yet hit, Rupert Murdoch will be feeling very peeved at the demise of one of his papers, he will also be feeling very peeved that Cameron has not come up with his end of the deal and I suspect that Murdoch is not too happy that a panicking Cameron cut Murdoch, Brooks and Coulson loose in a very spectacular way in the House of Commons last week.

Even the Select Committee has not escaped tarnish, Conservative John Whittingdale ha snow been linked on a personal level to Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch and Elisabeth Murdoch, how on earth can he be free to chair the committee? There seems no end to the Tories involvement with the Murdochs.


The public have lost faith in the government and the police and we really are in dire trouble and this is not even including the dire mess the Tory chancellor is making of running the British economy, this government have failed on every conceivable front. People heavily connected with this government and David Cameron on a business and personal level are all being arrested, at the end of this people are going to go to jail, how much longer can Cameron cling on to power and to what cost? I have never known anything like this and this government have only been in power just over a year. Cameron has also serious questions to answer over the funding of the Tory party and the sheer extent of their donors involvement with obtaining lucrative government contracts and the "lobbying scandal" the next big scandal to hit this country has not properly broken yet!

The country is now facing a serious loss of confidence in our prime minister David Cameron and the Conservative government and also when the public starts losing faith in the police it's altogether much more serious and a sign that we really are in serious trouble.
 We are fast approaching a time when things are so serious that David Cameron will have absolutely no alternative but to call an immediate general election.

With all of this going on one would expect that our prime minister, David Cameron, would be out taking to the airwaves and explaining what is going on, yet he is nowhere to be seen, save for a coule of appearances which he was compelled to make, he hasn't been seen, he is trying to not to be associated with the bad publicity and like the cowardly incomptent man that he is, he is in hiding.

2 comments:

Robert said...

I agree with you except for Brown, an advisor gives you advice, he does not run the country, problem for brown is of course he took advice over the election which never was, he took advice over the gold sale, he took advice over a lot of different things, the banking crises was American fault, now this was his advisers. Fact brown was in charge not his advisors he was paid to make decisions he failed.

He was so hurt about the release of information about his child disablity he then went to the the party held by NOTW, still with tears in his heart he went to Ms brooks wedding.

I'll tell you something about Brown he dithers.

Gracie Samuels said...

That's not fair Robert just because he went to a coupld of functions (that many other politicians also attended) does not give them the right to publish his son's medical history.

His son had his privacy violated by Brooks, it matters not what anyone does or does not think of his father, Fraser has rights and those rights were violated by a woman that classed herself a friend of the Browns, there is no excuse. Even Rupert Murdoch regrets this I believe judging by what he said about Brown in the committee hearing last Tuesday. He said he regretted that they are ni longer in contact and he hoped in time things could return to how they once were. Murdoch knows how badly his papers treated Brown.