`Now I wonder`
.
Get in touch and ask, there are duty bound to tell you, are they not ?.

Can’t keep up! Who next? There must be many £thousands going out in golden goodbyes. Will they all be going to each other’s leaving dos?
.
Stephenson is seething with a cold anger that he has been blown away. Resignations are all very well but why are there no charges being made or at any rate, so far?
.
As DAC Akers said this, could there not be more than 3870 ‘victims’?
‘Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said that there were 11,000 pages of evidence in the force’s possession, including 3,870 names, 5,000 landline telephone numbers and 4,000 mobile numbers, but only 170 people had been told that they were potential victims.’ D Telegraph
.
Cameron’s out of it anyway. He is off to see Zuma to attempt to rope SA in on the NATO atrocities on Libya. Like Blair he is spending more and more time in aeroplanes.

One think that still I don’t get is what information did they expect to get from peoples phone messages. If I get it right they couldn’t listen into conversations since the phones went digital but with Millie Dowler they were deleting messages.
I would never leave a mesage with more information than “contact me” if I had something important to say.
Following people to see whose bedrooms they sleep in could result in a headline splash but a “on the train darling” message seems a waste of energy to me.
Just wondering if it was really hubris rather than intelligence gathering?

Statement from Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick. April 2009
http://content.met.police.uk/News/Statement-from-AC-Bob-Quick/1260267543094/1257246745756
Stephenson then appoints Yates in his place.

Before that it was Ian Blair resigning as Commissioner.October 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7648664.stm

Dear Craig,

The Augean stable metaphor is exhausted in the face of incest in station and House and No 10. You raise the horror of the most violent homicide of Jean Charles de Menezes. I should like to publish a 2 page letter on your site. I was very troubled by an important fact which I brought to key people – Wistricht, Mansfield, the Public Solicitor, Simon Israel of C4 and the Home Office earlier. Silence was there. I am assuming my recorded delivery letters got home.

The letter starts :-

Dear Ms Wistricht,

I wrote to you about a year ago. I was sorry not to have received an acknowledgement then. I am persisting because it is very obvious that justice in the UK is now a very patchy business.

“Dear Ms Wistricht,

I am a qualified medical practitioner and a retired trauma and orthopaedic surgeon. I write as an informed citizen regarding the inquest into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. I humbly ask that you bring this letter to the attention of the Coroner, Sir Michael Wright. I have previously brought it to the notice of the Justice4Jean campaign, but again without response.

My central concern is that Dr Kenneth Shorrock, who was the Home Office pathologist called to carry out the autopsy on this man, was possibly ‘under the cloud’ of a charge of unfitness to practice by the General Medical Council………………………. 

The pillars of the establishment are hollow. Inside there dwell all manner of rodent, parasite & woodworm.

Is this, in its grubby Ukanian way, now worse than Watergate? Apparent institutional damage certainly is. Police & Press as well as politics. And worse yet to come. A measure of Murdoch’s power to corrupt. His secret? He always had an ever-sharpening eye for suckers.

When it comes to competence Stephenson’s replacement is likely to be better. When it comes to honesty: worse.

David Davies on BBC R5 Live just now: ‘The counter-terrorist unit is supposed to the best there is. Last week’s select committee hearing showed that it was pretty much of a shambles.

With this resignation, isn’t there even more of a spotlight on Cameron appointing Coulson? As Stephenson said, he didn’t appoint Neil Wallis, and Neil Wallis hadn’t resigned under a cloud.
So where does that leave Cameron??

Disregard the pokerwork pro-forma tributes. Britain’s top cop clearly very angry—incandescent— that he’s been sacked. All bets & gloves now off.

“Now I wonder….”
.
Craig, don’t wonder out loud. All sorts of jokes on Twitter about “celebs” who are cheesed off that they’re *not* on the list.
Seriously, I hope you’re feeling better by now.
.
And best of luck with the wrist, Mary. Sounds nasty.

Hackgate core & Yard corruption more gruesome by far: Rusbridger, Ashdown et al warned Cameron of Coulson’s connections—before he hired him—to a South London murder involving private detectives on his payroll.
.
What exactly was Scotland Yard’s role in covering up the true nature of that murder?
::

A word on his sponsor:
.
http://t.co/dBd5XJu
.
His most important sponsor. Her – in truth – nihilism, & her pioneering pay-offs to Murdoch laid the foundations for this now sprawling swamp of corruption.
::

‘This is like an onion being peeled.’
.
An onion called Blatcherism.
::

“The integrity of operation Weeting can be judged by the fact that they arrested Rebekah Brooks two days before she is due to be questioned by the Select Committee . . . thus severely impairing its activities.” — Geoff Robertson QC on BBC R4′s Westminster Hour just now.
.
Weeting officer-in-charge Sue Akers had every appearance, to me, last Tuesday of being Dodgy Geezers Ltd’s token woman. Timing of Rebekah’s arrest confirms me in that view.
.
Does FOI legislation make it possible to identify who exactly took decision to arrest Brooks today rather than, say, Wednesday?
.
Select committee members are said be furious.
::

Bilge here from Nick Robinson or Bo’ Selecta Bear as the commenters refer to him on Media Lens.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14180609
.
He would like us to believe that he is on the inside of all the manoeuvring. At the end he goes all hush hush on Cameron’s destination. I read elsewhere it is South Africa. So?
{http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/09/28/heres-to-you-mr-robinson/}

I keep wondering if Rebekah Brooks was an intelligence asset whose remit was to bring down the empire so that the Establishment could grab the booty.

Craig,

You say:-

” I am however rather suspicious that Brooks’ arrest comes just in time to avoid any questions about her relationship with Cameron…”

Surely Craig – you full well know that it goes all the way to the top – don’t you think that the press was an very influential part of the election process? ( don’t answer that question – it is oh so obvious).

As regards the other maneuverings – it is pretty obvious that a hell of a lot of civil law suits will follow – and – the whole organisation might just end up bankrupt. Bankrupt they were of integrity before the disclosures – and with a little justice – hopefully – bankrupt they will be of money after the disclosures.

P.S. Correction – Bankrupt they should be only after the victims are paid.

Ruth – come to think of it – you just might be right.

Brooks was arrested two days before she is due to be questioned by the Select Committee – so can’t you plainly see that there is much that needs to be hidden.
Come on – do you want to question the integrity of the government and bring the whole house of cards down – surely not.

The people who make greetings cards, plaques and merchandise carrying this WWII Ministry of Information slogan will be doing a roaring trade.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On_Poster.svg

Where’s John Yates in all this? Why hasn’t he gone with Sir Paul?

Who now thinks it was a good idea of Blair, when Straw was Home Secretary, to change the accountability of the Met from the government to the newly created MPA, a large committee?
.
‘The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) is the police authority responsible for supervising the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Police area).
.
It consists of 23 members: 12 London Assembly members, appointed by the Mayor of London in accordance with the political balance on the Assembly, four magistrates and seven independents. The MPA was set up in 2000 as a functional body of the Greater London Authority, by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. Previously control of the Metropolitan Police had vested entirely in the Home Secretary.’ Wikipedia

Wikipedia on that murder:
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Morgan_(private_investigator)
::

Check this out:
.
“Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper has claimed that a special bunker, requiring security clearance for access was created at the company’s headquarters to conduct “counterintelligence” including snooping on phone records”
.

“Has Roger Ailes been keeping tabs on your phone calls?”
That’s how Portfolio.com began a post back in 2008, when a former Fox News executive charged that Ailes had outfitted a highly secured “brain room” in Fox’s New York headquarters for “counterintelligence” and may have used it to hack into private phone records.

.
Read the whole piece here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/17/995568/-Fmr-Fox-News-Executive:-Americans-Phones-Were-Hacked

Disinformation is precisely what will be released Clark – stay tuned.

Just one forgotten reason Cameron is increasingly at sea:
.
http://ind.pn/agrt4C
::

An ‘ally of Cameron’ on what Rusbridger did, or did not, tell No 10 about Coulson’s links to jailed private detective Jonathan Rees:
.
‘Axe murder yes. Hacking no.’
:

>>An ‘ally of Cameron’ on what Rusbridger did, or did not, tell No 10 about Coulson’s links to jailed private detective Jonathan Rees: ‘Axe murder yes. Hacking no.’

Jonangus, what’s the source of that comment? I’m thinking that the axe murder story is the real dynamite under Cameron.

@Strategist
.
Source for axe-murder quote: final par of this story in FT:
.
http://on.ft.com/n2Eiy9

Britain’s top cop now points the finger at Cameron — BBC political editor Nick Robinson.
.
As I opined above, Stephenson is incandescent with anger. All bets & gloves are off.
::

Letter to my MP
.
Dear Sir,
.
I just wanted to tell you how good it is to have a Prime Minister that I can really trust. Reports of Greek island yacht cruises and free flights from Rupert Murdoch, and knowledge of the axe murder of a crucial investigator are, I’m sure, just malicious fabrications. Having Rebekah Brooks arrested just before she was due to appear in front the Select Committee has put my mind at rest a great deal, as has the fact that the police have only informed 170 people that their communications were abused. I certainly don’t believe that the police have some 9000 ‘phone numbers on that list.
.
You scored some excellent party political points in your form reply to my 38 Degrees e-mail. My former MP, also a Conservative, did very well, too. When I complained about UK complicity in torture, he replied as follows:
.
“I totally agree with you in that torture is totally unacceptable and I, like the rest of the Conservative Party, am calling for an investigation into the various allegations that Britain has colluded in torture over the last decade.”
.
So it was very heartening to see that the inquiry will be led by a former Commissioner for the Security Services. Who better to investigate complicity and ineffectiveness than someone who himself held the responsibility? I’m also glad that The Cabinet Secretary, ie the government, will decide which documents can be made public. Limiting the scope of the inquiry, and not calling for the US evidence, also goes a long way towards making sure that I will never suspect a thing.
.
It is also very reassuring that Murdoch’s 178 newspapers, and the entire Conservative party, were in complete agreement that a war upon Iraq was essential. I’m looking forward to seeing those WMDs when they’re finally dug out of the sand. After all, with consensus like that, I could hardly doubt their existence.
.
In the US, I see, counter-intelligence, black ops and phone record monitoring were carried out from a bunker in the government department known as “Fox News”. And given the Murdoch papers’ huge influence over public opinion, I’m sure that the UK electorate made an informed and balanced choice at the last election.
.
I’m sorry that my suspicion extended to you so “gratuitously”; I’m sure you’ve learned nothing of any of the above in your forty-one years in parliament; they’re just not the sort of things that Privy Council members are privy to. However, I’d still be interested to know your thoughts. I trust that you will remain opposed to any increase in the power of the electorate, that you’ll continue to support the US in demonising the likes of Julian Assange, and keeping dangerous truth-tellers like Bradley Manning in permanent solitary confinement. I’m so proud to live in a free democracy, with a free, representative press, and open government. I’m sure you agree.
.
Yours sincerely,
Anon

`Axe murder yes. Hacking no.’
.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Daniel_Morgan_(private_investigator)

Jonangus Mackay, well done, you beat me to it!.

‘The prime minister thinks that Leveson should concentrate first on press ethics, and not proceed to uncover the truth until police inquiries are finished and any trials have run their course. This process will take at least three years (the police phone-hacking investigation still has 3,800 victims to contact) and presupposes that police officers have the intellectual ability to get at the truth, through any miasma given off by corrupt colleagues and journalists and newspaper executives under suspicion. And police inquiries are inadequate: suspects and potential witnesses have a right not to answer questions, and no duty to tell the truth if they do.’ Geoffrey Robertson, Guardian, 13/07.

When did Cameron, the Murdochs and the police actually know that there would be a police investigation into News International’s telephone hacking malpractices? Because of the arrest of Rebekah Brooks yesterday she is now under criminal investigation. Tomorrow’s select committe before which she will be appearing will be a farce. Leveson: “Did you know about the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone”. RB “I’m sorry I can’t answer that question because of the ongoing police inquiries.” This business stinks.

Here’s a really superb article, which really engages with the subject in a profound way. I’d recommend it:

http://visionon.tv/web/tabstroughton/blog/-/blogs/all-journalists-are-scum

@Craig
Agreed but what possible use would be knowing about possible sexual assignations of family members of victims of 7/11 or troops lost in Afghanistan?
Anyway enough of this gloom and doom, wasn’t it great to see Darren Clarke win the Open. I like Phil Mickelson (yes I am a bit strange)and Thomas Bjorn would have been a worthy winner but after twenty years of trying Mr Clarke is a Majors winner!

Four police inquiries into murder of Daniel Morgan…
Three serving detectives arrested on suspicion of…. involvement for the killing
Murder victims place in his private investigators taken over by a member of the original murder inquiry, former Detective Sergeant Sidney Fillery…..
After the collapse of the Old Bailey trial in March 2011 it was revealed that Jonathan Rees had earned £150,000 a year from the News of the World for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye
Jonathan Rees was Daniel Morgans business partner

The combination here of golf news with evidence of massive corruption in the highest echelons of government is surreal.

In the vain of the tabloids ‘gotcha’, ‘like nine pins’woul;d be another metaphor. Now that Stephenson resinged I believe, just as Courtney, that this goes right to the top.
This will reach Cameron and unless his coalition partners are desperate to look like those three monkeys, they will further a vote of no confidence. My message to the Lib Dems ‘How much deeper can you sink under the waterline Nick, how much further can you let your party sink before a return to the surface becomes impossible?

Mind you a general election would confuse the public, it would throw all the bits back up into the air to come down in front of a new administartion, which, as usual, would not ahve a solution reaqdy for voters , but, would have to worked it our, develop policy humm har, humm har, a long grass affair. It would also throw a spanner into the planned war with Iran, one coalition partner in turmoil does not forbode well, he would have to suspend all elections, a ‘way out’ I expect from conservatives to use. and btw. a crap law alltogether.

If Nick waits just that little longer on the other hand, he might be able to watch a conservatives melt down, members leaving their party in droves, not over this alone, but over their attrocious local agenda’s. Localism is a farce, all over the country they are hitting the buffers with cuts and incineration and, and.

Threnody on the long drawn-out
.
lancing of the fattest pimple
.
on Mrs Thatcher’s (rotting) face:
.
http://bit.ly/qJaRJB
:

Thanks to David Halpin – I’m sure many people really admire what you’re doing.
.

Mary, golf and corruption in high places… seems an apt counterpoint to me. Think of all those sleazy dictators who enjoyed a round or two while ordering executions. Perhaps, now it’s taken outdone by football, corruption and Kissinger, though.

@Mary
Craig early pointed out how close he was to the golf so that’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it.
Also life would be so boring if all we talked about was politics, and I also guess rather depressing.
It was re-reading Craig’s book which re-ignited my desire to go to Uzbekistan and it was nice to see the human aspects of a place about which I had just read so many terrible and sad things.

Indeed, Paul, And also, if there can be ‘Zen’ and ‘Motorcyles’, perhaps there can be ‘Golf’ and dropping birdies into high places… after all, iron keeps evil at bay (they say). All sports have their spiritual aspects, as the Greeks and others well knew. Read, and chill out, man.
http://www.barcelonareview.com/49/e_ss.htm

Guardian’s latest scoop on phone-hack scandal. Farmers Guardian, that is:
.
‘News of the World scandal could delay Government’s announcement of a badger cull.’
.

Yeah I suppose that surreal is better than real at the moment.
.
Ingo, whilst out with the dog in the unseasonal Scotch mist I was pondering what we should be doing and seeking. Rightfully this rotten lot we have in power should get out and we should have an election but, as you say, there is no effective and credible opposition in view of their identical links to the sewer and we would get a rehash.
.
An example of the ‘localism’ you also refer to. About eight weeks ago, a very large pile of black bin bags arose in the local park. They are filled with ragwort that some of the volunteer members of Cameron’s Big Society had pulled up from the meadows alongside the river. The pile is still there, the contents are rotting and the bags are breaking open. They will split if moved. (I expect you know that ragwort is toxic to grazing animals)
.
Nearby are two still empty skips that the council hired. They have been there for three weeks. How much do two skips cost btw? They were obviously ordered to take the bags. Am example of the waste of money within local government and of the general paralysis around that we are seeing and feeling.
.
On the playing fields some youngish people were being put through their paces by ex PE instructors who set up a fitness training company. The motto on their tickety boo little sign written vans is Feel Alive Outdoors which reminded me that the reality in Afghanistan and Pakistan is rather Die Indoors.

PS Hearing that Stephenson might stay on for some months for a transition although May is suggesting that Tim Godwin takes over in the interim. They obviously want Stephenson out pdq.

Just in time for free lunch:
.
Assnt Commissioner John ‘Binbag’ Yates to be publicly dispatched to nearest wheelie bin about 12:30 pm.
.

If Godwin does take over from Stephenson would his membership of the Sentencing Council alongside Judge Leveson (Cameron’s appointee to lead the inquiry into press practices) cause any conflict?
.
http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/about/council-members.htm
.
If reports are correct that this inquiry will take as long as three years to report, will that coincide with an election, assuming that Cameron is still around by then?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/uzbekistan/8611896/French-court-rules-against-libel-claim-from-Uzbekistan-dictators-daughter.html

Off topic. Following-on, possibly, from ‘Mason, Ohio’. Paris, France.

“I am still rather puzzled by why the police have not informed approximately 3,750 of the over 4,000 potential phone hacking victims that their names are on the list.”

Conspiracy usually trumps cock-up in this scandal, but here I’ll put it out there that Mulcaire’s list of 4000-odd phone numbers, many of which are surely no longer used, does not always include the name of the person being targeted. And I wouldn’t blame the police for not informing potential targets until they were reasonably sure that they were indeed targets.

For any one of the inquiries, here’s a question that should be asked – So Glenn Mulcaire has thousands of phone numbers in his note-books, did the police at any point think to offer him immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against the NoTW?

I omitted the word military here……… On the playing fields some youngish people were being put through their paces by ex…….. PE instructors who set up a fitness training company
,
They are called British Military Fitness. http://www.britmilfit.com/about-bmf/

John Yates ‘to be suspended’ over Neil Wallis links
.
The dramatic announcement is likely to be made by Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, and his deputy Kit Malthouse, at a press conference on Monday afternoon …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8645011/Phone-Hacking-John-Yates-to-be-suspended-over-Neil-Wallis-links.html

Courtesy of Hackgate’s one-man Woodstein:
.
handy crib-sheet for tomorrow’s Commons pub quiz:
.
http://bit.ly/pboLS8
.

Dreoilin Sky are saying that the Metropolitan Police Authority are due to make a statement very shortly. Time now 12.37 Also one coming from Brooks’ lawyer later.

‘John Yates ‘to be suspended’ over Neil Wallis links’

On full pay, naturally ! He’ll then have the time, space & money to work on a plausible cover story to explain his (in)actions.

“I am however rather suspicious that Brooks’ arrest comes just in time to avoid any questions about her relationship with Cameron and others at the select committee – or indeed why she was a facebook friend of the committee chairman.”

why do you suppose she would answer any of the questions , would incriminate herself even before her arrest?

lets face it these committees are useless, and have been used in the past to defuse issues by being built up in the media and then the reulting Q & A an anticlimax ..after which the media in one chorus decide its no longer of any importance.

lets not forget it was those on the committee who realising that neither coulson or brooks knew that paying coppers was illegal made them aware of that fact before they could add further misdemeanours to their list of confessions.

trust no one least of all politicians in this matter since it is they who have abused their relationship with the media and continue to do so..

Wendy, she admitted that her news organisation paid the police at the same select committee before Kaufman in 2003. I know she’s older now. As somebody wisely put it on Craig’s blog a week or two back the Murdochs are using her as a firewall.

“He’ll then have the time, space & money to work on a plausible cover story to explain his (in)actions.” Old Mark

.

Indeed. He’ll also have time to do some more deals and get a cushy, well-paying newspaper column for when he exist the Met. Nice work if you can get it, eh! Who says crime doesn’t pay?
.

Bleedin’ heck, I could run those columns off ten-a-penny. 800 or 1600 words a week. That’s peanuts! It’s really easy, once you get into the swing of it. I used to write and record ‘Pauses for Thought’ for the Sarah Kennedy Show on Radio 2; I did around 15 of them. They’re a little like tabloid pieces, precisely 2 mins 45 seconds, less preachy than Radio 4′s ‘Thought for the Day’, accessible, not nasty, though, great fun actually, and relatively uncontentious – though I did manage to get some subtle references to Iraq, etc. into one or two! Without being in any way patronising, one’s aiming for a kind of lightly matey ‘Everyman/woman’ tone, an ambience of shared humanity which (since the only Lear jet I own is an Airfix model) is entirely genuine. Come to think of it, Estuary English might’ve come in handy (!)

“she admitted that her news organisation paid the police at the same select committee”
.
She clarified that later by saying she was talking about the newspaper industry as a whole and not about her news organisation!. They couldn`t pin it on her after that!.

So John Yates resigns and the word is his duties will be taken on by Common Purpose “graduate” and officer in charge of the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes, Cressida Dick.

The Met is in deep panic mode

Both John yates and Stephenson have left, resigned, they were not pushed by the Home secretary and she is left with the chaws of finding replacements, how do you find a good strong light in a box of 25 watt bulbs?

The news is being dragged out, still no assurances that rebekah brooks can answer question, all she has to do is take her lawyer and one of her matey police men, or that NI/yard twitter hayman, he can be asked whilst ‘looking after her’.

Thanks for the insight into the new recruiting tools of poor uneducated and willing canon fodder, even if its just 1% of them, what a waste of young lives, lets hope the fitness they receive will also open their minds to such indoctrination attempts via sport.

Or am I a little too contrare?

buy ugg cardy boots on sale!The Best

ugg boots online. from here you can find the UGG Boots 5498 Adirondack Tall,UGG Boots

5819 Classic Cardy,UGG Boots 5854 Classic Mini.