I have had another couple of weeks of silence, mainly because of jobs going on in my home and doing a bit of extra time in the gym. During this time, I have been reading in the newspapers the daily goings-on in the saga of the phone hacking, etc in News International. Today, Sunday will see the last edition of the News of the World, a newspaper that has existed for 168 years and is now brought down by the criminal activities of a sanctimonious group of very rich people. As those of you who have been keeping your eyes on this story will know, it all started with the alleged tapping of the phones of various politicians and show-biz personalities. But it has moved on from that and now it seems that thousands of people have had their phones tapped, including murdered girl Millie Dowler, the two girls Jessica Chapmen and Holly Wells murdered in Sohom in 2003 and the relatives of servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Added to this sick tale, it is alleged that various police officers have been bribed to provide information. James Murdoch has tried to hush up the story by handing out compensation. Former editor Andy Coulson was involved at some stage and he became David Cameron's press officer, in spite of several prominent people warning him that Coulson was toxic. Also toxic is Rebekah Brooks the Chief Executive who was editor of the News of the World when the worst abuses occurred. It seems that she and James Murdoch will keep their jobs while the uninvolved present staff of The News of the World will all lose their jobs. The story has further to go and there seems little doubt that eventually Rebekah Brooks will have to go.
The worst part of this tale of slime is the deep involvement of various politicians and the super-rich. The Chipping Norton set they are being called. David Cameron is a close friend of Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie Brooks. David Cameron and his wife were guests over Christmas at their house in Chipping Norton — located, ironically, in Hackers Lane — with James Murdoch present as well. Also in the Chipping Norton set is Matthew Freud, PR fixer and married to Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth. In 2008, the Camerons were flown in Freud's private jet to see Murdoch on his yacht off the coast of Greece. George Osborne is part of the crowd as is Nat Rothschild — tax exile and billionaire financier — and Peter Mandelson. Blair was part of this during his days in No 10 and it now seems that he tried to get Gordon Brown to try to shut down any investigation into phone hacking. He refused. Most of us have believed that politics in this country has been relatively non-corrupt but these revelations indicate that not to be true. It is totally unacceptable to have a media baron like Murdoch controlling government in this country, popping in and out of Downing Street by the back door, as he has done for many a year. In addition it is clear that News International has played fast and loose with the law and there was much corruption in what they did. The full story must now be unravelled. Murdoch must never again be allowed to control government in this way. Nor must he be allowed to get his hands on any more of BSkyB. He certainly is not a fit and proper person to control a huge media empire almost without control.
Rebekah Brooks has been revealed as a totally self-centred career woman who had not the slightest interest in the News of the World or its history or its staff. All that mattered was that it be used to promoted her career.
Last week, James Murdoch put out a statement about why they were closing the News of the World and what struck me was that he spoke of the paper as though it were some remote entity over which he had neither control nor knowledge. It is a consistent streak through all this story that everyone in charge tells us that they did not know what was happening. If this is true they should have and they are surely responsible. When the first stories of hacking came out they should have investigated thoroughly to ensure that anything rotten was rooted out. They did not because they knew it was rotten and they were complicit in the cancer.
To lose any newspaper is a great loss. The News of the World is gone not because of its own failings but because of its super-rich owners and managers and their arrogant contempt for their staff and their readers. Many times in its history, the paper made mistakes but it was responsible for digging up some stories of corruption and wrong-doing that needed to be revealed.
Goodbye NotW. Good Luck to all who sailed in her.
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