This last week has produced one scandal after another in the matter of News International's involvement in phone hacking, interference in government, bribery, police payments and corruption. It can be argued that every bit of the whole story is one of corruption but the overwhelming impression made in my mind is that the whole sordid mess was a direct result of unrestrained nepotism. The start of the story was a matter of phone hacking that seems to have started a good few years back. For a long time it seemed that the phones being hacked were those owned by people in the public eye — show-biz personalities, politicians, sportsmen and those famous for being famous. Back in 2006 when the first leaks became an issue, the police needed all their resources to tackle matters of terrorism and they did not take very much action on the matter of the hackings. It was put on the back burner. No one seemed to care very much. All that seemed to result from the hackings was that stories of the more insalubrious activities of people in the limelight made their way into red top Sunday papers. More recently, there have been reports of many whose phones were hacked being paid off and the tales of hacking spread to the general public. But worst of all, they hacked the phones of the relatives of men killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as murder victims and their relatives. The big out-cry came when it was revealed that the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler had been hacked and messages deleted which gave the parents hope that the girl was still alive when she was in fact already dead. Such a sordid story brought the phone hacking onto the front pages.
Phone hacking has gone on for years and I find it difficult to get too worked up about it. It was quite wrong to hack into the phones of the dead and their relatives and action should be taken against those responsible.
What I find more disturbing is the cosy relationship between senior politicians, rich fixers and the media. I have complained that this country is in a serious mess that has got worse and worse year after year. The country has always been ruled by the rich and it still is ruled by the rich. We read over this week-end of a party thrown on the 2nd July at the home of Matthew & Elisabeth Freud at their home Burford Priory. Everyone whose name I will mention — all of this guest list was set out in The Mail on Sunday [17 July 2011] — can be considered exceedingly rich. Matthew Freud is the son of the late Clement Freud. He was educated at Westminster School and is head of Freud Communications, the seventh largest public relations company in the UK and the ultimate networker and fixer. Elisabeth Freud is the daughter of Rupert Murdoch. Present at this gathering which lasted for some guests until mid-day on Sunday were : Michael Gove - Education Secretary; Ed Vaizey - Culture Minister; Peter Mandelson; David Miliband - former Foreign Secretary; James Purnell - former Cabinet Minister; Douglas Alexander - another former Cabinet Minister; Steve Hilton - David Cameron's Policy Adviser; Mrs Hilton [Rachel Whetstone] - Google Director of Communications; James Murdoch - son of Rupert and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation; Rebekah Brookes - Chief Executive of News International [resigned on 15th July; arrested on 17th July]; Robert Peston - BBC Business Editor; Will Lewis - Group General Manager of News International; Mark Thompson - BBC Director General; Alan Yentob - long-term BBC employee now an Executive; Charlie Brooks - husband of Rebekah and former race horse trainer; Jeremy Clarkson - BBC Top Gear man; Jon Snow - Channel 4 News Presenter; Piers Morgan - former Editor of Daily Mirror; now TV host; Tessa Jowell - former Cabinet Minister; David Mills - allegedly estranged husband of Tessa Jowell. Add to all these a list of various show-biz stars and sportsmen and you have the Establishment at play. The only people missing were all members of the Royal Family. It is a closed shop of the very rich, many from outside government but who, via these get togethers are able to exert a far from benign influence on all aspects of government.
David Cameron lives nearby and he and his wife are regular visitors to Burford Priory as well as the home of Charlie & Rebekah Brooks in Chipping Norton.
It is revealed today that in 2007, David Cameron was minded to appoint BBC man Guto Harri as his PR man when, allegedly, Rebekah Brooks intervened and requested that he appoint Andy Coulson instead. This would help his relations with News International and it would compensate Mr Coulson for falling on his sword and resigning as editor of the News of the World. Eventually as more sludge floated to the surface, Andy Coulson had to go. David Cameron was warned about the risks of this appointment long ago but he did not take the advice. But what is worse, Andy Coulson stayed at David Cameron's home after he had been forced to resign.
Everything about all this stinks. We have a closed circle of rich men and women from politics, the media and show-biz who think they know how to run the country in this secretive manner. It is a Mafia that works away fixing things for the select few who are very rich. It did not start with Cameron. Tony Blair was just as bad — if not worse. There are to be enquiries but such enquiries with senior judges appointed as chairman do not have a good reputation for changing things. All too often the terms of reference are limited so that nothing much will be revealed by an expensive and long-winded exercise in sophism. But how has to be the time to stop.
Today the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned. He was responsible for hiring former News of the World Deputy Editor Neil Wallis as a PR consultant for the Met. Now he also is embroiled in the News International hacking scandal.
Yesterday in the Daily Mail, Max Hastings — a highly respected former newspaper editor, journalist and historian — deplored the fact that the great institutions of state are becoming tainted by venality and incompetence. He also attacked the cosy relationship between politicians and the media but also he directed his attack at the police, politicians, civil service, bankers, royalty and the Church. Everywhere there is an obsession with wealth but the whole is steeped in incompetence.
The country has major economic problems and the government has decided that a course of cuts is the solution. Cutting expenditure and improving efficiency in government is important but if we are to recover there has to be a programme that sets out how that recovery is to be achieved. I see no sign of that programme. The Establishment meets for parties and talks amongst itself but bankers continue to pay themselves vast amount of money for doing things that serve no purpose and many in the public services are paid obscene salaries for doing less than they did in the same jobs 10 or 20 years ago - and I am not thinking about inflation.
Max Hastings mourned the failings of so many departments of state, the failures in education, the irrelevance of the Church and the total lack of any leader that could take us out of the abyss.
Is there any reason to hope?
/
No comments:
Post a Comment