David Cameron is really in big trouble

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/14/news-of-the-world-neil-wallis
<snip>
Scotland Yard has admitted it employed Neil Wallis, a former executive at the News of the World, as an adviser to the commissioner until September 2010.

Wallis was employed to advise Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates on a part-time basis from October 2009 to September 2010. During this time the Yard was saying there was no need to reopen the phone-hacking investigation – a decision made by Yates despite allegations in the Guardian that the first police investigation had been inadequate.

Wallis joined the News of the World in 2003 as deputy to then editor Andy Coulson. In mid-2007 he became executive editor, eventually leaving the News International title in 2009. Police say he supplied "strategic communication advice". The Met said his company was chosen because it offered to do the work for the lowest price. He was paid £24,000 by Scotland Yard to work as a two-day-a-month consultant.

Relations between senior Met officers and News of the World senior executives have been under scrutiny. In September 2006 Stephenson, as deputy commissioner, accompanied by the Yard's head PR man, Dick Fedorcio, dined with Wallis. This was a month after officers had arrested the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and at a time when detectives were still attempting to investigate whether other journalists or executives were involved in the interception of voicemail messages. In theory Wallis was a potential suspect in the inquiry.

"The commissioner has made the chair of the police authority aware of this contract."
----------------
This could not happen without Cameron's input and remember Coulson was Cameron's media adviser.

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[leveymg]

1. KNR. Link?

[malaise]

2. Corrected - thanks

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You know the more this develops, it is taking on the outline of the Profumo

scandal, save Cameron is no longer in office. somebody is going to do some serious time... it starting to look like

[malaise]

5. Hubby said that three nights ago

Christine Keeler! I was a youngster but my parents good not get enough on that scandal.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. LOL, I wasn't even conceived yet...

I guess that is the historian in me.

[LeftishBrit]

8. 'Cameron is no longer in office' - unfortunately he is!

I expect some people will indeed do some serious time, but as often it may be the underlings, while the criminal masterminds go free.

It's a worse scandal than Profumo IMO. The worst aspect of the Profumo scandal was that a British defence secretary was stupid enough to have an affair with a woman who, as it turned out, was also having one with a Russian naval attache. There was obvious potential there for compromising national security, but no evidence that any breaches actually occurred. For the rest, it was just the typical sex-sleaze-and-lying scandal that you get every so often. This involves real abuse of power, that went on for years in various ways, and affected many people, from royalty and top politicians, to the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and of murdered children. Not only did the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone lead to enormous distress to her family, but it may have hindered the early identification of a very dangerous criminal, who went on to murder two other people. Also, serious bribery and corruption seems to have taken place over the years, some of it apparently involving police officers. Moreover, the influence on our political institutions was insidious and dangerous. We often flippantly speak of 'King Rupert' and friends running the country, but it seems to have been even truer than we realized.

I would compare the scandal more to Watergate.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. It is worst than Watergate actually

for the following reason... it is now taking beyond state borders. I wonder if it will expand beyond the US and Australia at this point.

The comparison to Profumo comes from the obvious national security implications from one company having that much political power.

Like always no scandal is exactly like a previous one.

[malaise]

11. It is Murdoch's Watergate

only worse.


By the way Bashir said today that when his daughter was born, the midwife/nurse told them that two persons tried to get into the 'ward' to take a picture of the baby and he now suspects he was hacked since this was hours after the baby was born.

[sabrina 1]

25. Definitely more like Watergate, and maybe even worse

as it is not yet known how much influence over Parliament, and over politicians here in the US, he actually had. Remember when he threw a party for Hillary Clinton eg, when she decided to run for the US Senate. At the time, that was a shock to those of us who had watched his media empire trash the Clintons for nearly a decade. But reports I have read recently say that Bill Clinton approached him asking for his 'help' to get his wife elected. This is pretty scary and doesn't say much about the Clintons either.

[sabrina 1]

18. Cameron is still the PM, isn't he?

He hired Coulson as his media guy. Coulson was arrested a few days ago, out on bail now I think. Many people think he intends to 'talk'. I believe he said something to that effect himself, not going down alone or whatever.

[Aerows]

27. I hope he sings like a bird

and takes everyone at News Corp down with him :)

[LeftishBrit]

4. hope so!

[TheBigotBasher]

7. Cameron became PM in May 2010

[LeftishBrit]

9. Yes, but he was party leader from the end of 2005.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. But the employment of Wallis would be down to Labour, or just possibly Boris Johnson

if you're looking to pin it on a politician. Unless we're suggesting that Cameron secretly controlled everything from opposition.

More realistically, it's the high-ups in the Met Police that may be in trouble.

[LeftishBrit]

14. Fair enough; I was fixated on Coulson being appointed as Tory communications director in 2007

but on rereading this article more carefully, despite Wallis being Coulson's deputy on NOTW, his appointment to this role had nothing directly to do with Coulson. Sorry for jumping to conclusions - the reality is bad enough!

I have no doubt that the Met police could do with a bit of policing themselves.

[malaise]

24. True re the timing but Cameron's

judgement is definitely under scrutiny.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, malaise.

[MouseFitzgerald]

15. I keep hearing that Cameron is going to be in trouble

but I dont really see how. Obviously he is incredibly unpopular right now, but what would have to happen for him to be in any legal trouble?

[malaise]

16. The trouble I'm talking about is political

He does not have a majority government.

[sabrina 1]

19. We'll have to wait to see what Coulson has to say.

He made a sort of threat after he was arrested airc, something to the effect of 'not going down alone' and since these people worked for Murdoch, I doubt they have such principles as loyalty or ethics of any kind.

Cameron hired Coulson to stay in Murdoch's 'good graces'. What a tragedy that someone as evil and not even a citizen btw, should have been given so much power, more power than elected officials.

If Cameron in any way colluded to suppress investigations, he would be in legal trouble.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. I don't think he's said anything remotely like "not going down alone"

because that would have been big news. What he did say was "There is an awful lot I would like to say, but I can't at this time." Now, it's possible that meant he could implicate someone higher up, or Cmaeron; but it could also easily mean he thought he could show he didn't know what was going on.

I don't think Cameron hired Coulson to suck up to Murdoch - Coulson had gone from Murdoch's company, and Murdoch couldn't give a toss about him after that (Rebekah Brooks seems a notable exception to Murdoch actually liking someone not in his family, but she still works for him. He may we throw her to the wolves soon). He hired him because he wanted his contacts in the tabloid world, his ability to put pressure on political opponents, and his complete lack of shame or ethics. He didn't care that Coulson had been using PIs to hack people's phones.

[sabrina 1]

23. Well, I've seen several reports referring to him saying

something along those lines:

Sources close to Coulson are also tonight suggesting that he is not remotely interested in carrying the can for either Newscorp in general or Ms Brooks in particular. He has told friends in the last 48 hours that he will probably go to jail, but that he does not expect to be serving his sentence alone.

Coulson faces arrest tomorrow, senior colleagues under Brooks ‘will shop her soon’.

Other reports suggest that this is what he should and probably will do. I imagine if Murdoch has no more use for him, as you say, all the more reason for him to talk.

Well, there appears to be different opinions on why Cameron hired Coulson, as you point out, a lack ethics is one reason. But while Coulson may have left Murdoch's Empire, as you yourself point out, his time there gave him the kind of contacts you would think a PM would NOT want, if he had ethics.

Eg, I just read a story about Tony Blair cancelling a trip abroad and spending 24 hours of his time to rush to a meeting to which he was summoned by Murdoch. It seems that many of them felt they need Murdoch's support to stay in power or get there in the first place. That is what is emerging in many of the stories now being written by people who apparently were afraid to say too much until now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. True, I was restricting myself to media reports of what he said

(maybe because the 'sources close to X suggest' line has recently proven to be more "we guessed that ..." or "we heard a message on his voicemail that ..." :) ).

Yes, there was a lot of sucking up to Murdoch, including be Cameron. I just don't see employing Coulson as part of that. Unless, I suppose, it was pre-agreed with Murdoch before Coulson resigned - as a way to keep Coulson happy while allowing Murdoch to say "that editor has gone, it won't happen again". :shrug:

[Aerows]

28. Afraid of Fox

"That is what is emerging in many of the stories now being written by people who apparently were afraid to say too much until now."

I suspect this happened on this side of the pond, too. I'd imagine bribes in the UK are the tip of the iceberg.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Unlikely that he'd be in trouble with the law

However, it may affect him politically by calling his judgement into question. His party is behind in the polls at the moment anyway, and this could make it worse. And his party didn't have an overall majority in Parliament to begin with.

[sendero]

17. I'm just hoping for some..

... stateside contagion. Bring it }( }(

[girl gone mad]

21. k & r

[Angry Dragon]

29. Perhaps some gallows humor would be nice