Mr Coulson, meet Mr Assange

More on the fallout from the royal bugging affair, along with continued calls for Andy Coulson’s departure. We seem to have reached the stage where it’s untenable to accept that the only people doing this at the NOTW were Goodman and Mulcaire. 

One common feature of all this is the determination of various parties - the Met, New Labour, when it was in office, the Tories now they are in office – to leave as many stones as possible unturned. 

I wonder what Andy Coulson could do to, say, the entire British political system, if he ever felt the need for revenge, and he kept certain records. 

The word that occurs to me here is wikileaks, though that depends on how much was actually documented.

Comments

[Alex]

Well, thoughts. I am impressed by the fact the first comment on that Libcon thread is "so this is the biggest news me the day? Not the fact that the Guardian has endorsed David Miliband?".

[jamie]

Actually, that is kind of interesting in a sort of complementary way, since Guardian media appear to be the other group apart from Murdoch to be seriously trying to shape the political battlespace, moving into the gap left open by the Telegraph's shameless pandering to wingnuts and trying to drag Labour along with it. The Mail, meanwhile, continues it's traditional policy of sending scorched earth raiding parties in from the steppe and withdrawing. What is good, Dacre?

[Chris Brooke]

In any case, tehgraun hasn't endorsed David M. That was the Observer.

[ejh]

the determination of various parties....to leave as many stones as possible unturned.

Talking of which, it was interesting to see what wasn't in the various Cyril Smith obituaries, though they did all make it reasonably clear that he ws a bully and a fraud.

[Alex]

I wasn't actually aware he was quite as horrible a human being as he clearly was. fucking asbestos bastard.

[ejh]

This is long and detailed.

[Richard J]

I honestly hadn't been aware of those. Wrong generation, I'd guess. I'd assumed the silence was because he'd gone quietly gaga, not that.

[dsquared]

christ, Rochdale, Oldham, Saddleworth, Hyde - that whole great blob between the M60 and the Pennines, the part of East Lancashire that is either represented by Phil Woolas or looks like it ought to be. Has a real Dennis Wheatley air hanging over the place, doesn't it?

[Richard J]

Lancashire witches &c. &c.

[Richard J]

Whereas over the Penines in Yorkshire, my parents get represented by such stern upstanding folk as Eric Pickle and Philip Dav - oh shit.

[ejh]

I can vaguely remember there being allegations about Smith, perhaps because they were published in Private Eye, but I wasn't yet a reader then.

I was thinking about when in was that scandals of this type - repeated child sexual abuse in institutions - first started to get taken seriously by the authorities, partly because I was thinking about Smith's alleged warning to the victims that nobody would believe them because of who they were, which - I thought at first - was quite likely true at the time. I then read that Kincora broke in 1980, but it's still my impression that it wasn't for some time afterwards that these scandals started appearing (i.e. people started believing the victims) with any regularity.

[Alex]

You do wonder exactly why he needed to be on 29 boards of school governors, quite apart from just being a cumulard of the first water.

[Alex]

From the Grauniad live blog: Q: Does the prime minister believe entirely Andy Coulson's denials?
A: [No verbal response, although the spokesman did appear to nod faintly.]

In tomorrow's news: Asked if he believed he could trust Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister gave no verbal response, but his left eyelid flickered briefly and several of those present discerned a faint smell of sulphur...

[Richard J]

Obviously a bloody strong geas.

[Alex]

In the day after tomorrow's: As speculation continued over the Prime Minister's press secretary, Andy Coulson, he refused to give any verbal response to questions, although later measurements suggested that the fine-structure constant had briefly risen slightly...

[Richard J]

In response to a question about encountering a tortoise turned over on its back, Andy Coulson responded 'my mother, I'll tell you about my mother' and proceeded to shoot the interviewer before making his escape.

[Richard J]

I wonder what Andy Coulson could do to, say, the entire British political system, if he ever felt the need for revenge, and he kept certain records.

This, come to think of it, is the MacGuffin for Christopher Brookmyre's 'Boiling a Frog'.

[Alex]

Somewhere about on the web is a piece from a reporter in San Francisco who succeeded in administering the Voight-Kampff test to all the candidates for mayor.

[Mr. M]

"The word that occurs to me here is wikileaks, though that depends on how much was actually documented."

If I remember correctly, according to the Graun all the relevent documents got taken out in two massive bin bags while the police searched a single desk. Therefore even if some noble soul wanted to leak anything I don't think they could at this point.

[ajay]

I am working my way through "The Shield" at the moment and I'm coming to the conclusion that though "The Wire" is superior TV, better characters, better plots, more philosophically coherent etc, "The Shield" is actually a better portrayal of real politics as an interminable thrashing mess of blackmail and arse-covering by people incapable of thinking further than half an hour ahead.

[Richard J]

of real politics as an interminable thrashing mess of blackmail and arse-covering by people incapable of thinking further than half an hour ahead.

Which is why Brazil is better than 1984, IMO.

[Alex]

Oh yeah, Dan Hannan: I wondered then, as I have since, whether Heath's career was not a massive attempt to prove something, to show the world that he really was as important as he believed.

FUNNY

[ajay]

Brazil is better than 1984, IMO.

Yes. Not least because I'm fairly sure that real torturers are much more like Jack Lint than they are like O'Brien.

[Richard J]

It is interesting to note that the site of Croydon power station, whose cooling towers were used as the set for the inescapable torture chamber that drove Michael Palin mad, is now an Ikea.

[ajay]

Bloody hell.

[ajay]

Also, Jonathan Pryce, not Michael Palin. Michael Palin was the torturer.

[ejh]

Here we go.

Private Eye

Smith's brother

Of course Olly Kamm has to do his "mountain of flesh" thing, doesn't he?