What will be the outcome of the Leveson Inquiry?

stockhausen

stockhausen

stockhausen

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Jeremy Hunt's grip on ministerial office looked increasingly precarious after the Leveson inquiry heard that he had written an outspoken memo for David Cameron, staunchly supporting the Murdoch family's £8bn bid for BSkyB, a month before he was handed the task of adjudicating on whether to approve the media merger in an apolitical, "quasi-judicial" manner.

The culture secretary also demanded that the prime minister intervene to rein in Vince Cable, who was at the time responsible for the BSkyB bid – a request that explicitly contradicts a statement Hunt gave to parliament last month, in which he told MPs that he made "absolutely no interventions" to put pressure on the business secretary to wave the controversial takeover through.

It also raised fresh questions about the judgment of the prime minister and in particular his then cabinet secretary, Lord O'Donnell, who had ruled that Hunt would not prejudge the £8bn takeover even though he had publicly supported the bid. Cameron did not tell O'Donnell of the memo, but No 10 insisted the memo was "entirely consistent" with Hunt's previous public statements that the Murdoch's bid for BSkyB raised no media plurality issues.

The inquiry heard that the culture secretary drafted the email on his private Gmail account on 19 November 2010 despite being warned by his officials that he should not intervene because the decision was being taken exclusively by Cable.
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Cameron hoped that time and the Leveson Inquiry would allow Hunt's support of the Murdoch Media Mafia to be overlooked. It seems increasingly clear that that is not going to happen and that Hunt will have to go . . . lying to Parliament and trying to hide behind a Gmail account . . . tut, tut - BANG!

It is no longer beyond the realms of possibility that Cameron's repeated appalling lack of judgment (Coulson, Brooks, Hunt, etc., etc., etc.) could lead to his deciding to spend more time with his family. I believe that the public's increasing disillusion with his performance as PM, along with the machinations of Nadine Dorries and the anger of the Raving Right of the Tory party could well lead to the collapse of the Tory party in Parliament, let alone the coalition.

What odds on Cameron going?

Who else (apart from innumerable News Corp reptiles) will end up in the brown and malodorous stuff I wonder?
 
that Robert Jay, the inquiry QC will get a prime-time chat show :D .

something like an oversight committee that has the power to issue unlimited fines, public floggings, etc. of hacks/editors etc who transgress the rules would do me :D

and force any papers that publish untrue stories to print an apology that covers at least half of the front page.

whether anything tangible actually does come from it remains to be seen, but the way Leveson has been commenting at different points during the proceedings at least makes it sound like he has high hopes that the outcome will have far reaching and long term effects.
 
recommendations that will be ignored and a few red faces

tbh it's all pointless **** that will result in nothing we didn't know and nothing changing

total non event tbh
 
Rotty said:
recommendations that will be ignored and a few red faces

tbh it's all pointless **** that will result in nothing we didn't know and nothing changing

total non event tbh
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I disagree. Operation Tuleta and the Leveson inquiry have already led to a significant number of arrests. At the very least, there's a number of people who will be charged with perjury.

A friend of mine spoke at the Leveson enquiry, right before Paul Dacre. Apparently he made a joke and the response was recorded as *awkward laughter*. :)
 
What i forsee happening is that Murdoch will walk away scott free, and then the same evidence that let him walk free will mean a few government ministers loose their jobs.

Dont get me wrong, i dont think Hunt getting cosy with the Murdochs was a good idea and that he should keep his job, but dammit.. if we know that he was being manipulated by murdoch.. then thats proof that murdoch was engaging in corruption
 
there will be a few sacrificial lambs to the slaughter and the same things will continue to happen untill the need to bring it up again to make an example of someone....
 
I'd assume less threads from you about it for a start, but I could be wrong on that. :p

Hunt will be the scapegoat, if you can call it that. Changes to how such things are dealt with in the future...yadda..yadda..yadda...also known as 'not much'.
 
AmTechFox said:
Hunt will be the scapegoat, if you can call it that. Changes to how such things are dealt with in the future...yadda..yadda..yadda...also known as 'not much'.
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Pretty much i am pretty sure Cameron is just using him as a firewall so he has someone to fire in the end so it looks like he's doing something.

I also find it to be an ironic position of not being able to fire him atm because of one of the reasons the investigation was started i.e the media influencing what the government to do things like supporting take over deals and hiring people or in this case firing people.
 
my prediction is that the biggest impact will be the declaration that, due to levenson, fair trials of the NI executives and the like are not possible.

I also suspect that some people will continue trying to beat Cameron with a problem that occurred during Blair's time in power...
 
So pointless, Labour playing the usual games in power, support Murdoch, over spend, ruin the country, lose power, blame the other side for everything they are doing right that looks bad to the average stupid voter(cutting the spending Labour should never have raised to start with) and blame them for doing all the same things, like being in bed with Murdoch.


The fact is, papers always behaved like this, always, they've always got tips from police, and reporters have always paid sources for info, many who shouldn't be giving out that info.

Maybe there is more leaning towards doing it for scummy reasons, but frankly our whole society has gone that way.

People are particularly trying to portray this as Tories doing something wrong and various Tory leadership being totally wrong in not arbitrarily deciding to distance themselves from Murdoch.... when Labour did nothing but support them either.

Country leadership maintains friendship with hugely influencial big business leaders...... shock horror.

Labour just sicken me, they lie, cheat, steal, expenses scandal, evading tax, helping murdoch, doing sweet FA to close tax loopholes for the stupid rich while taxing the poor more and more(while supporting unions who help raise the cost of everything hurting the poorest people the most)... then they lose due to their horrendous mismanagement of the country..... and try and blame everything on the Tories.


Seriously how much time and how much money has been spent on effectively establishing that..... several reporters are scum and broke the law and should go to jail, while several of their higher ups were aware and didn't decide to go to the cops over something that while illegal was hardly murder, would have hurt someone they were friends with and hurt their paper.

Boo hoo. Fact is we could have put a few people in jail, effectively forced Brooks into resigning or being fired.... and not wasted the what is probably millions and millions by now on an investigation that as said, will make a fair trial almost impossible for anyone that should be prosecuted and the likely outcome is..... not much happens at all.
 
drunkenmaster said:
snip!
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Everyone knows that the last Labour government, and the Conservative government before that were in bed with Murdoch.

I haven't heard anyone, Labour or otherwise, who denies this and blames everything on the current Tory cabinet.

You're correct that the phone-hacking scandal took place under the noses of the previous Labour government and it doesn't take a huge leap of logic to suggest that the original, anaemic, investigation may have been the result of some form of Labour intervention.

However, the current issue of News International's takeover of BskyB is a ****storm all of the Coalition's own making.

First with Vince Cable, who was openly opposed to the take over, and then with Jeremy Hunt, who was openly supportive of it. In both cases, David Cameron did the hiring and firing of the position (which let's not forget was supposed to be completely impartial) and through Leveson it has come to light just how close Cameron was to Brooks et al.

It all reeks of what is effectively insider trading.

That's not to excuse the wrong-doing of any previous government, but to suggest that this is all smoke and mirrors to disguise Labour's mistakes is farcical. Don't forget that this inquiry was established by Cameron.

Your rant makes you sound just as purblind as the people you're accusing of malfeasance.
 
What will be the outcome?

Like most working people who are struggling to make ends meet, I couldn't give a monkey's toss.
 
It always amuses me that these kind of discussions bring out the "Labour V Conservative" arguments and who has done what when, ultimately, they are both as bad as each other when it comes to the crunch.

Did the phone hacking predominantly happen during Labour power? Yep.
Was Labour cosy with NI for political advantage? Probably (has this been proven that they definitley have yet within Levenson inquiry? :confused:)

Was Conservative cosy with NI for political advantage? Yep
Did Conservative go to NI to get advice/assistance with investigating the phone hacking? Yep <--- this one is just mental :D


People will naturally attack the current government in power over this as it is upto them to fix a country, that's why they get voted in. If they are seen to not be doing it then they will be attacked for it.

Political direction aside - IMHO, I cannot see how Cameron is still able to stand now. He has had embarrassment upon embarrassment in relation to his personal relationships which, again IMHO, have reflected on his professional decisions e.g. seeking advice and guidance on a phone hacking investigation from the main perpetrators that were doing it.



Edit: On the press side - I hope this changes things. The press have too much power ATM. They print what they want irrespective of the truth in the story. Sure they can be made to retract the lies but by that time the damage could have been done e.g. Chris Jeffries (Joanna Yeates' landlord)
 
drunkenmaster said:
... The fact is, papers always behaved like this, always, they've always got tips from police, and reporters have always paid sources for info, many who shouldn't be giving out that info.

Maybe there is more leaning towards doing it for scummy reasons, but frankly our whole society has gone that way.
...
Country leadership maintains friendship with hugely influencial big business leaders...... shock horror.
...
Seriously how much time and how much money has been spent on effectively establishing that..... several reporters are scum and broke the law and should go to jail, while several of their higher ups were aware and didn't decide to go to the cops over something that while illegal was hardly murder, would have hurt someone they were friends with and hurt their paper.

Boo hoo. Fact is we could have put a few people in jail, effectively forced Brooks into resigning or being fired.... and not wasted the what is probably millions and millions by now on an investigation that as said, will make a fair trial almost impossible for anyone that should be prosecuted and the likely outcome is..... not much happens at all.
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You appear to be making a number of different points here:
  • Corrupt & unhealthy newspapers have been around for a very long time
  • Politicians of all flavours have always courted and tolerated them
  • They may be getting worse - but so is society in general
  • We are wasting millions investigating newspaper practices
  • We could just have put a few people in jail and forced Brookes, et al to resign
I think that we can dismiss the last two ludicrous comments first but I am puzzled that you appear to suggest that just because many newspapers have been God-awful for a very long time we should do nothing about it :confused:

Murdoch is not just a newspaper magnate
  • he dominates media in the UK; whatever he and his minions are trying to portray, he has far more impact on the public mood than the occasional party manifesto
  • he is a foreign carpet-bagger
  • he pays next to no tax (if any at all) in the UK
  • he is in it for the money, has no real interest in either the UK or the people living in the UK
  • his empire does absolutely nothing to educate or to improve the quality of life amongst UK citizens
All in all, the Murdoch Media Mafia is a disgrace; if it were a niche player, it wouldn't matter; it isn't, it dominates the market and sets (low and lowering) standards.

Personally, I am all in favour of Murdoch being sent packing and ALL Politicians, the Police and Public Officials being given bloody noses and reminded where their duty lies.


ps - The Grauniad is the best newspaper available on the market today - rush out and buy a copy - DO IT NOW - you know it makes sense ;)
 
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