Ed forces Dave into a hole
The atmosphere in the chamber for PMQs today was rather unusual. As the loud chatter silenced for the weekly ritual of honouring the dead, I’m sure I was not the only one wondering if the noise would return. David Cameron is under as much pressure as he ever has been for his relationship with Rebekah Brooks, but how on earth was Ed Miliband supposed to raise it, without sounding like he was making too much political capital out of a scandal? Unusually, Miliband got it about right. He started slowly, noting that the “whole country” would be “appalled” by the “immoral and disgraceful” conduct of the News of the World. He then pressed the PM on the need for an inquiry, noting Mr Cameron’s positive responses respectfully, even in the face of shrieks from a few Labour backbenchers. Cleverly, he tried to cajole David Cameron into a stronger commitment than Cameron evidently wanted – to “start the process now”. Instead of charging in with a chainsaw, Ed made a careful first incision. Then he injected the poison. “The PM must realise that the public will react with disbelief if the deal [for News International to buy BSkyB] goes ahead,” he said, forcing Mr Cameron into a rather technical defence of Jeremy Hunt’s decision making. “This is not the time for technicalities,” shouted Ed. That prompted guffaws from the Tory benches. But Ed was right – it wasn’t, and Cameron was trapped. – Daily Telegraph
David Cameron and Nick Clegg are wrangling over the membership and status of the inquiries that will be held into illegal phone hacking at the News of the World and wider questions about the future of media regulation. The prime minister bowed to pressure to hold at least one inquiry but is resisting calls from Clegg for a judge to take charge. The differences between Clegg and Cameron came as the government faced calls from across the Commons as well as from City shareholders to delay its final decision on the proposed takeover of BSkyB by News Corporation, parent company of the News of the World. Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, gave the provisional go-ahead for the deal last Friday, subject to a final seven-day consultation over plans to hive off Sky News as a separately listed company to allay plurality fears. Hunt is due to consider thousands of pages of documents submitted during the consultation. He will then make a decision – which could be delayed into the summer recess – after consultations with Ofcom and the OFT. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, took the momentous step of turning against Rupert Murdoch‘s empire, calling for the resignation of News International‘s chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and demanding the BSkyB decision be referred to the Competition Commission. – the Guardian
There were signs of panic in Downing Street last night as the Prime Minister faced mounting pressure from all political parties to block the plans by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation to take full ownership of BSkyB because of the phone hacking scandal engulfing his UK newspaper group. One insider said: “We are looking for a way out on the takeover. But it isn’t easy to find one. The timing is just awful.” A Tory minister said: “David Cameron is well aware of how damaging the issue of the takeover is to him and to the Government. There is real anxiety in No 10.” Some MPs believe there could be discreet contacts between Downing Street and senior News Corp figures urging the company to suspend its bid. Senior Liberal Democrats pressed the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to limit the damage to the Coalition by derailing News Corp’s bid to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own. Government officials insist Mr Hunt can only block the deal on media plurality grounds. Some ministers hope that media regulator Ofcom will spare their blushes by halting the takeover because the hacking scandal shows News Corp would not be a “fit and proper” owner of BSkyB. – the Independent
Shocking turn as war widows messages were listened to
A phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire grew on Thursday with claims that Britain’s top-selling tabloid may have listened to the voicemail of relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. News International, the parent company of the News of the World tabloid, said it would be contacting the Defence Ministry after a report in the Daily Telegraph that the phone numbers of British soldiers were found in the files of a private investigator jailed for hacking phones. “If these allegations are true we are absolutely appalled and horrified,” it said in a statement. Rose Gentle, the mother of fusilier Gordon Gentle, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq’s oil port of Basra in 2004, told the BBC she was “totally disgusted” by the allegations. “I’d never buy that paper again, if this is true, they need to be brought to justice for this, they need to pay for this,” she said. In a further twist to the affair, a spokesman for Finance Minister George Osborne said police had told the minister his name and home phone number were in notes kept by two people jailed for phone hacking. – Reuters
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the personal details of the families of servicemen who died on the front line have been found in the files of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective working for the Sunday tabloid. The disclosure that grieving relatives of war dead were targets for the newspaper prompted anger among military charities, who said it was a “disgusting and indefensible assault on privacy”. The Metropolitan Police is facing growing calls from the families of murder victims, those killed in terrorist attacks and those who died in natural disasters, such as the Indonesian tsunami, to disclose if they were targets. Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and now chief executive of News International, its parent company, faced calls from Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, to step down. Yesterday The Daily Telegraph disclosed that families of victims of the July 7 bombings were targets for Mulcaire in the days after the atrocity in 2005. – Daily Telegraph
A new era of transparency?
Taxpayers are to be given access to information on all aspects of the performance of schools, GPs, hospitals, police, courts and prisons. Ministers will today announce an ‘information revolution’ which they say will make centrally-imposed targets across public services redundant. People will be invited to judge for themselves whether schools or GP surgeries are up to scratch using data currently hidden from scrutiny. In health, information on the prescribing data and comparative clinical outcomes of GP practices will be published from December this year. Details of complaints made against every NHS hospital – so that patients can use the experiences of other patients to judge whether they want to be treated there – will be available from October. From next April, success and failure rates of doctors in treating all major medical conditions will be available, as will data on the quality of their post-graduate medical education. In education, data enabling parents to see how effective their school is at teaching high, average and low attaining pupils across a range of subjects will be published from next January. Anonymised data from the National Pupil Database to help parents and pupils to monitor the performance of their schools in depth will be available from next June. – Daily Mail
Ministers are to publish all spending on government credit cards in order to expose profligacy and waste as part of new plans to reveal swaths of government data showing low-performing schools, GP services and transport services. The Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude will announce plans on Thursday to publish millions of new data items, from prescription rates at specific GP surgeries to how well individual schools are teaching low and high-attaining pupils. It will allow patients to shop around for the surgery most likely to prescribe an expensive drug, or parents to find out which school is best for high achievers or pupils with special educational needs. Ministers want this information about public services to drive competition as people become more informed “consumers” of government-funded services. The publication of the data comes after last year’s spending was released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing £25m of previously secret spending by Whitehall officials in the year that the government implemented its deficit reduction programme. David Cameron has written to ministers setting out the plans. “We recognise that open data and transparency can be a powerful tool to help reform public services, foster innovation, empower citizens … we also understand that transparency can be a significant driver of economic activity,” he said. “These commitments represent the most ambitious open data agenda of any government in the world.” Maude said: “Information enables choice – which creates competition which drives up standards. The new commitments represent a quantum leap in government transparency and will radically help to drive better public services.” – the Guardian
Well done Tom
Labour MP Tom Watson was named as Commons select committee member of the year at the House magazine awards on Thursday evening. At an awards ceremony in the Robing Room attended by peers, MPs and members of the press gallery, Watson was honoured for using his membership of the culture committee to push for further investigation of the phone hacking allegations. MPs and peers voted for the winners, with the press deciding who would win minister of the year. Watson said he learnt much about select committees when he first entered parliament and served under the chairmanship of Chris Mullin on the home affairs committee. He cited as a “pre-requisite” for effective committee members both an obsessional approach to policy and “an eye for the big picture”. David Davis, presenting the award to Watson, said he is proof that “a select committee member can turn the world upside down”. – ePolitix.com
Tags: Andy Coulson, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Murdoch, phone hacking, Rebekah Brooks, Tom Watson
PMQ’s how many people watch it or give a shit about it.