Tag Archives: andy coulson

Opinion: Why David Cameron will not be Prime Minister in a year’s time

By Paul Walter | Published 23rd July 2011 - 12:33 pm

Bizarrely, I was watching dancing coal miners dressed in tutus when I heard the news of Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation last Sunday evening. A little trigger went off in my mind. Suddenly, the unthinkable had become thinkable. “Cameron will be next” I thought.

OK. We’re now in the “long grass” of the parliamentary recess. Cameron put in a “Tory Trebles all round”, barn-storming performance at the dispatch box on Wednesday. He must have been thankful it was jet-lag proof Johannesburg he had come from (where he met a different type of Tutu) and not New York, with its jet-lag on the …

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Video: Clegg says PCC is “a busted flush” and “needs to be replaced”

By Helen Duffett | Published 8th July 2011 - 5:55 pm


(Also available on the BBC website here.)

Speaking in Paris this afternoon, Nick Clegg has called the Press Complaints Commission “toothless” and said that it should be replaced, so that certain newspapers can never again act with complete impunity:

I think that what we’re seeing is a total collapse in public confidence in yet another pillar of the British establishment.

It happened with MPs, with the expenses scandal; it happened to the banking system when the banking system went up in smoke; it’s now happened

…

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Opinion: Cameron should be as ruthless as Murdoch‏

By Tim Leunig | Published 8th July 2011 - 1:10 pm

In shutting the News of the World, the Murdochs have shown themselves to be ruthless. Their ruthlessness changed the story, although it has not killed it.

David Cameron needs to be as ruthless. So long as the Murdochs have a powerful media presence, his hiring of Andy Coulson and his closeness to Rebekah Brooks are real issues. The retoxification of the Tory party is underway.

Cameron should announce that he was lied to by Coulson, and that the level of rot can only have happened if people at the top were not managing the paper properly. It was Brooks and …

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Chris Huhne speaks out over phone hacking

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd January 2011 - 10:35 pm

As I mentioned earlier today, Chris Huhne went somewhat further in his Independent on Sunday profile in making critical comments about Andy Coulson and the phone hacking allegations than the party’s rather bland official statement. He’s now gone further, as the FT reports:

A cabinet minister has sharply criticised Scotland Yard for accepting what he called News International’s “implausible” account of phone hacking at one of its tabloids, as it emerged that Gordon Brown had acted on fears that he was targeted.

Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, raised the political stakes in the illegal surveillance scandal by claiming the police

…

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Chris Huhne profiled by the Independent on Sunday

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd January 2011 - 4:06 pm

Today’s Independent on Sunday has a long profile of Chris Huhne and his work as a Cabinet minister and including some hints of criticism of Andy Coulson:

The one time he appears to choose his words carefully is when discussing Andy Coulson. On a biting Friday morning, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change does not yet know that the chill wind blowing along Downing Street will signal the resignation within hours of the coalition’s director of communications.

“I have no reason to doubt his position,” he says precisely, when asked if he was happy with Mr Coulson continuing in

…

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Andy Coulson finally goes

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd January 2011 - 9:25 am

Over the years we’ve covered Andy Coulson many times on this blog, over both his extremely high salary when working for the Tories (much higher than salaries levels Tories were criticising others for having) and also – more importantly – the phone hacking allegations.

Although yesterday he resigned, he is unlikely to depart the political stage quickly or quietly as the long queue of people at various stage of taking legal action over allegations of phone hacking mean the details of who did what and with whose knowledge will continue to be newsworthy for a good while yet.

The official Liberal …

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Majority think Coulson should be sacked, police should re-open investigation

By Mark Pack | Published 12th September 2010 - 9:27 am

A YouGov poll commissioned by The Sun and carried out over Monday / Tuesday finds:

The editor of the News of the World at the time, Andy Coulson, denied knowledge of the phone tapping operation, but accepted the “ultimate responsibility” as editor and resigned. He has since taken a job as David Cameron’s Director of Communications. There have recently been allegations from former employees of the News of the World that phone tapping was more widespread at the News of the World and that Andy Coulson was personally aware of the tapping. Mr Coulson has denied allegations that he was …

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What Lib Dems are saying (or not) about Andy Coulson

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th September 2010 - 7:00 pm

The official Lib Dem line on Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s director of communications, could not have been clearer prior to the election: this Voice headline from July 2009 gives the flavour – Huhne on Coulson: “either complicit or incompetent”.

Yet the party leadership has been noticeably more reticent to comment on the most recent allegations, triggered by the New York Times’s typically thorough investigation.

(What does it say, by the way, about the quality of the British news media today that — with the honourable exception of The Guardian — it was left to a US newspaper to …

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BBC: Met may reopen phone hacking case

By Mark Pack | Published 5th September 2010 - 10:58 pm

The BBC reports:

The Metropolitan Police has said it may reopen the investigation into claims of phone hacking by the News of the World if it uncovers new evidence.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates said officers would consider any new information – and examine if further action should be taken.

A former reporter on the paper has claimed the paper’s former editor, Andy Coulson asked him to hack into phones.

Mr Coulson has denied using or condoning the practice while editor…

One reporter – Sean Hoare – said he had been personally told by Mr Coulson to intercept phone messages. In a statement, Mr Yates said

…

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Book review: Campaign 2010 by Nicholas Jones

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th September 2010 - 3:45 pm

Anyone who has read Nicholas Jones’s previous books – especially Soundbites and Spin Doctors (1995) and Sultans of Spin (1999) – will look forward to a new tome from the BBC’s former political correspondent, who has proved himself to be an acute observer of the Westminster scene, and a fearless revealer of politicians’ trade secrets.

Campaign 2010, Mr Jones’s new work, is billed by publisher Biteback as “political theatre brought to a fresh level”. Can it live up to such hype? Sadly – and it genuinely pains me to say it, as I have high regard for …

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LDV Saturday caption competition: “Andy Coulson’s a bit busy right now” edition

By Stephen Tall | Published 4th September 2010 - 2:05 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …


(Credit: The Independent.)

Here’s Tory spin chief, and David Cameron’s Director of Communications, Andy Coulson doing what he does best: getting up close and personal with a mobile phone – what do you think he might be saying, hearing, or thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “It’s Sarah Teather by a head” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was this one by …

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Andy Coulson accused of knowing about widespread phone hacking

By The Voice | Published 2nd September 2010 - 1:22 pm

So says the New York Times in its detailed report on what the News of the World got up to with phone hacking during Andy Coulson’s time as editor:

A dozen former reporters said in interviews that hacking was pervasive at News of the World. “Everyone knew,” one longtime reporter said. “The office cat knew.”

One former editor said Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark arts, including hacking. “I’ve been to dozens if not hundreds of meetings with Andy” when the subject came up, said the former editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The editor added that when Coulson

…

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Book review: Campaign 2010, The Making of the Prime Minister by Nicholas Jones

By Mark Pack | Published 18th August 2010 - 8:50 am

I am usually sceptical about instant history book as they come out before there has been time for reflection or analysis and yet whilst events are still fresh in your mind. Too often therefore the instant history account simply tells you what you can still remember, and no more. However, Nicholas Jones’s book does a good job of avoiding this trap by being rather more about Campaign 2005 – 2009 than Campaign 2010. The book may be titled Campaign 2010, but much of it is better reflected in the subtitle, The Making of the Prime Minister, for it is about the longer story of where David Cameron came from and how he repositioned the Conservative Party.

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Opinion: The Lib Dems need a better communications strategy

By Ben Johnson | Published 17th July 2010 - 11:15 am

An opposition party can only be truly effective via the media. Government has its own spin and PR, but the opposition must cultivate this through good press stories for them and bad ones for the government.

Blair understood this better than anyone and used it to great advantage in the dying days of the Major administration, mostly through the fanaticism of Alastair Campbell.

Fast forward to today and a small party perpetually in opposition is now in government. When in opposition, projecting a clear party line was a key goal. For the Lib Dems in government, …

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New twist over News of the World phone hacking allegations

By Mark Pack | Published 24th June 2010 - 7:42 pm

In an unusual and dramatic turn in the long-running story of the News of the World (editor at the time, Andy Coulson) and the hacking in to the voicemail systems of people in the public eye, a lawyer whose claims were initially dismissed as wrong by the Press Complaints Commission is now sueing for libel.

As The Guardian explains:

Peta Buscombe, the baroness who chairs the Press Complaints Commission, has been sued for libel by a solicitor.

Writs have also been issued against the PCC itself and the Metropolitan Police by a London-based solicitor, Mark Lewis.

He is claiming damages for libel, including

…

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