I looks like Steve hasn't heard of Thatcher or Major, both PM's where supported by Murdoch.

Does he remember the Sun bragging they won the 1992 election.

This scandal has brought the worst out the Right, all they have done is whine and complain.

We know how Cameron bought Murdoch support, he promised to " Neuter" Ofcom.

This is ironic, considering Ofcom is now involved in the hacking scandal, would a neutered Ofcom been able to judge whether people like Murdoch Jr are fit and proper people?

I am surprised Nick Robinson and Tom Bradby didn't get an invite to Chequers, both are in the tank for Cameron.

DOWN WITH JEWISH MAFIA!!!

@Anton Jury

And its not just us lefties that are sick of Cameron, his back0benchers, grass-root activists and traditional Tory voters are also increasingly keen to see him go.

For all the tribalism, the Conservatives deserve a better leader. And there is still time for them to do it...

I read all this and I can't begin to imagine how hostile the press will be to Labour and Ed Miliband in particular at the next election.

Speaking of excessive and inappropriate links between News International and political leaders in the UK...

- Ed Miliband employs a former News International journalist implicated in criminal offences against the Conservative Party.

- Tony Blair flew to the other side of the world to meet Rupert Murdoch just before the 1997 election.

- Tony Blair called Murdoch over ten times in the days before the vote on the Iraq War.

- Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown regularly invited NI executives and editors to No10.

- Gordon Brown wrote regularly for The Sun.

- Gordon Brown had dinner with the writer of the Sun's story on his boy just weeks after it was published.

- Sarah Brown guest edited the News of the World twice.

- Les Hinton married Gordon Brown's PR adviser.

- The Brown's organised one of Rebekah Brooks' birthday parties.

- The Brown's hosted Brooks, Elisebath Murdoch and Rupert's wife at a Chequers slumber party.

- The Brown's attended Brooks' wedding.

- On the day of his 2009 conference speech, Gordon Brown personally rang Rupert Murdoch and begged him for his continued support and that of his papers.

- Gordon Brown invited News International executives and journalists to his daughter's funeral.

Yes, you read that last one right.

...the inquiry to start work just before the General Election.

Murdoch before a parliamentary select committee, in full view of the world's media....

Be careful what you wish for, Labour supporters. Rupert has all of Tony and Gordon's dirty little secrets. You really think he'll go down without taking Labour and his former best friends with him? I can't believe how stupid you are.

No wonder the Mirror has been so quiet about all this.

The Murdoch problem can be solved very simply by expropriation without compensation and banning him from ever acquiring anything in the country plus declaring him a persona non grata. That is keeping him away from the UK.

Of course that does require a will to use political power.

Problem is the politicians neither have the will or the backbone for such action.

Nice graphic Giga, allegedly from the Information Commissioner's Office yet seemingly from Guido (who as we all now is the model of impartiality and beyond any mischief). Perhaps you could explain to us in detail the nature of the offences you claim it demonstrates.

And Steve, do you deny that Cameron granted Murdoch everything he had asked of Brown and that Brown denied him in relation to imposing cuts on the BBC within days of taking office? Or that, before the hacking scandal broke, Cameron was contriving to waive through still further concentration of power by approving the BSkyB bid?

Some uncomfortable facts for you to deal with.

It seems Steve is blind to all those uncomfortable facts I have brought up.

He seems incredibly relaxed that Cameron wanted to interfere with a body which regulates the media and it's practices.

Skynews is an organisation that losses on average £20 million a year.

I thought the Right believed in the free market, sink or swing economics ?

Labour had 2 choices when it came into power: either work with the Press and Media or clip their wings. In the 'noughties' The Murdoch Empire was just too powerful. To have taken them on would have distracted Labour from more pressing issues of the time, and would have been seen as partizan. Like most serious issues, this also could only be solved by a consensus approach. I am a firm believer in consensus politics, not dogmatic politics or punch n judy politics or opposition for opposition's sake.
The time is now absolutely right to take on the Press and Media, just as in previous years it was right to take on the MPs and Police.
Murdoch had also built up that Empire and saved quite a few failing newspapers; he could afford the losses because they were subsidised by huge profits in BSkyB and Fox which he had also rescued.
My fear is that he still has huge influence in the developing countries and his spread will destroy the very culture traditions and morals of those countries, just as he has destroyed the same in the UK.

Looks like we have a Tory led Government that has plenty of minister's that avoid/evade paying their fair share of taxes whilst they slaughter this Nation with higher taxes and cut backs along with trying to break up/sell off our National Health Service with Tory associates benefiting financial from it. Now the Prime-Minister employs a close friend (Andy Culson) known to be involved in crime.

There is more honesty in a Jail Compound. Maybe they should start sending job applications direct to the United Kingdom's Jails to make it a level playing field.

Why is it I get the impression that the Tories are not straight and honest with the United Kingdom's citizens. Something stinks.

Stuart Eels

Yes indeed Stuart ! Remember the news regarding Andy Culson's wrong doing when Downing Street first announced that Andy Culson was being appointed Head of Communications. David Cameron personally jumped to Andy Culson's defence saying publicly "Everyone Deserves A Second Chance", referring to Andy Culson.

Now David Cameron wants the nation to believe that he had no prior warnings or any knowledge regarding Andy Culson's criminality.

Yes Stuart this is the Level that David Cameron and Politic's has come to.

It was common knowledge that Phone Hacking was going on in Murdoch's Empire and everyone knew that Andy Culson was involved. Top Liberal Democrats warned David Cameron and others in the Tory Ranks.In addition to this it was all over the newspapers before and during when David Cameron took Andy Culson on to do a sensitive and important job as Head of Communications that required the upmost trust.

This is the level that David Cameron has brought to politic's and he cannot insult our intelligence any longer.

So it appears that everyone in the nation knew except David Cameron !

lol stuart eels, does your head ever come out of your arse?

There is no oubt all parties were plying up to murdoch including the sanctimonious Lib Dems. I felt fairly sickened by Clegg and Hughes and Cable trying to distance themselves now when the fact is they did b****r all to name and shame in the Commons using privelige, just like all the other MPs in the Palace of Wesminster. Now it seems everyone wants to put the boot into the Murdoch clan now they are down and nearly out thanks to the Great British Public's periodic bouts of a moral conscience, which incidently wasn't there when the NotW and Sun were publishng filth daily and the GBP were lapping it up.
Murdoch made a crucial error : Never Apologise, Explain or Complain. On Day One he should have acted swiftly and closed down all his publishing interests in the UK. What the Great British Public want to see above all is action, not grovelling apologies.

It goes even further back than Blair and Cameron: Beaverbook, Northliffe, Conrad Black Cecil King and Maxwell. Press Barons always think they can run the country better than elected politicians. Maybe out of all this farce will come a more robust Press Commission with actual teeth. But my fear is that the more unscrupulous celebs will hide behind 'privacy' to stop their antics beng outed, in the public interest, and that must never be allowed to happen. The Press are the 4th Estate and to some extent guardians of the public conscience., provided they themselves are clean.

I think Bill Fraser is another of these who conveniently disregards the fact that Murdoch has been here since 1969.

It is now becoming ever clearer the reason David Cameron took on his friend Andy Culson as Head of Communications in Downing Street even though David Cameron knew and was warned that Andy Culson was implicated in crime whilst at the News of the World.

It is all looking a bit like David Cameron's decision after getting into office to break up and privatise the National Health Service even though it was not in their Manifesto during the 2010 election campaign. The Break up and Privatisation of the Nation Health Service will reward some Tories and reward some of their financial backers.

This is all about power,control and money. A club of people are certainly trying to take advantage and it is not looking too good. Power and money is having a bit of a rocky ride at present so lets hope that the storm gets worse and they will sink before they get to their paradise leaving the rest to drown.

These clever, deceitful people have a lot to answer for.

The list does make for interesting reading especially when one considers the bskyb deal was all centre stage throughout this period and you would have thought the PM might have desired to have been seen as totally impartial rather than seeming to favour one media outlet more than another.

The facts as emerging now, the reference to NI demands about the BBC as outlined by GB, the immediate pandering to NI said demands on the BBC upon election and the absence of any meetings with the BBC do raise serious questions on Cameron's ability to remain impartial where the media was concerned.

"It is now becoming ever clearer the reason David Cameron took on his friend Andy Culson as Head of Communications in Downing Street even though David Cameron knew and was warned that Andy Culson was implicated in crime whilst at the News of the World. "

Novit's not. Not a single person who claims to have provided evidence when Coulson was appointed has been able to show they had any more information than was already in the public domain (which was mostly hearsay and rumour).

Just to cheer up all those whiners about the "Tory press", here is an interesting graphic. It shows who has been involved in the highest number of criminal acts. Doesn't read well for Labour....

http://orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/hack2.jpg?w=480&h=337

Christ, NI is only third, ahead of the whiter-than-white "we never do anything wrong" moral arbiters for a nation Guardian - close friends to Labour.

It's all coming out now. No wonder the Mirror has been quitest on this subject, and even buffoons like Prescott realise that things may be more rotten nearer their own doorstep....

Steve

I note your convenient memory lapse for the years 79 to 97 which were Tory led years during which Thatcher gave unfailing support to and aided and abetted - via the anti union laws - Murdoch to bring about the changes he wanted to make regardless of the law at the time and 6000 people were sacked in order to move his productions to the, at the time, secretly built Wapping, laws were broken, the police given carte blanche but never mind, Murdoch got his way via the Tory government - plus a couple of new papers too. Thatcher and he were cosier than Tony Blair and George W Bush.

Let's not forget the 'it was the sun wot won it' after their despicable campaign against Kinnock and in favour of Major, all at Murdoch's behest. Who can forget the use of pyschics to contact the dead and gather their voting intention - Churchill and Queen Victoria conveniently choosing Major and Mao Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin the contacts named who favoured Kinnock. 'Why I'm backing Kinnock by Stalin' was the hilarious headline of the day. You couldn't make this crap up but that's Murdoch international for you.

I said to you on another post, there is no party that can claim the moral high ground in the cosying up to Murdoch, whether on the left or the right...he has been the 24th silent but deadly member of the cabinet since 1969.

Stop with the party political point scoring and deal with some of the odious facts that have arisen from this concentration of media power in our politics for 42 years but particularly for the last 32.

Oh and once again, GB never said NI hacked his child's medical records, he said they had that information but he did not know how they came about it....listen to the BBC interview he gave where he clearly states that.

I get really frustrated by a media that continually fails to hold 'Call me Dave' to account.

They continually blame previous governments and other ministers. I can barely watch BBC news. They are constantly making excuses for Cameron. I had to switch it off this morning when one of their commentators said, he felt sorry for Cameron and then promptly proceded to blame Blair and Brown.

UNACCEPTABLE.

Giga

David Cameron was a man that promised during the Televised Electoral Debate 2010 that a country is judged upon how it cares for it's most vulnerable in society in good times aswell as bad times, then he went on to promise that if you are Old,Sick,Disabled,vulnerable or the Poorest in society he would protect that group of people if he became prime-minister. That has turned out to be a pack of bare-faced lies.

In addition to that David Cameron and his wife are both multi-millionaires and claimed state disability payments for their son Ivan when he was alive even though they were/are incredibly rich and did not need that money as it was pennies to them but now David Cameron is prime-minister to hell with the poor and vulnerable that do not have a voice because the same benefits he claimed for his son are being taken away from the less fortunate along with deductions.

Now we are just a over a year into this Government that claimed that it would be honest and transparent. Already David Cameron's election promises and pledges have turned out to be deceit,spin,lies and unworkable. In fact once in power decided to break up and sell of the NHS even though it was not in their manifesto but now they are in power are trying to do so which proves that they had a deceitful secret agenda to do so,how deceitful is that. But look at who stands to financially make out of it including Lansley's wife.

David Cameron's close friend Andy Culson was known to be dihonest but a very useful asset to Cameron because of the link to Murdoch's empire to which gives Cameron a voice so Culson's criminality was not of concern because he was so useful in many ways, no wonder David Cameron dragged his feet on this matter.

For a Prime-Minister that has been in power for just a little over one year that promised honesty,transparency and to give people a voice I will give him 0 points because all I have seen is the Biggest Scandal in recent history that includes David Cameron's close friend that was given a top job in Downing Street. I have seen the most vunerable and poorest in society lied to and subjected to punishing cutbacks.I have seen the Tories try and Break Up our NHS when this was not a election issue only that David Cameron was going to ring fence it financially and protect it and the list goes on and on and on and on.

David Cameron is in his for himself and close associates so it is my personal opinion that he is a liar,deceitful,hypocritcal,selfish man that is unfit to run this country.

I really do hope that David Cameron gets a taste of his own medicine but the problem is that any normal person could not sink to his level so hopefully justice will prevail and expose him for what he is.

Anton Jury

You are correct, sir!