What do yo think of Williamn Hague's statement re his marriage, miscarriages etc

[squeaver]

here

Many things do not add up here.

Firstly nobody actually accused (if that's the right word as theirs nothing wrong with it) WH of being gay. There was a blog which speculated about the need for (multi-millionaire) WH to share a room with his special aid.

It was WH who then said that he wasn't gay.

Secondly The aide was not on the list of advisors and every cabinet member apart from WH has only 2 aides.

Thirdly, why did the guy resign and why did WH decide to tell the world about his infertility struggles. It seems like a massive over-reaction. Surely if its not true, you would just say its not true, not drag your wifes heartache out in public to hang on to your job? Also what does infertility have to do with not being gay?

4th - The aide was originally his driver and they shared a room in hotel separate from all the other delegates. After this he then made the driver, who had no experience, his 3rd and unecessary, special advisor.

5th - Andy Couslon, the Comms Dr for the Torys is probably about to be under investigation for wire tapping again as the New York Times ran a story yesterday saying he did know about wire tapping contrary to what he told the police last time this all blew up. This is barely being reported because the WH story has all the front pages i.e. it's been buried.

It was Coulson who advised WH to bring up infertility and he must have known this over-reaction to the original story would just lead to more innuendo concerning WH. I personally believe that Couslon and Cameron threw WH to the wolves to bury the bigger story which is that their Comms Director has allegedly been involved in breaking the law several times and for a party who campaigned heavily against sleaze and spin doctoring, this story would seriously damage the party. Cameron has given 100% backing to WH so expect him to be gone by the end of next week.

Hully
Love the pics. What are you googling?

Lenin
You can have the rest of the day off, since you obviously need to keep an eye on the developments of this case.

Evening Standard is reporting that Hague may quit.

Yes, Capricorn. There may well be some truth in that. The Coulson affair is going to come out though, too many bloggers/Twitters talking about it.

Coulson story

Good for the Guardian, now I hope the BBC will calm down with the Pakistani cricket scandal, grow some balls and start gunning for Coulson and his former boss Rupert Murdoch. That's the real story, not whether WH, who has a very homophobic voting record btw, is secretly gay and employing his lover on the taxpayers dime although if true, this is still out of order.

@LeninGrad

I assume that the reason why the police were so quick to close the original case and let one lowly reporter take the rap for everything was because everyone seems to be shit scared of Rupert Murdoch. Plus judging by some of the big names mentioned in the original case, I'm sure nearly every major figure has been wire tapped so the things News International must know would stop any prominent person from digging too much lest they find themselves on the front page of the next News of the World scandal.

I really wish Murdoch would just piss off. Look how he ruined Top Gear for loads of people by getting his publishing company, Harper Collins to out The Stig knowing that because his papers,The Sun etc put the name in the public domain, the court had no choice but to lift the injunction so the BBC lost their case? What was the point of spoiling BBC intellectual property other than just to show them whose boss? His dedication to destroying anything that stands in the way of him making more money knows no bounds.

Leningrad - Guardian says NYT says because it would have damaged the close working relationship between the Murdoch empire and Scotland Yard. Nice to know we are all equal under the law.

Even when Murdoch does piss off (can't be too long) he has anotehr twatty clone just waiting to replace him.

I wish someone would push him off a boat too

who the hell is the Stig?

good points capricorn76.

@FioFio

I can't stand Top Gear so don't care about who the The Stig is either, don't know anyone in RL who does but the whole outing of The Stig was done to undermine the BBCs intellectual property and most profit making programme. Its so profitable that it pays for itself many times over.

News International have never hid their desire to destroy the BBC. Two arms of the corporation tag-teamed to force the BBC into wasting money on a court case that morally they should have won but couldn't because of technicalities which arose because once a name is all over the internet or out in the public domain an injunction cannot be upheld to keep it secret even of there was a confidentiality agreement/contract.

Its about more than The Stig, Murdoch is sharpening his knives and stalking his prey.

Interesting that the Coulson story is in the New York Times. Why isn't the Guardian doing the investigative work? What interest is it of the New York Times? Are they competing with Murdoch's empire in the States? Not convinced the Coulson story is really as big as that. Surely the British Foreign Secretary is more important than Coulson?

And he's got his former henchman Coulson at the heart of government, of course...

Murdoch's son, who runs the UK arm of the empire, has said openly he hates the Beeb - describes it as 'state sponsored journalism' claiming the only guarantee of independence is the market. Which would be why Fox in the US is such a shining example of quality journalism, truthfulness, independence and lack of bias.

@Claig.

I think the Coulson story is bigger than the Foreign Sec story because if proved to be true it would mean that there is corruption at the highest level in the police as Murdoch managed to get them to drop an investigation and that Dave Cameron has appointed someone who has committed criminal acts at the heart of his government when he made such a big thing of cleaning up corruption and sleaze in government.

Not only that but if Coulson has been bugging senior figures and VIPs, he could also have bugged members of the government which would have dreadful implications for our democracy. The Coulson story has the potential to seriously damage a lot of people and compared to that WH is expendable because his story only harms him. They can easily find another Foreign Sec.

The New York Times has their own issues with Murdoch, especially with Fox News and their influence.

I agree with Capricorn. The Coulson story has the potential to be much bigger that the WH thing. It is truly shocking that they have gotten away with bugging top politicians, and the Royals.

Aside from anything else, surely it is a security risk that the movements of the Royals are being covertly followed.

agree that if the Coulson story is true then it is serious. But isn't it raking over old coals? If they didn't find anything the first time, do you really think it will be different this time? My guess is that not much will come of the Coulson story and that it is old news. Otherwise, if the Guardian were serious, I would expect them to be leading the vanguard, not leaving it to the New York Times.

If something came of it, wouldn't Cameron just be able to deny all knowledge? Isn't that the sort of thing that happened with Archer?

this is such a weird story.
there are loads of things that are common currency, well known for years and years and then they appear in the media.

e.g. Portillo
George Michael
all the stuff about Princess Diana
Charles and Camilla

why is it that some things end up getting reported years after they are common knowledge, and then some things never get reported?

all about the underlying politics and power I suppose

Yes, like the IRA priest - all exposed long after all the main characters are dead

I initially posted sympathetic comments late yesterday when this first broke.

Cannot stand the Tories but always respected Hague - he was Secretary of State for Wales for a time and actually bothered to learn Welsh which, as a Welsh speaker, I think was politically a fairly astute thing to do (and which also led him to Ffion of course). Couldn't really give a toss whether he is gay or not, nor whether his marriage is in trouble, but had an automatic sympathy reaction yesterday to anyone who has suffered a recent mc.

As I have listened to the various radio commentaries today my usual cynicism of politics has reasserted itself over any sympathy with their fertility situation and I am very much moving toward what capricorn and badgerspaws are saying i.e. there appears to be more sophisticated spin doctoring afoot.

Fascinating to see what will happen.