God, those NoW journos were utter scum weren't they?

[headfairy]

apparently by deleting Milly's messages her family still had some hope that she might still be alive

I emailed my mp last week and so far have heard a big fat nothing

I'm sure you ought to be able to omit phone number. Not everyone has a phone, even in this day and age.

Tessa Jowell has answered; didn't realise she'd been hacked too.

I emailed mine via the 38 degrees link last week when they emailed the campaign out and I got a fairly lengthy response from him within 24 hours. I can't remember if I included my phone number or not.

hi all, just catching up with today's developments and trying to puzzle out why Murdoch has pushed the bskyb decision to the Competition Commission.

Two thoughts spring to mind: He wants it referred so it can drag on and on and hopefully go through later when the intensity of the press has gone down and the share prices have recovered.

or...

He knows he's likely to lose/sell or otherwise his papers, and so needs to have Sky News in order ot have a major TV outlet later on. Perhaps he'll argue to the CC that he now doesn't want the papers and would prefer Sky News instead?

Murdoch pushed it through????

Yes POnders according to the BBC News site: certain decisions he amde led it to be sent across. Apparently.

Certainly looks as though he is preparing to ditch the papers. I also think he imagines the CC decision to be potentially less damaging than a 'fit for ownership' one so would rather have attention focused on that while he works out a longer term strategy.

Have emailed my MP via 38 Degrees, but won't be surprised to hear nothing. Didn't last year when I emailed about tuition fees. She is in an ultra safe seat and so does tap all as far as I can tell.

I was wondering about why Murdoch had withdrawn the Sky news thing too. Maybe he realised that the bid was going to fail or be opposed by a majority vote of MPs dragging it all out, so it would be better for the competition commission to be concentrating on the plurality test rather than the fit and proper person test. It did seem like a compromise hurriedly negotiated with the government. But it's got to be a calculated move for the long term too.

Does this mean there won't be a vote on Wednesday?

Didn't see your post there EightiesChick, but we seem to have reached the same conclusion!

muminlondon yes, great minds! I do think Murdoch has been thrown by all this and, unusually, is having to cobble things together a bit atm.

Or.... in the 6-9 months when the competition committee is considering the bid, it gives ample opportunity for his gang of thieves to discredit all enemies; Ed Miliband and Tom Watson in particular are in for some serious trouble.... And poor old Nick Clegg will likely be made to look even more useless.

Had forgotten the fit and proper persons
Test, if he failed that he'd lose the lot.

This story, according to a random NOTW employee, will take a year to come out. The staff aren't very upset, they will be keeping some kind of job. If you walked near their head quarters last week you would have been asked by other paps if you worked for NI and offered money for your story. This thread, and I'm guessing RM, will run out of steam before it's all over.
I dread to think what else they have done.

Sorry I meant this thread, and the level of interest, will run out of steam/interest before the end, I'm guessing RM is hoping.

\link{http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/11/evidence-data-checks-gordon-brown\Guardian report about "illegal data checks" on GB & others}

'An Exeter detective constable, Phil Diss, was covertly performing PNC checks, which were subsequently sold on to private investigators in bulk, for as little as £40 or even £20 a time.
Gordon Brown's office were privately warned in 2003 at the time of discovery of the illegal data checks, according to sources familiar with the case. So too were the agriculture minister Nick Brown, plus the embattled MP for Reading West, Martin Salter, who at the time of the PNC break-in had been publicly put on an "enemies list" by the then News of the World editor, Rebekah Brooks.
Diss, a popular and long-serving police officer, used his official access to the PNC to supply results to his former boss, a retired police inspector, who ran a commercial investigation agency in Exmouth, servicing other private detectives across the country.
SAS Investigations in Exmouth gleaned material from a stable of several local police officers and civil servants able to get into official databases, containing criminal records, other police intelligence and social security details
The purchaser of information on the three Labour politicians was Glen Lawson, another private detective in Newcastle upon Tyne, according to police records and court transcripts obtained by the Guardian.
Lawson, who still trades in Tyneside under the name Abbey Investigations, refuses to say which journalists contracted him to pursue Gordon Brown and other members of the Labour government. He told the Guardian at the weekend: "I am not going to make any comment".'

'Salter had displeased Rebekah Brooks, then News of the World editor. He refused her request to support her notorious campaign for Sarah's Law to "protect us from pervs". Shortly afterwards, on 24 September 2000, NoW readers were urged to pillory him personally in a "naming and shaming" stunt.
Salter says: "She responded with some foul personal attacks so typical of the bullying style of the former NoW. I remember canvassing that Sunday morning and it was particularly unpleasant."'

This woman has got to be stopped from ever again being in a position to do this!!!

Also is it not handy that the BskyB shares have plummeted, meaning RM can get them cheaper?

Bloody hell, I used to work somewhere we could dp PNC checks: we'd ahve been slaughtered if we misused it!

What's a PNC check?

Police National Computer, empusa (I just had to go back into the article to find out, I didn't know either )

has anyone linked to this yet? THe last NoW crossword was full of "secret" messages to Rebekah Brooks - he he. www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/11/news-of-the-world-crossword

'The clue for 24 Across - which reads "Woman stares wildly at calamity" - is thought to be a reference to a photograph of Mrs Brooks staring furiously from the window of a car as she left News International's Wapping headquarters following the announcement the News of the World was to be shut down.
The answer to the clue is not one she would appreciate: "disaster" '

(that was from the Telegraph report)

I love that RB apparently had lawyers poring over the entire paper looking for hidden rude bits but missed the crossword altogether

God l love subversion.

stealing the millenium post... nothing to add!

Always room for one more...and the rest!