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

\link{http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8631321/News-International-my-sons-medical-records-were-hacked-says-Gordon-Brown.html\more details about the Browns being targeted here}

So how did Becs think The Sun came by this great exclusive then?

Wonder where she thought it came from - what with her having no knowledge of any hacking activity n all....

she had her own version of "never apologise, never explain" - "never enquire, what you don't know can't hurt you"

"Brown was not the Prime Minister at the time of the story about Fraser"

Perhaps he could have lent over the table at the weekly cabinet meetings and asked the then Home Secretary to clear up the matter? Brown didn't have theoretical power at the time but proper power where he could have actually done something. But it suited Labour to let Murdoch do as he damn well please.

All of the MPs, apart from one or two now stink of shit. Has NI, with the go ahead from Labour/Cons/Lib Dem been actually running the country on our behalf? Shall we just get rid of the House Of Commons and have Rupert Murdoch running the show because that seems to have been the case for the past 30yrs.? I honestly do not know why I have bothered to vote. They are all a shower of shits.

I dont care about what jordon peter andres or any of the overpaid,non talented idiots that are always in the papers. I dont read about them but I draw the line at targeting decent people. If you dont buy the scummy rag they'll soon clean up their act or do the british public like it who knows??

YES YES crackfox You Are Right. What a disgusting pile of poo

isn't anyone else astonished, not just that Brown went to RB's wedding, but that Sarah Brown had a 'sleepover' and invited RB. I can (just about)see why they felt they had to attend the wedding, but having an informal social do and inviting a woman who did that wtf
also, did everyone else but me know that Justine is married to the assistant editor of the Guardian?

Yes we all knew. Sorry she asked us not to tell you, said if we did she would end our political careers.

SB also organised her 40th birthday. No 10 or no No 10 ambitions that i s immoral and all the front page laments today are a bit late and hypocritical.They sold their son down the river for their ambition

Why is it such a shock and surprise, how did we think the NOTW and The Sun had all the scoops over the others. Oh come on, we all knew it was happening.

The Government, all the mps and all the civil service knew about this.

I'm going to give the Browns the benefit of the doubt, because MAYBE they thought someone had leaked the news, rather than the journalists specifically source the information illegally.

Perhaps RW/RB gave them the impression someone had contacted the paper with the story, rather than what actually appears to have happened.

It doesn't matter though where she got them in terms of what teh Browns did about it. They could have made it public then and insisted on an enquiry but instead they were bribed for want of a better word by what RB and NI was offering them.

Very good interview with Gordon Brown addressing all these issues. Was on BBC News 24 this morning.

Well he has had enough time to prepare what he was going to say!

It didn't actually prevent him attending Rebekah Brook's wedding 2 yrs later or his wife organising her 40th birthday party. Son of the Manse my arse.

I know crackfox but at the very core of it all he didn't go to the police! Why not?

Yes, I've always felt outraged by the son of the Manse business. I suppose he used to say it (over and over and over) to give the impression that he had some integrity, and some kind of relationship with honesty.

Gives non-conformists a bad name. Sniff.

I can't believe his wife went along with it.

Yes, I know: proper PR - as opposed to spin - is supposed to be about honesty, openness and integrity.

Agreed that it would have been so much better if someone, anyone, had stood up to RM. But I don't think it's a matter of selling anyone or anything out. It's an indication of how much of a hold these thugs had over the whole political class. It's all very well to say thay should have done this, that or the other, but if that meant taking down their parties, future generations of party plans and leaders I think we can see why they didn't. I'm not excusing it, just contextualising. I think there is a real chance that we could begin to deflect blame away from where it fundamentally is if we focus on why individuals didn't do this or that. RM and NI are the main culprits here. Let's not forget it and let's maintain the rage and the correct focus of it.

Completely agree, Jenny60.

I think we're getting an insight into the power of NI - and it should profoundly worry us.