Les Tricoteuses - Part Deux

[BornSicky]

new thread to discuss phonehacking scandal.

having already survived the Vogon poetry of last night, Pan, i think i'd cope.

on JL's american phone, i take it, or is it simply a matter of geography? it better come out soon that they were ALL at it, btw, i fear that this is getting lost again.

on JL's phone while he is in the US, Aitch - doesn't matter whether it was a US phone or a UK one

triplets if phone companies are involved the chances of it being CEOs is vanishingly small - it will be the little people with access to the systems.

I have friends who build a lot of the computer systems for the phone companies (engineering network systems, billing systems, RIPA-compliant data-storage etc) and will see what I can find out about this.

was, not is, sorry

yes, just geography.

aha - about "contempt of the house" for triplets (from Graun blog, 12.27pm)

'Imprisonment or a substantial fine could theoretically be imposed as a punishment by parliament on anyone who told lies in evidence to a select committee.
Misleading MPs is deemed to amount to a "contempt of the house" in the same way that refusing to answer a summons to appear before a committee is reported to the Commons. The offender could then be summoned to the bar of the House.
The problem is that the sanctions - involving fine or imprisonment - to enforce any punishment are constitutionally somewhat rusty. Vernon Bogdanor, the former professor of government at Oxford University, has suggested they may have fallen into "desuetude" (disuse).
The House of Commons is not believed to have fined anybody since 1666 and has not "committed anyone to custody", apart from temporarily detaining them, since the 19th century.'

Time it was revived then!

can't remember if i said this before but i was once approached (via a third party) by a private detective to get numbers for him. i was working at a big telecoms co at the time.

Thx. I think that the 'Chipping Norton Set' is a red herring, btw. Tianc: it would be useful if you could find out how easy it is for employees to access personal records.

Lumme, if the NotW were still around, they would be hounding Gordon Taylor.
Where is he? Can we tickle him?

Ponders - that makes the Select Committees very toothless if they can't or don't hold people to account with the laws available. however, NI obv have fantastic legal respresentation and might well just file harrassment with cause if the HoC and police are constantly prodding and poking them without core evidence.

But, Capone was nabbed for tax evasion because it was the only legal route to get him, so anything's possible.

on the phone companies: it will be the call centre type staff that sold the numbers and they will probably have been paid rather handsomely. the way it works is that they get an "in" with a low level member of staff, pay them and get that staff member to get them to someone with more access etc, pay them, move up or along. unlikley, unless this truly is wholesale corruption, that anyone near the top will be particularly aware.

Given the high turnover of staff at call centres - it will be like pinning jelly to a wall trying to find the people who sold the numbers. Anyone who did is probably crapping it right now, or hoping for a big payoff from NI to help them keep schtum.

The JL phone thing - the crucial factor is that it would have been on a US network at the point it was hacked, regardless of the fact it is a UK phone, and so is a crime in the US.

BS, you are absolutely on the nail about how they got Al Capone. (There are other examples of corrupt organisations being nailed on a technicality).

What will happen with Glenn, given that he now has to pay his own legal fees?

Here's an extract from my earlier link re Contempt of Parliament (on parliament's website). After lots of amusing stuff about when people were last imprisoned, why and for how long, the nub is:

Recommendations on disciplinary and penal powers
324. We recommend as follows:
...
2. Parliament's power to imprison persons, whether members or not, who are in contempt of Parliament should be abolished...

3. For practical reasons Parliament's penal powers over non-members should, in general, be transferred to the High Court. Parliament should retain a residual jurisdiction, including power to admonish a non-member who accepts he acted in contempt of Parliament. Proceedings should be initiated on behalf of either House by the Attorney General, at the request of the Speaker, advised by the standards and privileges committee or of the Leader of the House of Lords acting on the advice of the committee for privileges. The court should have power to impose a fine of unlimited amount.

Yes, agree with the significance of Jude Law being hacked in the US. It's the little things...

(Sorry, out of synch with interesting convo as scrambling desperately to catch up!)

And Harbottle and Lewis. And Matt Driscoll (who did not sign a confidentiality contract)

Triplets

There was a funny bit in todays indie about the eurozone crisis being dull because it doesn't have Hugh Grant in it.

to be honest, what's Hugh Grant got to lose? He's financially secure, works when he wants to on projects that he wants to and finally gets his own back on the people and organisations that have intruded in his life for years.

Not taking it away from him, just he's fortunate to be able to apply the pressure and I'm grateful he can, because if it had been one of the "little people", their life could well have been destroyed by this bunch. It's already becoming clear how far NI/NC are willing to take it with the Mark Lewis hacking/following etc, so a normal person really couldn't bear that scrutiny or pressure.

Tom Watson and Chris Bryant are also carrying the torch high too.

I know that most people will have seen this, but just posting it again for light relief.

Yeah, BS, HG has nothing to lose and also nothing to gain. His twatty romcoms apart, he had some guts to tape the reporter. I would love to see him back on NN.

I hadn't, actually, triplets - thanks for posting it!

www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/07/select-committee-louise-mensch

poor girl - I hope they don't hounding her. She sounds like she is about to pay for daring to ask good questions.

Whatever papers print this dodgy stuff need investigated for intimidation.

"Given the high turnover of staff at call centres - it will be like pinning jelly to a wall trying to find the people who sold the numbers. Anyone who did is probably crapping it right now, or hoping for a big payoff from NI to help them keep schtum."

Would i require a tinfoil hat to suggest there might be a few unexplained car accidents if NewsCorps are having to account for the petty cash these days?

? "Whatever papers print this dodgy stuff need investigated for intimidation."

And not just for intimidation.

I'd say attacking Mensch will be an excellent barometer of Having Something To Hide.

(sorry, random "?" in there)

(At price of appearing a prick, if everyone gave £10 to the East Africa campaign... end of prickage)

I don't think that MPs will be intimidated in the way they have been in the past. Even if nothing else happens, the power that they have wielded over our elected representatives must be over.

What has happened to Matt Driscoll?