If You Lie Down With Dogs......

So what have we learned about Andy Coulson, the Murdoch Empire and the British Government? Andy Coulson is guilty of a conspiracy that involved the hacking of telephones and illegally rooting around in other people's private business. The Murdoch Empire is run by a bunch of incompetents that have no idea whatsoever of what they or their staff are doing at any particular time. Successive British governments, of all political colours, have been guilty of cosying up to a bunch of criminals out of fear and cowardice. However, only David Cameron has been so wilfully blind and so utterly stupid as to invite a criminal into the actual workings of government. The reason for this is not hard to find. With the likes of Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox, Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Lansley in government Andy Coulson was in good company. The Cameron government is little better than a criminal syndicate dedicated to asset stripping the country and stealing the benefits that most recipients have worked hard all their lives to qualify for. While bankers still count their "bonuses" safely deposited in their offshore accounts, while George Osborne has created more tax loopholes than he's closed, while children starve in Britain and the Red Cross send food parcels, while the national debt has tripled in four years, while the property bubble has once again been reinflated and Boris Johnson orders water cannons to cow the peasants, the Tory party is still merrily diverting public money through their mates in big business and into their party funds. Without Coulson David Cameron would not have scored the limited success in the last general election that he did. Without Coulson there would be no Prime Minister Cameron and no Coalition Government. The whole rotten structure is based on rotten foundations and all it now needs is one good kick to bring the whole shameful and tottering cesspit of corruption, greed, selfishness and graft to the ground. Then, perhaps, we can start again without a government and a media sharing each other's fleas as they lie down together.

Cameron Still Dodging Action Over Press Ethics.

It's not often that the electorate get to see a Prime Minister twist and turn as much as David Cameron. It all began with Rupert Murdoch's plan to buy the controlling share of BSkyB and with Cameron pretending that he was completely neutral over the question despite appointing Andy Coulson as his "communications director". Things didn't look good for the Murdoch's when the LibDem's shoehorned Vince Cable into the role of arbiter of the deal, but poor old Vince was quickly removed when two young female reporters flattered him into saying something indiscreet. Enter Jeremy Hunt, charged with the job of smarming the BSkyB deal through while Cameron smarmed around Rebekah Brooks. Unfortunately Andy Coulson's past soon caught up with him as it was revealed that phone hacking had been widespread during his tenure as editor of "The News of the World" and not, as previously claimed, the action of a single rogue reporter. As the scandal grew and grew and more people in the Murdoch media empire were implicated the Prime Minister refused to be drawn and absented himself from Parliament when the issue was debated. He had to be literally forced into announcing an inquiry into press ethics and still fought a rearguard action to protect the Murdoch bid for BSkyB with Jeremy Hunt leading the charge. During the Leveson Inquiry it became clear that the Prime Minister had been far, far too close to the Murdoch media machine and many potentially embarassing questions over the exact nature of his relationship with Rebekah Brooks were left hanging menacingly in mid-air. Leveson has now delivered his report and, as expected, he made it abundantly plain that certain "sections" of the press were completely out of control and believed themselves to be above the law because of the protection they enjoyed both from politicians and the police. Cameron's immediate reaction was the reject these findings and conduct a campaign, through the media, to protect the "freedom of the press" in a sudden and unexpected fit of idealism. That has threatened to backfire as many of the victims of press excesses have called on him the impliment the Leveson Inquiry findings as he had previously promised he would. With his strategy fast unravelling Cameron has now made one last roll of the dice, announcing that what was once an urgent matter is now less so and that there is "no timetable for producing any draft legislation."

What Is Cameron Hiding?

David Cameron has spent the last five days dodging questions about undisclosed texts he sent to Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. Dismissed as "irrelevant" by Cameron's lawyers when it came the to Leveson Inquiry, it would seem that they must be a little more than that. So what might they reveal? An "inappropriate" relationship with Rebekah? Information that Cameron fed to News International that should have been kept confidential? Evidence that there was colusion between the three in order to pervert the course of justice? Or, perhaps, the collected innane comments by three people without a clue about anything of a substantive nature? Whatever they are it seems certain that Cameron would be embarrased at the very least if they were to be made public. From past experience of the inner workings of the Tory mind, revealed by the likes of Andrew Mitchell during unguarded moments, they probably reveal the contempt that Cameron feels for the "plebs" and his total disregard for the nation. Fortunately he's about to get a graphic reminder that the "plebs" far outnuber the privilged and out of touch as thousands of protestors converge on London today. The Tory reaction to this tells us all we need to know about them. While Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, has made it clear that the demostration is about austerity in general, a senior Tory spokesman replied that, "It is disappointing that some unions insist on pushing for irresponsible and futile strike action which benefits no-one. As we have said time and again, pension talks will not be reopened and nothing further will be achieved through strike action." The Tories, then, are deliberately missing the point and trying to blame the unions for a strike that isn't actually taking place. The problem, as always, is that the Tories see resistance to their present-day idiotic and damaging economic policies and immediately reach for their copy of "How to Solve the Problems of the 1980's" by Margaret Thatcher.

Andy Coulson; Scumbag But He's Our Scumbag.

Andy Coulson was found to be not guilty today of being underhand concerning his severance payments from News International by a bunch of people appointed to find rich people "not guilty." "He might be an unprincipled scumbag," they commented, "but his association with the Tory party was positively saintly. And don't forget everyone, except rioters, deserves a second chance." Asked for his opinion David Cameron, caught shopping for a new suitcase, replied "Who? Never heard of him. Is he related to the Shropshire Coulsons?"