Spot the Cuckold Competition
A jury has been unable to find that, beyond a reasonable doubt. Rebekah Brooks was a party to the industrial scale phone hacking that was going on all around her. A 5 million pound legal team did its job. Such things happen.
But take a considered view of what that means. While she was Editor, and while she was Chief Executive, numerous people who reported directly to her were engaged in an active criminal conspiracy, the results of which she was seeing almost every single day, and to which hundreds of thousands of pounds of company money were diverted without her noticing. The leader of the criminal conspiracy, Coulson, not only reported directly to her, but she was shagging him too. She still noticed nothing.
If we accept that as true – and the jury did – it makes her one of the most incompetent managers and company executives in corporate history. Her negligence and complete lack of grip, over years, on what those immediately beneath her were doing, wiped off billions in shareholder value and lost a major commercial asset in the News of the World title. It also tarnished the company’s image irredeemably. On top of which she was given to shagging people for whom she had line management responsibility – if she were a man the feminists would be screaming from the rooftops about that.
In a rational world she would never be employed in any position of responsibility again. If Murdoch really did not know about the phone hacking, if he were genuinely disgraced and sorry, he would be furious at her for her gross negligence. Instead he has given her 10.8 million pounds.
Outwith the gilded circle of the stinking rich Brooks would never work again, having destroyed the News of the World and the image of News International. But the gilded circle will close around her.
The ultra-rich are not like you or me. They are treated by totally different standards. They also behave differently. They have no problem with being cuckolded. Charlie Brooks sent his best wishes to Coulson in jail. If I were Brooks, I would be sending money in to pay very large men to help him find the soap in the shower. Although presumably like Aitken and Archer, Coulson is going to one of those jails for posh people where you can play golf and go home at the weekend. I never understood Brigadier Parker Bowles either, though apparently his wife’s shagging was good for his military career. Funny people, toffs.
Being a right slapper seems not to have harmed Brooks’ career (feminists please note, I here apply the term slapper purely in the technical sense that she gave Ross Kemp a good slapping). That particular asset of hers has faded fast. But I think we can be quite certain that her future will be very different from that of anyone outside the top 1% of earners who had totally failed in their employment. It rather removes the argument that the disgusting wealth gap in the country relates to achievement and risk.
Breaking news Harris guilty of indecent assaults
Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris has been found guilty of 12 charges of indecent assault against four girls.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/07/rebekah-still-doesnt-get-it/
There was a brilliant commentary on that thread by Jonangus Mackay on the committee hearing when the old lizard was hit with a shaving foam pie and Nurse Wendi sprung to his defence. She was complimented for her actions by Whittingdale. Shame she deserted the old lizard because she found BLiar’s legs and rear view more alluring, allegedly!.
Salacious stuff. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552140/Sexy-legs-piercing-blue-eyes-Wendi-Dengs-explosive-note-Tony-Blair-revealed-magazine-marriage-Rupert-Murdoch-collapsed-amid-rumours-crush-former-prime-minister.html
Where is Jonangus now?
Salacious stuff indeed, Mary!
I have to disagree about the picture of Blair and Rebekah though, Herbie. He definitely looks like he has the hots for her.
How does Cherie put up with it all?
BBC News. Shock. Horror. Another of their icons has come to meet justice. They have even had St Esther of Rantzen on to pontificate. It is said that everyone knew about Savile’s depravity. Did everyone know about Harris? Apparently his nickname within the BBC was The Octopus. It would seem that the celebrity has more worth to the BBC brand than to the abused children/young persons.
CPS prosecutor Andrew Edis’ statements about the hacking scandal are simply scandalous – i. e. blaming it completely upon Coulson and his assistants, and proclaiming that the truth about it all will never be known.
Much more likely with prosecutors like him.
Mary
“BLiar/Brooks
Cameron/Brooks
Must we not speak their names in connection with the temptress?”
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Is this your gutless way of hinting at sexual relations between Blair/Cameron and Brooks?
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Support the Separation Wall, you know it makes sense.
Who cares. Let London’s media rot in its own filth.
From Mick
“Mary – you can talk about whoever you like in connection with the ‘temptress’ but without any proof it is just juvenile conjecture”
which elicited the following reply from Mary
“Do you work for Murdoch Mick?”
Which, I submit, proves Mick’s point about juvenile.
The opposite of juvenile. Penetrating I would say. Enough to elicit a rejoinder from the premier troll on here anyway.
You don’t represent the Old Lizard do you?
From Mary to me (on a previous thread):
“Habbakuk. Stop cluttering up this blog. It does not belong to you.”
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From Mary : 9 comments out of 35 on this thread.
And 4 out of 15 on the next one (“BBC-bias”)
Pot/kettel; Beam/mote ?
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Mary
“The opposite of juvenile. Penetrating I would say. Enough to elicit a rejoinder from the premier troll on here anyway.”
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You’ve obviously slipped your lead again!
BTW, it’s funny to see a Bitch mentioning penetration 🙂
Craig
Up to now I’ve maintained (and on occasion written here) that you are not to be held responsible for the kind of people attracted to this blog, whether the obviously unhinged (Trowbridge types), the Useful Idiots (Mr Goss, Herbie, Jives..) or the slyly malicious and gutless innuendo -mongers and purveyors of the irrelevant. In other words, I thought you were a decent sort of chap.
After reading parts of your post here – cuckold, slappers, shagging – I’m beginning to wonder if I wasn’t mistaken.
Some exaggerated language for polemical effect is fine but your grubbing around in the sexual relationships of the people concerned in this case disappoints me.
“your grubbing around in the sexual relationships of the people concerned in this case disappoints me”.
Have you ever seen the News of the World? Coulson and Brooks made a very fat living out of doing precisely what you accuse me of – and often got the dirt by illegal means. That is the point – he who lives by the sword, etc.
If you ever see me do this to anybody of whom that is not true, your disdain would be merited.
It purrs:
Up to now, blah blah blah, I thought, blah blah
After reading, blah blah blah
Blah, disappoints me, blah blah.
Here’s your coat. There’s the door.
Bye.
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Peacewisher
“I have to disagree about the picture of Blair and Rebekah though, Herbie. He definitely looks like he has the hots for her.”
Yeah but, in a fag hag kinda way.
There’s definitely an erotic tension to be sure, but I get the distinct impression her smile and dominant hand gesture betray a domme attitude to sub.
Quite a revealing moment really.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/06/rebekah-brooks/#comment-463985
above.
He’s quite the mucky one isn’t he.
Craig
I stand by “disappointed”. I’m perfectly aware that the redtops made/make a fat living out of that sort of stuff, but the point is precisely that you are not the editor of a redtop and I expected better from you. As for the “living by the sword” argument, that is very close to the Useful Idiots on here defending Russia’s every action by saying “oh, but the West/USA do the same or worse”.
It should be possible to deplore what Coulson, Brooks and comapny got up to in their professional lives without adding their personal sexual affairs to the charge sheet.
You can see examples of the sort of unhealthy tosh to which posts like that can give rise:
“BLiar/Brooks
Cameron/Brooks
Must we not speak their names in connection with the temptress?” (from Mary)
and
“Yeah but, in a fag hag kinda way.
There’s definitely an erotic tension to be sure, but I get the distinct impression her smile and dominant hand gesture betray a domme attitude to sub.” (from Dr Herbie).
As I said, unhealthy stuff from strange minds.
I defend Russia because it’s currently the only block on the Beltway lunatics who want the whole planet to submit to its will.
Perhaps when you’re older you’ll come to understand that.
I have to say though that your pubescent prudishness in the matter of human relations indicates you’ve a fair bit yet to travel onto adulthood.
Henceforth shall ye be known as Babbie Habby.
Cameron. Brooks. Horse riding. 150 intimate texts and messages exchanged. What Cameron thought LOL meant. etc etc
David Cameron put on the spot by cosy texts to Rebekah Brooks
Messages about horse riding and conference speech from cache of texts and emails handed over to Leveson inquiry
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/04/david-cameron-texts-rebekah-brooks
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BLiar is considered to be a psychopath.
‘At heart, Hare’s test is simple: a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply to the person), 1 (if it partially applies) or 2 (if it fully applies). The list in full is: glibness and superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, cunning/manipulative, lack of remorse, emotional shallowness, callousness and lack of empathy, unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions, a tendency to boredom, a parasitic lifestyle, a lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of behavioural control, behavioural problems in early life, juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility, a history of “revocation of conditional release” (ie broken parole), multiple marriages, and promiscuous sexual behaviour. A pure, prototypical psychopath would score 40. A score of 30 or more qualifies for a diagnosis of psychopathy. Hare says: “A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, once said: ‘Bob, when I meet someone who scores 35 or 36, I know these people really are different.’ The ones we consider to be alien are the ones at the upper end.” ‘
Psychopaths: how can you spot one?
We think of psychopaths as killers, alien, outside society. But, says the scientist who has spent his life studying them, you could have one for a colleague, a friend – or a spouse
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10737827/Psychopaths-how-can-you-spot-one.html
Hab
But since you called another commenter a “bitch”, you appear somewhat hypocritical yourself.
Iona Craig is a remarkable young woman. She was previously a jump jockey but packed it in, went to City University and got a degree and learnt Arabic part time at the University of Westminster. Then she entered into journalism. She must have a deal of drive and determination and also be very brave considering the risks to her life currently in Yemen.
http://ionacraig.tumblr.com/about
Craig
“Hab
But since you called another commenter a “bitch”, you appear somewhat hypocritical yourself.”
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No, not hypocritical, just eye for an eye in best Old Testament style. I’ve explained at least 5 times that I call Mary a bitch in exactly the same spirit in which she calls me a troll. Both words are unpleasant and should be unnecessary.
My hope is that Mary will cease calling me and others with whose opinions she disagrees trolls, whereupon I shall immediately cease referring to her as a bitch.
Hope that clarifies.
Interesting how Mary links in Blair to the Hare’s test for psychopaths although there is no link whatsoever in the Telegraph article – so I think that is a 2 for cunning/manipulative.
“It rather removes the argument that the disgusting wealth gap in the country relates to achievement and risk.”
Well, yes, but who took that argument seriously anyway? Even if true, it wouldn’t justify the size of the wealth gap. After all, the most brilliant person on the planet isn’t 1,000 or more times more valuable than the least so. To paraphrase Peter Hitchens on his blog a week or two ago, “The people in control really are as dim* as you think. There is no secret room somewhere filled with clever people who know what they’re doing”. They’re just “connected”, that’s all. Isn’t that why they shut down the grammar and technical schools, so that they wouldn’t have to compete with bright people who’s life-chances had been developed and whose horizons had been broadened at the tax-payers expense? Egalitarianism had nothing to do with it. If it had, they wouldn’t buy their way out of the system they have designed for the rest of us.
* To ‘dim’ you can add venal, corrupt and parasitic.
Well, she had super expensive lawyers, a charming manner in court, and the evidence was apparently circumstantial. So, the jury had ‘reasonable doubt’ as to her guilt, apparently. Here we are supposed to accept the wisdom of the court and the honesty of the jury. Well, I can accept the latter, less convinced about the former. It all looks very suss indeed. She’ll have a column in The Gurdian, next!
I wonder what m’lud said about the mass deletion of emails, what exactly was the direction given here. I know for a fact that, in my old job, emails were NOT deleted, ever. Maybe it’s different at RupyCorp. Maybe the emails of the 1% are exempted from the law, who knows?
Rebecca of course is now wandering about as though vindicated. She has not been vindicated in the slightest, to my eyes. She has been found not guilty due to reasonable doubt, all with the aid of a super-expensive legal team. This does not meet my definitition of vindicated at all, though doubtless some Guardian writers will soon leap to her defence, pathetically.
All correct, I’m sure, but it rather plays into the media spin that Leveson was all about phone hacking and invasion of privacy. So, once a few scapegoats have been hung out to dry and the criminal law is shown to be capable of doing that, the rest of the media / political game can go back to business as usual.
Whereas the most shocking thing to come from Leveson should not have been phone hacking but the connection between media business interests and government control that allows media owners and politicians to trade regulatory favors for positive news in a way that’s just about beyond the law. The most blatant example I saw from Leveson were emails detailing dinner meetings with Alex Salmond from Murdoch’s “Government Relations” team that specifically record the connection between Salmond lobbying for Murdoch’s business interests and the Scottish Sun’s editorial support. Huge breach of public trust on both sides but no chance of criminal prosecution.
The suspicion is that such trading is systemic, it crosses party lines, it is still going on, it is intimately tied to the current political and regulatory environment, and it is not being addressed by current criminal law. That makes it a much more difficult thing to deal with than a bunch of hacks and PIs illegally accessing voice mails from people who didn’t change the factory security codes when they bought new phones. And much more reason for the powers-that-be to want to sweep the issue under the carpet. Cameron may put out some fake apology for lack of judgment in appointing Coulson the criminal to his team but that’s not the point. The point is that he was appointing Murdoch’s man to his team and cementing those corrupt ties between media and government.
All this sleezy sex stuff with Brooks is actually playing into the media’s hands. It’s what they want. It’s smoke and mirrors. Look over here and get excited / offended (it really doesn’t matter which) by these tits so you don’t notice that we continue to quietly stitch up the whole game over there. And who’s left to report that?
R2D2 The Telegraph link contained a concise definition of the characteristics of a psychopath including a propensity for promiscuous sexual behaviour. That had been the subject under discussion if you recall. Stop trolling.
What significance and relevance to the trial was Brooks’ extensive and tragic account of her infertility and the help of a surrogate cousin to give her a child? To garner sympathy? Why else reveal such personal information?
‘The trial has had significant personal costs for someone who regards herself as fiercely private. Intimate details of her life – from struggles with infertility to her one-time affair with co-defendant Andy Coulson – have been splashed across the front pages in the seven-month trial. Her mother, a Cheshire dairy farmer, was called to testify in court.’
Hacking trial: A woman at the centre of the UK establishment
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0eadcd7c-ec23-11e3-ab1b-00144feabdc0.html
Herbie
“I have to say though that your pubescent prudishness in the matter of human relations indicates you’ve a fair bit yet to travel onto adulthood.”
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If that means that I don’t like the sight of middle-aged or older ‘gentlemen’ like you walking around with their flies wide open and their tongues hanging out then you’re probably right.
Metaphorically speaking.
“If I were Brooks, I would be sending money in to pay very large men to help him find the soap in the shower.”
Funny world we live in. Michael Fabricant tweets about violence to Yasmin Alibhai Brown and the whole world goes mad.
Craig Murray suggests that a man should be gang raped and I guess for some people it’s just a funny comment. Alas, after working with various men over the years who have been raped, forgive me if I fail to get the joke….