Awol Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Cameron has more to be worried about on this than the riots imo. Maybe, maybe not. While he is defintely guilty of sucking up to the felching Oz-yank, it appears a certain former PM was part of the family!! Tony Blair is godfather to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Tony Blair is godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch’s young children, it has emerged in an interview with the media tycoon’s wife Wendi. The former prime minister was reportedly present in March last year when Murdoch’s two daughters by his third wife were baptised on the banks of the Jordan. The information was not made public and its disclosure in an interview with Mrs Murdoch in Vogue will prove highly embarrassing for Mr Blair. His close ties to the Murdochs could explain his reluctance to condemn the News International phone hacking scandal. In July, it was reported that he asked Gordon Brown to put pressure on Tom Watson, the Labour MP who helped expose the scandal, to drop his investigation. Mr Blair’s spokesman categorically denied the allegation. When the baptism was splashed across the pages of Hello! magazine last year, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, her fellow Australian actor, were named as godparents to Grace, nine, and Chloe, eight. No mention was made of Mr Blair’s role as a godfather to Grace and he did not appear in pictures of the ceremony, which took place at the spot where it is said that Jesus was baptised. However, the facts emerged in an interview with Mrs Murdoch in the fashion magazine. She made international headlines in July by jumping to the defence of her 80-year-old husband when he was attacked with a “foam pie” while giving evidence to a parliamentary committee on hacking. Last night, Mr Blair’s spokesman refused to comment, but a News Corp source confirmed that Mr Blair was godfather to Grace, as was Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son. The journalist who conducted the interview for Vogue is said to move in the same circles as the Murdochs in New York. While Mrs Murdoch does not comment on Mr Blair directly, the article states that Miss Kidman, Mr Jackman and Mr Blair are godparents. It claims that Mr Blair attended the Jordanian ceremony “garbed in white” and describes him as one of Mrs Murdoch’s “closest friends”... More on link - if you can stomach it “garbed in white”... sounds about right, Blair seems to think he's a cross between the Messiah and Cliff Richard, the slimey clearing in the woods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 5, 2011 Moderator Share Posted September 5, 2011 They are all as bad as each other Blair included, difference is though Blair isn't the one who is the current incumbent or the one who is going to be on the end of the tricky questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted September 5, 2011 Administrator Share Posted September 5, 2011 I blame God. Couldn't He have sorted this out while they were in church? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 They are all as bad as each other Blair included, difference is though Blair isn't the one who is the current incumbent or the one who is going to be on the end of the tricky questions. Very true mate, it just gives the lie to the spin put about these parts that the Murdoch love in was a strictly Tory Party pass time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 They are all as bad as each other Blair included, difference is though Blair isn't the one who is the current incumbent or the one who is going to be on the end of the tricky questions. Very true mate, it just gives the lie to the spin put about these parts that the Murdoch love in was a strictly Tory Party pass time. Pastime. And it's been well recognised and remarked in these parts by a wide range of people that the Murdoch love-in was not just a pastime, but a career choice, of a whole bunch of thieving amoral shits including but not limited to Messrs Bambi and Mandy and ooh, a whole bunch of others, again, including but not limited to, the commanding heights of the Tory party. But you know this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Peter, Indeed. You are acknowledged as an apolitcial sage..But you know this Join us - BIAD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Join us - BIAD I thought that happened a few weeks ago, and a lot of the perpetrators have been caught and prosecuted? :winkold: Also, they seem to have been burning down the 'wrong' buildings, and doing some looting whilst they were at it. I blame a lack of education for that poorly executed BIAD movement last month. The next one is sure to be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 6, 2011 Moderator Share Posted September 6, 2011 I'm not sure what this BIAD movement is, I'm guessing it isn't the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted September 6, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted September 6, 2011 Oh sorry, I thought you said "Smash the cistern"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 I'm not sure what this BIAD movement is, I'm guessing it isn't the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. They are *n*rch*sts. Sorry not to spell it out, but I don't want to be apprehended by our entirely laudable security forces and rendered to Morocco or Niger to be tortured into making false confessions. I'll leave it there, and let the naughty posters answer for their own deviant and irresponsible fearmongering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 news just in : Police have revealed that the News Of The World paper's staff did not delete crucial voicemails from the phone of murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. The revelations that journalists had deliberately deleted Milly Dowler's messages caused a public outcry and eventually the closure of the News Of The World paper. does that mean someone else deleted them i.e she was being hacked by more than one newspaper ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted December 12, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 12, 2011 It means that some of the messages were autodeleted 72 hours after being listened to by the NotW hacker(s) - In other words they weren't deliberately removed by NoTW, but NotW's actions caused them to be deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 12, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 12, 2011 More than likely Pete or that they were deleted by a PI contracted by but not technically a member of News International staff. Doesn't get them off the hook on this one or mean another newspaper is responsible although I'm sure the practise was far more wide spread than just News Corp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Yes, exactly. I'd hazard a guess that the link Tony didn't provide leads back to a Murdoch paper and they are trying to reduce the blame they recieved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdabush Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Yes, exactly. I'd hazard a guess that the link Tony didn't provide leads back to a Murdoch paper and they are trying to reduce the blame they recieved. Actually it's not from a Murdoch paper. It's from the Sky News site :winkold: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Interesting session at the Leveson inquiry, with Neville Thurlbeck being questioned. Previous bits I've seen have had the lawyers taking a fairly dispassionate approach, but at times today they (and Leveson) have seemed almost scornful of some of the things Thurlbeck is saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 In other words they weren't deliberately removed by NoTW, but NotW's actions caused them to be deleted. don't get me wrong it's still deplorable what was going on but that wasn't what was said at the time was it ? Wasn't it public "outrage" that the messages had deliberately been deleted that caused NOTW to close ? (and it's possible it was detectives accessing the voicemails that caused them to be deleted ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 12, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 12, 2011 In other words they weren't deliberately removed by NoTW, but NotW's actions caused them to be deleted. don't get me wrong it's still deplorable what was going on but that wasn't what was said at the time was it ? Wasn't it public "outrage" that the messages had deliberately been deleted that caused NOTW to close ? (and it's possible it was detectives accessing the voicemails that caused them to be deleted )If that were the case, why did Murdoch grovel and close down the paper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 the grovel was because they knew it was wrong to access voicemails I should imagine he shut down NOTW because of Facebook and twitter type campaigns to boycott the paper .. but possibly those campaigns were built on a lie , that appears to have started at the Guardian ? now maybe the accessing of 800 (not 5000 also reported by the Guardian) voicemails would have been enough for the public to have boycotted the NOTW anyway but If I recall it was the "deliberate deleting" part that got the twitter brigade going rather than illegal voicemail activity ( that had already been news for weeks by that point ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted December 12, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 12, 2011 The outrage, in my perception, was that NotW hacked Milly Dowler's phone. Further outrage was that the police knew it had been going on, but didn't do anything about it. There was also incredulity/anger that NotW would delete the messages, giving false hope etc.. The only thing that's changed is that the initial Police info that came out about the NotW deliberately deleting has been changed to "accidentally" deleting. No one, absolutely no-one, other than that rat of a hack at the enquiry last week, finds what the NotW systematically did to be remotely acceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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