Coalition

The BBC reports that Jeremy Hunt has written to Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading about Rupert Murdoch’s proposed takeover of BskyB. Hunt asks the regulators if they now have any ‘additional concerns in respect of plurality over and above those raised in your initial report to me on this matter received on 31 December 2010.’ Hunt concentrates on Murdoch’s provisions about maintaining the independence of Sky News. His concern with plurality is ironic given that the British media has become much more plural following the demise of the News of the World. This favours Murdoch’s takeover bid, on the face of it at least. Hunt also touches on

There’s a lot to sift through in the papers this morning, even apart from history’s final edition of the News of the World. I mean, a report that Rebekah Brooks is to face police questioning over the phone hacking scandal; an interview with the assistant commissioner of the Met, who apologises and flusters over the original police investigation; and claims from Paddy Ashdown that he warned No.10 “within days of the election” about the Coulson-shaped trouble that was heading their way. But more politically significant is the news that Ed Miliband could push for a Commons vote, on Wednesday, to block News Corp’s takeover of Sky. The Labour leader outlined

It’s a strange thing, amid all venom and spite over the phone hacking scandal, how the three main parties are actually converging on the same responses. A judge-led inquiry? That’s now party policy for them all. The end of the PCC? Likewise. In his press conference earlier, Cameron even came close to saying that Rebekah Brooks should have lost her job. For once, there are trace quantities of Agreeing With Ed in the air at Westminster. This is both a boon and a bitterness for Ed Miliband. A boon, because he can at least claim that Labour led the debate, and Cameron followed. A bitterness, because the politics of the

Gosh, this phone hacking scandal is moving at a pace. Fresh from the wire comes news that even the government is reviewing its advertising contracts with the News of the World; signs that Jeremy Hunt won’t budge on the BSkyB deal; as well as further interventions by everyone from Ed Miliband to Boris Johnson. Overarching all that, though, are the hardening differences of opinion between the Tories and the Lib Dems. The yellow half of the coalition is going further and further in pushing for both an enforced pause to the BSkyB deal and a judge-led inquiry into the whole mess. Both Lord Oakeshott and Simon Hughes have called for

The cascade of News of the World stories has, this morning, become a deluge. On top of last night’s Andy Coulson news — which, as George Eaton points out, really oughtn’t be that surprising — we have the Indepedent claiming that Rebekah Brooks personally “commissioned searches” from one of the private investigators tangled up in the Milly Dowler affair. The Guardian reveals that Cabinet ministers are minded to establish a full review into both ownership and regulation of the media. And the Telegraph suggests that the bereaved families of those killed in the 7 July bombing may have had their phones targeted. “It is thought that journalists were seeking to

Say what you like about Jose Manuel Barroso, he’s a wily old card. The European Commission president makes public demands for Britain to surrender its rebate in European Union membership fees. The government refuses. Then, hey presto! Headlines suggesting that Brussels has been seen off. “Brussels bribe to buy off UK rebate,” says the Daily Mail. “Britain’s rebate is fully justified and we are not going to give way on it,” a Treasury spokesman tells the media. The quotation is true, Barroso did indeed offer £23 billion to tweak the UK funding formula, and a short-termist like Gordon Brown might have accepted. But the battle for Britain’s EU spending was

The government has stuck to its guns on overseas aid, promising to donate 0.7 per cent of our national income to other countries. In the Chancellor’s words, the government will not balance the books on backs of the world’s poorest people. In fact, as the criticism of the policy was at its highest the Prime Minster hosted a development summit in London and pledged £814m to help vaccinate children around the world against preventable diseases like pneumonia. On this issue, David Cameron does not seem for turning — however many letters he receives from the Defence Secretary.   But Liam Fox is not alone. A slew of recent polls show