Murdoch still making the headlines

IF nepotism is considered to be gross misconduct in the police service why is it not in politics? If it is considered appropriate for two chief officers to resign from the Metropolitan Police because of their alleged contacts with News International personnel who have recently been arrested, why is it not so for Prime Minister Cameron? His appointment of Andy Coulson to a senior government position was not only mind-numbingly naive, it was akin to nepotism. Who else had the opportunity to apply for that post?

It is right that those who have done wrong in this affair should face the consequences, whoever they may be. What is not right is that MPs should use Parliamentary privilege to publicly make offensive comments about those they have interviewed. One wonders if this is pay-back time for the embarrassment some suffered during the police enquiry into their expenses.

It would be interesting to know how many of those in Parliament, of all parties, have broken bread with the Murdoch empire.

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

The BBC’s saturation coverage, media frenzy and indignation in the reporting of the Murdoch affair is out of all proportion to its importance and impact on society.

Its excuse is the anger they claim exists in the public. This is a gross exaggeration of how people feel and they are suffering far more from other problems caused by our Government and their Establishment friends. It’s not Murdoch that should be in the dock. It is the politicians and police who should be attacked for corruption, not the whistle blower who exposes them.

This sideshow is obscuring many other issues that affect our lives more than anything Murdoch may have done, bad as it was. So what bad news is being buried and what level of involvement have our present and previous prime minsters had in this whole sordid affair? The spotlight should be on them.

Above all, what about the hypocrisy of condemning Murdoch for phone hacking when the State and American spy bases in the UK are doing exactly the same?

The Establishment is destroying Murdoch because it fears him. If anything Murdoch’s crime is clumsiness, and had he limited his investigations to the Establishment he would have been praised rather than vilified.

From: Barrie Frost, Watson’s Lane, Reighton, Filey.

HOW correct David T Craggs is when he says it is convenient for the Government that the saga of the phone hacking scandal relegated from the front pages the appalling decision to award the huge train building contract to Siemens of Germany instead of our English-based company Bombardier (Yorkshire Post, July 18).

It appears many of our so-called elected representatives are doing exactly the opposite of what is expected of them, for how can they justify, especially in the current climate, effectively making so many workers redundant by giving the work to a foreign company?

The reason, they say, is due to the dreaded European directives which once again seem to be imposed upon Britain in order to further penalise our industries and for Europe to reap the benefit. But, why is Britain the only country which slavishly accepts such directives? As Mr Craggs mentions, Germany and France always give such contracts to their own companies and never consider anything else, so why does Britain fail miserably to support her own industries and workers?

Our political leaders feel it is appropriate to give hundreds of millions of pounds of of taxpayers’ money to other countries who are better placed than us. Now it sees fit to ignore the employment prospects of its workers by giving this lucrative contact to a foreign country. It seems impossible to even contemplate such foolishness and this is exacerbated by the fact that we are having to pay them handsomely to do this.

From: Robert Nelson, Queens Road, Harrogate.

AS a young boy in the 1930s, I lived with my grandmother in Leeds. One Sunday afternoon another relative called on a social visit. He had with him a copy of the News of the World. My grandmother, a staunch Victorian, on spotting the offending article took the paper from him and with the words: “I will not have such filth in my house,” then tore the paper and burnt it on the open fire.

If my grandmother had been with us today I think she would have advised the whole family to deal with all Rupert Murdoch’s products in a similar way.

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

IS dilettante GP Taylor bidding for a Tory candidacy? I am sure he is not a fan of Alastair Campbell or Peter Mandelson, but only a would-be master of the dark arts would have the audacity to put a positive spin on the situation in which David Cameron now finds himself (Yorkshire Post, July 16).

Indeed, it is not the Prime Minister’s fault that he was born outside Yorkshire but that is no excuse for being out of touch with the North. More importantly if “all looks good” for Cameron apart from “dangers on the horizon”, many observers will wonder if their glasses are out of focus.

Your contributor glosses over Cameron’s involvement in the News International scandal in a single paragraph, explaining away the PM’s choice of friends in the Murdoch empire. The mitigation? Blair, not Cameron, was the one who started the fashion and such was the charisma of “Greek goddess” Rebekah Brooks that anyone in her presence – and GP speaks from experience here – would go weak at the knees. Thank you GP, for clearing that up.