As usual the Daily Mash has a good take on this story.
A private investigator in the UK has no more rights than any private citizen so I am not sure why they would need to be licensed.
Licensing would imply giving them some extra level of rights or privileges to go with the license. I don’t see how giving PI’s more rights in the UK then ties into the lessons learnt from this case.
I don’t think it’s about giving any more rights. It’s more to do with regulating their behaviour and ensuring they meet minimum standards.
Doing the rounds:
Hi. I’m unable to answer my mobile phone at the moment, but if you leave a message, the News of the World will email it to me later
Delay in making the decision announced. Further, two enquiries announced, one led by a judge to ascertain why the original police enquiry failed and the illegal practices of the British press (witnesses called under oath), and a second enquiry into the culture and ethics of the British press!
Apparently Cameron was just “machine gunned by the press” during a press conference (in the Torygraph’s own words, too!) Has anybody got a video of it yet?
Hugh Grant is saying he recorded a conversation with McMullan after McMullan apparently bragged about hacking Grant’s phone:
http://www.newstatesman.com/newspapers/2011/04/phone-yeah-cameron-murdoch
…
Aye, that was a few months ago, and the piece was commissioned when his friend Jemima Khan was guest editing the New Statesman.
I’ve a lot of sympathy for Grant - his thesis is that he has a job, and when he is promoting a new film or whatever then he is fair game, but when he is just doing his normal life then he should be allowed a private life like anyone else. Anyway, the Grant vs. McMullan encounters over the past week have been enormous fun, and Grant has made McMullan look like a total fanny every time.
People Magazine story on Hugh Grant’s role in the scandal, and how he supposedly helped to expose the phone hacking. And the article’s got a terrible photo of him.
He has been fairly impressive on this. He held his own wonderfully well on “Question Time” and has been consistent in his views throughout. He has captured the public mood accurately as well (the fact that while celebrity intrusion was a minor nuisance, vulnerable private citizen intrusion is unforgivable)
He seems quick to take the piss out of himself and genuinely angry on behalf of the man in the street. Full marks to him.
Is there a transcript of Question Time yet, does anyone know?
He’s had his own gigantic scandal, and the associated mea culpa in the full force of the public gaze. He doesn’t need to raise his head above the parapet, but he has chosen to do so. But, what the fuck, HUGH GRANT WORE A WIRE :eek:
For example of good old-fashioned journalism, have a look at Jon Snow interviewing News International’s “Director of Corporate Affairs,” Simon Greenberg,.
Greenberg was described on Newsnight as giving a whole series of “car-crash interviews” that day. I don’t think NI will be putting him forward as spokesman again.
An amusing quote about Hugh Grant’s performance on Question Time, as reported here:
The “tweeter” of that thought? Piers Morgan.
Um, Piers? The general populace are not currently thrilled with slimeball former editors of tabloid papers and they love Hugh Grant. Maybe now is not the best time to step into the fray, especially taking a position diametrically opposed to everyone else?
Or, on second thought, do. If we could take Morgan down too, it would be Christmas come early.
No, he’ll end up running some part of News Corp, just after he’s stopped sucking Satan’s penis.
Is this Paul McMullan for real? Unshaven, yellowed teeth, rumpled suit that looks like it was made for a man twice his size. Every time he opens his mouth I expect the other people in the room to pass out from his firewater breath. He looks like Chester J. Lampwick from the Simpsons episode “The Day the Violence Died.” I could see him in a Bogart movie being a pathetic derelict who gets kicked around by Peter Lorre after Peter Lorre got kicked around by Bogey.
US Americans shave your teeth?
Well, McMullen’s teeth look like they’re growing hair.
McMullen’s interesting in that he appears to have just enough vestigial integrity left to tell the truth when asked if he ever hacked anybody’s phone, if he was told to by his editors etc. Which makes for fascinating interviews. Cf Andy Coulson, who has cheerfully and skillfullly been lying through his teeth to everyone including HoC select committees, the PM and a court of law.