How David Cameron set up the Leveson inquiry in a panic

By
Black Dog

19:31 EST, 12 May 2012

|

19:31 EST, 12 May 2012


Leveson inquiry launch panic: Prime Minister David Cameron

Leveson inquiry launch panic: Prime Minister David Cameron

A No 10 aide present on the day David Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiry into phone-hacking and media ethics recalls the sequence of events clearly: ‘In the morning he said we must not be panicked into launching an inquiry because it may come back to haunt us. Later in the day, he announced an inquiry.’ How he must regret it now.

The PM’s most powerful Tory critic, ex-Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, had a secret 90-minute meeting with George Osborne in which they discussed where the Government was going wrong. It came after Davis, who grew up on a council estate, said the Tory leaders were out-of-touch ‘toffs’. Not long ago Cameron and Osborne scoffed at old knuckleduster Davis for being a ‘spent force’. Not any more.

Stressed-out MPs are being offered salvation in the form of a Harley Street hypnotherapist. Blonde Danielle Henderson promises help with ‘anxiety’ and something called ‘emotional blocks’. Business should be brisk – Dog  has counted 650 emotional blocks in the Commons. One for each MP.

Cocktails… with a dash of Argy-bargy

A Commons cocktail party turned into a mini Falklands War rerun when Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle launched a verbal assault on Argentinian ambassador Alicia Castro, left, for claiming the islands were a ‘colonial enclave’. Labour MP Lindsay was overheard telling her: ‘Your remarks were  a bloody disgrace. You know nothing about democracy – the islanders want to be British not Argentinian and that’s  how it is going to stay.’

Seb Coe thought he was on to a winner when he took a bow at Chelsea FC’s packed Stamford Bridge ground for leading the 2012 Olympics campaign – until the club announcer asked the crowd to salute him as ‘an Olympic hero and lifelong Chelsea fan’. At which point the away team’s fans burst into song: ‘There’s only one Steve Ovett . . .’

George goes for growth

George Osborne is hardly helping himself when it comes to dissuading the nation that he is more wedded to cuts than boosting the economy. The new official guide to Whitehall departments contains the following entry for the Treasury: ‘Press Officer (Growth): Vacant.’ Oops.

Speaker’s wife and publicity junkie Sally Bercow is drawing attention to herself again: her car has a personalised number plate, ‘S88LYY’. Mrs B has missed a trick – it should be ‘GYP5Y’ in honour of her friend, Irish traveller Paddy Doherty, star of Channel 4’s Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Tory grandee and military buff Keith Simpson, 63, stars in the film The Lost World Of The Seventies on BBC2 tonight. It shows a 1975 Army training film made at the height of paranoia about a Left-wing coup in the UK. Simpson, a Sandhurst lecturer in the Seventies, plays a loony Right-wing MP who vows to crush the ‘lower classes’ in the training film. Plus ca change.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes