Presidential election 2011

Labour landslide takes 

Presidency and wins 

Dublin West By-Election!

O’Higgins elected with over

1,000,000 votes!

Fianna Fáil lose only seat 

in Greater Dublin:

Presidential election turns on trust and statesmanship:

Labour Presidential candidate Michael D. O’Higgins swept to victory in last Thursday’s

Presidential election in Ireland scoring the highest ever individual vote for the office and a historic highest ever margin over other candidates since the office was established in the 1937

Constitution, Bunreacht Na hÉireann. Mr O’Higgins final count total was 1,007,104 and second placed Mr SeánGallagher’s was 628,114.

Mr O’Higgins (70) arrived at the count centre at Dublin Castle with his wife Sabina before the first count was announced. ''I'm very happy. I'm happy with the vote and the support," he said. "I'm very glad that it is so decisive, that the transfers also indicate that it will enable me to be a president for all of the people. I pay tribute to the other candidates for their very long, hard campaign, and they had many good ideas which I will incorporate.''

The President-elect returned in triumph to his home base in Galway city on Saturday where thousands of supporters and citizens turned out to welcome the new First Citizen in the city’s renowned Eyre Square. President-elect O'Higgins made another of his inspiring and cogent speeches promising to use his office to present a clear alternative to the philosophy of greed and selfish individualism which beset the so-called “Celtic Tiger” and brought the country to

financial ruin.

More than 5,000 people had gathered since early afternoon at Eyre Square to welcome back the 9th Irish President to his home city. He told the cheering crowd that he was unable to personally thank the one million-plus who had voted for him, but he was deeply grateful for their support. "I am delighted to be back home in Galway, the place I first came to as a 19-year-old in 1960 ... it's here where my heart is and will forever be," he said.

"I want to say a very sincere thank you for this welcome home - it is a wonderful welcome home. It is the place to where I return and where I will always return because it is of Galway that I am.

"I say to all of you that when I take my oath of office I will do my absolute best to use all of my abilities for all of the people of Ireland. "These abilities have been greatly enhanced by my time in Galway. I love Galway, this great city." He added: "I think that the important thing now for us is to have a celebration and then, with determination, to move into our common shared different future”.

"I hope that at the end of the seven years, people will say that I have been of some inspirational value to them at home in terms of inclusiveness and abroad, I look forward to representing Ireland."  The President-elect said he would shortly visit the Irish in Britain as he had done every year and promised to be their president also.

The sweeping support gained by Mr O’Higgins in all constituencies across the country was due to his qualities as a statesman and his long-time stance as an activist politician who stood for social justice, equality, and fairness and integrity in public life as epitomised by no other candidate in the election. He led in the opinion polls from the start of campaigning and the apparent rise of the “unofficial” Fianna Fáil candidate, Seán Gallagher proved a will o’ the wisp when eventually exposed to withering public scrutiny in the last week of the election.

Labour takes Dublin West, last bastion of Fianna Fáil in the Dublin area:

In a spectacular bonus on top of the presidential victory for Michael D. O’Higgins, Labour councilor Patrick Nulty achieved another  historic victory for the party by winning the Dublin West by-election and  depriving Fianna Fáil of its only seat in the Dublin area since the meltdown of the general election in March this year. Nulty’s final count reached 17,636 almost 6,000 ahead of Fianna Fáil candidate, David McGuinness at 11,590. The seat was the only one held by FF in the capital by former finance Minister, Brian Lenihan whose death from cancer created the vacancy. The strong showing of Socialist Party candidate, Ruth Coppinger, showed the growing strength of the left vote in Dublin and gave no room for complacency in the Labour Party.

The result was a further humiliation for Fianna Fáil, which dominated Irish government for 80 years, but is now a tired and demoralised rump in Dáil Éireann squabbling amongst themselves.

 Subterfuge and deceit backfire on Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, who replaced Brian Cowen before this year’s general election in which the party’s ranks were devastated,, opposed attempts by the party backwoods to nominate a party candidate for President and rebuffed all attempts to do so. The FF banner was then attached to so-called “independent” candidate, Seán Gallagher, a businessman of quite arrogant demeanour who had acquired a “celeb” profile on television as one of the “Dragon’s Den” panel of business men assessing would-be entrepreneurs projects in RTÉ’s imitation of similar “reality” shows on British and US television.

Gallagher’s attempts to position himself in the “independent” Camp of Four at first seemed to bring success in the polls but, then crumbled and reversed under sustained media questioning which showed his deep roots in Fianna Fáil as the party’s youth leader for two years in the 1980’s; close associations with corrupt FF leader Charles J. Haughey and finally on the Monday before the election when Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuiness launched a cruise missile in his direction on the RTÉ Frontline presidential candidates debate, that he had collected a cheque for the party for €5,000 from convicted smuggler Hugh Morgan in County Louth. The disclosures over his ties to Fianna Fáil, culminating in the revelations initiated by McGuinness, prompted a big swing back to Mr O'Higgins, who ran a relatively low-profile but steady campaign.The results show Mr Gallagher failed to recover from the scandals that broke after a series of polls that at two weeks to go had given him a 15 point lead over Mr O'Higgins.

Mr Gallagher, who arrived at the results centre with his wife, Trish O'Connor, said Mr O'Higgins will have his full support as president. “He has given a lifetime of service to this country, and I know he will be an outstanding president,” Mr Gallagher said. Asked if he blamed Mr McGuinness – who had raised  the questions about his involvement in Fianna Fáil fundraising activities earlier in the week - for his drop from top of opinion polls to second in the vote, Mr Gallagher said: “Tonight is not a night for blame.” Drowning of sorrows no doubt followed in the nearest bar. A striking resemblance to "Lex Luthor" villainous enemy of "Superman" in movies and comic books didn't help either!

SINN FÉIN MAKES STRONG SHOWING WITH MCGUINNESS:

Martin McGuinness  finished third in the  presidential elections behind  

Michael D. O' Higgins and Sean Gallagher. Mr McGuinness, who stepped down as Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister to run, secured a huge boost for THE party by topping the poll in the Donegal North-East constituency.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin party president, said the support would bring politics in Northern Ireland and the Republic closer. "I think what we have done is to narrow the gap between politics in the north and the south," Mr Adams said. Mr McGuinness phoned Mr O'Higgins to offer congratulations. "He will make a fine president and I wish him well for his seven years in the Áras," the Sinn Féin candidate said. "I am delighted with the strong vote I have received. My message of positive leadership, patriotism and commitment clearly was resonating with tens of thousands of ordinary Irish people. I believe that Irish people do want a new type of politics and a new Republic based upon equality and respect."

Sinn Féin vice president Mary Lou McDonald said Mr McGuinness's campaign had succeeded in raising issues that were important to Sinn Fein and broke new ground for the party. "For Sinn Féin this is a milestone election," she said. "There was a time - and it's not so long ago - when republicans would have been considered almost a marginal voice in southern politics and today we changed that. "Ms McDonald denied that the furore over Mr McGuinness's IRA past would damage the party in the Republic, noting that his chief critic, Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell, had polled poorly.

Sinn Féin and McGuinness managed to deflect the media inspired campaign to undermine his candidacy by constant dredging up of his participation in the IRA Provos bombing campaign in Northern Ireland 1969-94, and most damaging as far as a southern electorate was concerned, the murder of Limerick Garda, Jerry McCabe, in 1996 during an IRA Provo armed robbery. Despite this and the production of several aggrieved relatives of victims of IRA murders over the entire years of strife in Northern Ireland, Mc Guinness still managed to hold third place overall and top the poll in Donegal North-East constituency. Sinn Féin will be hoping that they have exorcised some of the ghosts of past troubles during this campaign and that it was worthwhile entering this contest in the Republic.

President Gay or Gay President?

The fight for fourth place was fought out by leading gay activist in Ireland, Senator David Norris, Joycean scholar and raconteur, and Gay Mitchell, candidate of Fine Gael, the major party in the current coalition government with Labour established after the general election in March this year.

Mitchell was selected 0n 09/07/11 as Fine Gael's candidate for the presidential election race. Amid internal party strife and backstabbing as the leadership tried to parachute former EU Parliament President and  ideologue Pat Cox of now defunct Progressive Democrat party of Harney and O’Malley Fianna Fáil defectors and other malcontents of the right wing, on an unwilling constituency base Mitchell succeeded in ousting Pox from the running and got the nomination in a firm rebuff of Dame Enda Kenny’s celeb politics.The Dublin MEP said he was honoured to be chosen ahead of other hopefuls former European Parliament president Pat Cox and MEP Mairead McGuinness. Mr Mitchell told party colleagues he had the heart to achieve an historic Fine Gael win in the race to succeed Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin.

"We will take this campaign to every corner of the country" he said. The former junior minister was proposed by Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald, and seconded by Limerick West TD Dan Neville. Mr Mitchell said he did not appeal to any one class but to all those who are striving to cope. All turned to dust, however, as Mitchell stumped and grumped his way through the constituencies, a pathetic figure of past absurdities as his favoured euro federalism came crashing to economic ruin. Half-hearted support from Fine Gael TDs and Mitchell’s failure to garner any significant public endorsement ensured inevitable defeat.

 An oddity of the campaign was that Mitchell escaped any serious question of his oft-expressed support for the ending of Irish Neutrality in international conflicts and the alignment of our country with the aggressive NATO bloc, the largest criminal organisation in the world. Mr Mitchell said he was a Fine Gael person to the bone but as president would be an Irish person to the bone. Obviously, Mitchell never read the document brought to London in 1921 by Micheal Collins, long-time Fine Gael hero, in 1921:

Proposals taken by Michael Collins to London for the treaty negotiations with Great Britainin 1921(emphasis added):

ARTICLE II. (For Draft B.)

Ireland agrees to become an external associate of the states of the British Commonwealth. As an associate Ireland's status shall be that of equality with the sovereign partner states of the Commonwealth now separately represented in the British Imperial Council _ Great Britain, Canada, Australia, etc, and shall be so recognised by these several states.

ARTICLE III. of Draft 'A' and ARTICLE V. of 'B'.

(1) Ireland consents to be a neutral State, and the British Commonwealth guarantees the perpetual neutrality of Ireland and the integrity and inviolability of Irish territory.

(2) Ireland undertakes, both in the interest of the Irish People and in friendly regard for the strategic interests of the British Commonwealth, to enter into no compact, and to take no action, nor permit any action to be taken, inconsistent with the obligation of preserving the neutrality, integrity and inviolability of Ireland, and to repel with force any attempt to violate Irish territory or to use Irish territorial waters for warlike purposes.

ARTICLE IV. of Draft A. and ARTICLE — of B.

Ireland will make, and his Britannic Majesty will support Ireland in making, a request to the respective Governments of the United States of America, and of all other States, not being members of the League of Nations, with whom his Britannic Majesty entertains diplomatic relations formally to recognise and guarantee the perpetual neutrality, integrity and inviolability of Ireland.

Ireland will request, and the several partner States of the British Commonwealth will support Ireland in requesting the Council and Assembly of the League of Nations formally to recognise and guarantee the perpetual neutrality as well as the integrity and inviolability of Ireland.

(Dept of Foreign Affairs IRL, archives,  http://www.difp.ie/docs/volume/1/1921/159.htm)

This commitment of the first Dáil Éireann to perpetual neutrality for independent Ireland has long been reneged on by Fine Gael and particularly by Mitchell himself who was particularly vocal during the two Lisbon Treaty referendums in 2009 and 2010 in advocating the militarisation of the EU and Ireland joining the aggressive NATO bloc. Mitchell also supported the NATO aggressive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and the continued use of Shannon Airport by US military and “rendition” flights.

Asked if Fine Gael had chosen to run the wrong candidate, Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, said Mr Mitchell had been selected by party process and the party had to live with the decision. Fine Gael was still performing well in party polls and Enda Kenny remained a popular leader, he added.Fine Gael’s deputy director of election, Frank Flannery, acknowledged Mr Mitchell was not what the public was looking for this time around. “I think the reality of the election was that the public wanted a candidate in the office of president almost as similar as they could to the two recent ones who they see as people as stature and people of independence, with the presidency an office in its own right and not related to or not the property of any political party,” he said. “In a way the more closely a candidate was associated with a political party . . . the more difficult it was to fit that public profile.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny had said that the next presidency would be the most crucial since the foundation of the State. Thankfully, Fine Gael won’t be running it.

FearFeasaMacLéinn

Áth Cliath/Dublin

02 Samhain/November 2011.

MURDOCH EMPIRE CRACKS;

NOTW TO CLOSE THIS SUNDAY!

WAPPING WARRIORS WALLOPED WITH WIDENING WAVE OF 

PUBLIC REVULSION!

CAMERON FORCED TO CALL PUBLIC INQUIRY!

SCOTLAND YARD READY TO POUNCE ON HIGH PROFILE FIGURES!

Stunned disbelief ripped through British political and media circles today as Morlock Jnr., James Murdoch, Chair of News International Europe in the Media Empire of pere (Not Sir) Rupert Murdoch, called a press conference to announce the closure of the News of the World, the paper at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal which erupted into a major political controversy this week landing even on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.

This development, partly covered by a previously ordained economy measure to replace NOTW with a 7 day version of the daily “The Sun” but ,also a cynical attempt to save the hide of CEO Rebekah Brooks under massive pressure to resign as she was the Editor of NOTW at the time major abuses were taking place. Furious staff at Wapping were today rounding on Brooks as she seemed to be holding on to her job as they were losing theirs, particularly as most of the current NOTW staff were not employed there at the time when these abuses were first being investigated by Scotland Yard. Not to worry, Lads and Lassies, Brooks won’t survive the week!

The current police investigation which,we are told, is hot on the tail of the major culprits, threatens not only Brooks and cronies but, also, previous editor Andy Coulson, former Head of Communications for Cameron at Downing Street and possibly Morlock Jnr. himself, who carries ultimate responsibility for the corporate affairs of News International. British media reporting through the day that high-profile arrests are imminent. Extra supplies of Rennies and Gaviscon delivered to Downing Street today.

Miracle of the Silent Sun:

Somewhat akin to the Miracle of Fatima, where the Sun supposedly danced in the sky before

thousands of the faithful gathered near the Portuguese village in 1917, a solar miracle occurred in London today when “The Sun”, usually the most vocal and provocative of the Murdoch smutrags in Britain, appeared without giving a mention to the tsunami of disgust and revulsion sweeping Britain against its sister rag “News of the World” in the stable of filth and felonies operated there by the Murdoch media empire.

The political after-shocks continued in the House of Commons yesterday where Brit Prime Minister, David Cameron, was forced to agree to a full scale judicial inquiry into the NOTW phone-hacking scandal which has now reached epic proportions. The British Government was also stymied in its decision to approve the takeover of BSkyB television, including Sky News, by NewsCorp, Murdoch’s media company, which was supposed to be announced this week. Unable to resist the shock-horror effect of the revelations on British public opinion of the phones of murder victims, their families, victims of the London bombings, 2005, whose anniversaries, poignantly, occur today, and British troops killed in the war in Afghanistan, being hacked into by Murdoch minions, the Government was forced to shunt their decision aside until next September. Given the extent of the revelations now parading into the spotlight, it’s likely Morlock Snr will never get his grubby hands on BSkyB.

FearFeasaMacLéinn,

Áth Cliath/Dublin,

07 Iúil/July 2011.

SABOTAGE OF MV SAOIRSE:
ISRAEL CITED AS CULPRIT..



 
Irish ship sabotaged in Turkish port

The Irish Anti War Movement released a statement  on Friday,01.07.11 condemning the sabotage of the Irish Ship to Gaza - MV Saoirse. The ship was due to sail to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla 2 last week. The damage is extensive and the ship is now unsafe to sail. The propeller shaft of the ship has been severely damaged and had this not been discovered before the ship set sail it would have seriously endangered the lives of the 25 crew and passengers on board.

Jim Roche, steering committee member and passenger on board has confirmed that the damage was definitely sabotage. He will be returning to Dublin  together with the majority of the other passengers. Six of the passengers will still travel as part of the flotilla on another ship. All passengers are safe despite this malicious act of violence against the Irish vessel (which is Sovereign Irish Territory).

“Initial reports suggest that the official Turkish “investigation” into the sabotage of the Irish ship MV Saoirse that was due to take part in the now Greek-impounded Freedom Flotilla 2 will find that “the breakdown of the ship might not be a result of sabotage” and that even if it was sabotaged, it “was damaged before it entered Turkish waters”.However, the Irish Ship To Gaza campaign view such conclusions with deep suspicion ; “it remains the opinion of the Irish Ship To Gaza campaign that an act of underwater sabotage was conducted against the Irish boat, the MV Saoirse, as it sat in the Turkish port of Göcek”.” Mr Roche declared.


The Organisers of the ISTG believe that it is beyond coincidence that both the Irish ship and the Greek-Scandinavian ship the Juliano (berthed in Piraeus, Greece) suffered almost identical damage  within a week while docked in two separate countries, some three hundred miles from each other.  Both ships were due to take part in Freedom Flotilla Two.

According to the MV Saoirse’s engineer, Pat Fitzgerald, a former fisherman and seaman with twenty years experience with boats:

“There was a gouge taken out of the propeller shaft and it was bent. This shaft was three-inches in diameter, it doesn’t bend easily … Where the actual damage to the propeller was, wasn’t actually the deepest point of the vessel. The propeller was much deeper, probably another half-metre deeper again. The damage couldn’t have happened without hitting the propeller … If we had hit something we’d have known about it, but we didn’t hit anything. Just to be sure that we hadn’t hit anything in the oil jetty, and to be sure that there wasn’t anything unusual there, we sent people to snorkel the area. There was nothing … I’ve been twenty years at sea. I’ve seen all types of underwater damage and I’ve never seen anything like this. It had to have been caused by something that I have never come across. It’s not natural wear-and-tear, it wasn’t accidental damage, it had to be man-made damage; there is no way around it. We can’t find any explanation other than sabotage.

Israeli Deputy Premier hints at sabotage by IDF:

In a further development, renowned blogger and Guardian website columnist, Richard Silverstein, (whom the Israeli newspaper Haaretz  has described as an “international messenger of information which military censorship and Israeli courts forbid publishing), has noted an apparent implicit admission of guilt from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon on the Hebrew website of Ynet:

Ya’alon, praising the preparatory work of Israel towards the flotilla, said “those problems the Flotilla is having in realizing their plans didn’t just happen. They are thanks to the work of the political echelon whose focus was on diplomatic political issues, and operational work of the IDF to prepare for every possible eventuality”.

The last phrase is doublespeak which both reveals and conceals at the same time, a formulation any Israeli would recognize as not just alluding to an IDF role in sabotage, but practically bragging about it.  What possible role could the IDF be playing currently in frustrating the plans of the Flotilla if it isn’t the round of sabotage that struck the Irish and Swedish ships?

Even the New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, who has ties to the Israeli military, has pointed the finger at Israel, saying:

“Israel, for its part, has been campaigning against the flotilla and perhaps doing more — some of the boats have suffered sabotage”.

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, shares the same suspicions. He has said that there is:

“Strong circumstantial evidence of Israeli responsibility … It stretches the imagination to suppose that a sophisticated cutting of the propeller shafts of both ships is a coincidence with no involvement by Israel … Israel has so far done little to deny its culpability. Its highest officials speak of the allegations in self-righteous language that is typically diversionary, asserting an irrelevant right of self-defence, which supposedly comes mysteriously into play whenever civil society acts non-violently to break the siege of Gaza.”

The Irish Government's response has been weak and pathetic. Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier, Eamonn Gilmore, stated that the government would wait on the result of the turkish investigation before making a decision. This is not good enough. An Irish vessel with 25 Irish citizens on board has been attacked and serious damage inflicted endangering the lives of all on board. A tacit admission of responsibility has been publicly stated by the Deputy Premier of Israel, Moshe Ya'alon, on a public website in Israel. This is enough, prima facie, for Mr Gilmore to immediately demand an explanation from the Israeli Government, expel the Israeli Ambassador from Dublin with a message for Tel-Aviv that this outrageous action will not be tolerated.

The Irish Government should not be waiting for any Turkish investigation to be completed, Irish Naval engineeers should be immediately despatched to the area to examine the vessel and report back to Dublin forthwith. Nothing less will be accepted by the Irish people.

FearFeasaMacLéinn,

Áth Cliath/Dublin,

06 Iuil/July 2011.

Phone hacking scandal in Britain

                                                

PHONE HACKING SCANDAL:

FRESH ALLEGATIONS SHOCK

BRITISH PUBLIC

The long-running scandal of hacking of private mobile phones by the “News of the World”, part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire exploded today with further allegations that notes made by Glenn Mulcaire the PI employed by NOTW and later prosecuted and convicted for the offences indicated that phones belonging to missing teenager Milly Dowler, later found murdered, were hacked into and messages listened to and some deleted in pursuit of news stories for the paper.

The British Government faced stinging criticism from both its supporters and opposition in both Houses of Parliament today as the news spread and public anger mounted. The Speaker of the House of Commons allowed a motion for an emergency debate on Wednesday, initiated by Labour MP, Chris Bryant .

Heavy pressure piling on through the day on Rebekah Brooks, current CEO of News International and Editor of NOTW at the time, to resign. Brooks issued a defiant statement saying she would not be resigning and knew nothing of the phone hacking operations. Only hours later a sensational revelation on Channel 4 News revealed that Brooks while editor, had attended a meeting with senior LMP personnel where she was told of police concerns that a senior detective involved in a serious murder investigation was being targeted by NOTW employees. Brooks position has now become untenable and her resignation is expected within 24 hours. This is a staggering blow for the Murdoch Empire; CEO on the rack and advertisers queuing up to ditch NOTW from their lists, Ford Motors and Tesco leading the charge. A flurry of legal actions expected to be lodged in the London High Court within days demanding millions in compensation from News International.

GUBU moment for Brit Prime Minister, David Cameron, having arrived in Afghanistan this week to be greeted by news of a British soldier gone missing and later found shot dead, putting a damper on the high profile propaganda visit. Cameron and Missus, dining buddies of Brooks at her posh pad in the cosy Cotswolds, and only recently having to sack his former head of communications at Downing Street, Andy Coulson, also a former editor of NOTW, mired in the phone hacking scandal, leaves Cameron with an unwanted and unexpected scandal of serious proportions involving his own political and social circle. Cameron, like Blair and Brown before him, bootlicked Morlock seeking favourable notice in the Morlock owned smutrags. Intense public revulsion sweeping the country like a forest fire as Cameron returns to London. Serpents’ eggs now hatching out with demonic rapidity.

Scotland Yard's latest inquiry into allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World took a dramatic turn earlier this year as the paper's chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and its former assistant editor Ian Edmondson were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept mobile phone messages. Thurlbeck and Edmondson were arrested after voluntarily presenting themselves at different police stations in south-west London. Both men were later released on police bail to return in September. Their houses, as well as Thurlbeck's office and computer at the News of the World head offices, were searched by police. This the second and supposedly more thorough police enquiry into the affair. After the first outing in 2006 the Knackers turned up only two culprits for the frying pan Clive Goodman, Royal correspondent at the paper and Glenn Mulcaire, a free-lance PI who was employed by NOTW and subsequently convicted and jailed along with Goodman, much to the relief of the Hackers Ring who thought they had escaped justice.

It is suspected by London Police that Edmondson, who was sacked from the News of the World in January, and Thurlbeck ,have been implicated in the long-running scandal through documents seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator employed by the newspaper. Both Edmondson and Thurlbeck  have denied any wrongdoing.

In another major embarrassment for the Knackers’ Squad, Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, directly challenged the accuracy of evidence given to Parliament by John Yates, the acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Yates has repeatedly claimed there were only 10 or 12 victims of the affair, but evidence has emerged that police in 2006 knew of "a vast number".

Commissioner Yates has told parliamentary inquiries on four occasions that he used the lesser number because prosecutors had advised police to adopt a very narrow interpretation of the law, but in a detailed letter to the chairmen of two select committees, Starmer contradicted Yates's account of the legal advice, insisting that prosecutors "did not limit the scope and extent of the criminal investigation". Labour MP Chris Bryant said Yates should now "consider his position" at the Metropolitan Police.

The DPP's letter was greeted by fury and gnashing of teeth at Scotland Yard. Starmer’s claim that police did not dispute the facts in his letter, setting out the timeline of legal advice given to detectives investigating phone hacking, left top officers "very, very angry" according to British Media. Knacker canteens were abuzz with rumours and derogatory slagging of “the Brass” for once again landing the Met in deep political shit.

Each side has been describing the other in increasingly vitriolic terms, bandying around words such as "disingenuous" and "lying" in private. Such a vitriolic and sustained row between senior brass and prosecutors is unprecedented, according to sources in both organisations. The News of the World until recently insisted that the only phone hacking carried out on behalf of the paper was by a "rogue reporter", Clive Goodman, and the only other arrests linked to the simmering saga took place in 2006, when Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, and two associates were arrested. In January 2007 Goodman was given a four-month jail term and Glenn Mulcaire a six-month term for plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for eight public figures.

Suppressed evidence of further phone hacking was not revealed until an investigation in July 2009 by the “Guardian” Newspaper in Britain. “Operation Weeting”, which is responsible for the arrests, is the second investigation into hacking run by Scotland Yard. Previous investigations failed to act on evidence which they obtained in 2006. So far six reporters and executives have been publicly linked to the phone-hacking practice. Lawyers for the actress Sienna Miller obtained papers which implicated Edmondson in the hacking of her and eight of her friends and family’s phones. Thurlbeck's name was brought into the affair by an e-mail which was disclosed to a select committee of the British Parliament by the “Guardian” in July 2009 in which a News of the World reporter sent the transcript of 35 voicemails "for Neville".

In another development, Vodafone agreed to hand over call data relating to Miller, following a legal ruling that could set a precedent for other public figures suing the paper over allegations of phone hacking. The Metropolitan Police hoped that the arrests of senior journalists would prove to the public that the phone-hacking scandal was being aggressively investigated. It hoped it would allow a distance to be drawn between itself and the original investigation, which has been heavily criticised. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, leading the new investigation, reportedly told one alleged victim, former Deputy Prime Minister in the Gordon Brown government, John Prescott , she was "not satisfied" with the original inquiry. "Whatever the police did before on this investigation is water under the bridge. The new operation is doing a good, thorough job. If that shows that someone in the past did a bad job, then so be it". The arrests were also, she claimed, proof that the operation is flourishing despite being under considerable pressure.The team of 45 full-time detectives is having to review all actions and decisions taken by the previous investigation.

With further revelations spilling out like beans from a barrel, the scandal has proved a mighty embarrassment for media mogul owner of News International, (Not Sir) Rupert Murdoch, the Ozzie Gauleiter of right-wing media lies and propaganda world wide. Morlock, insanely jealous of rival dinosaur “Sir” Dickhead Bransonpickle who was “sirred” by Queen Eliza years ago leaving Morlock fuming in his Castle of Evil, has been desperate to acquire a title for himself as due reward for his support of the Blair and Brown “New Labour” governments and especially the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in his daily and Sunday smutrags “The Sun” and “News of the World”. Snowball’s chance in Hell now of any such move occurring as Buckingham Palace recently issued a further complaint that royal princess Eugenie’s phone is suspected of being hacked. Morlock will have to face being shunned by the Palace and all its allies for eternity. Definitely no invitations to Royal Weddings or Palace Junkets sent out and blacklisted at all the Courts of Europe, grovelling apologies notwithstanding. 

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer Reptile!

Update; latest: 

Tomorrow's "Independent" in London will headline the fact that besieged CEO of News International, Rebekah Brooks, despite furious denials that she knew anything of the rampaging scandal now engulfing her Company, personally commissioned searches by one of the private investigators used by the News of the World to trace the family of the murdered Surrey teenager Milly Dowler. The "Independent" reveals that Ms Brooks, while editor of NOTW, used Steve Whittamore, a private detective who specialised in obtaining illegal information and provided the paper with the Dowlers' ex-directory home phone number, to "convert" a mobile phone number to find its registered owner.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which successfully prosecuted Whittamore for breaches of the Data Protection Act in 2005, said last night it would have been illegal to obtain the mobile conversion if the details had been "blagged"
(illegally obtained) from a phone company.

Looks like a short ride to the guillotine for the Ginger Gorgon now.

FearFeasaMacLéinn

Baile Átha Cliath/Dublin

05 Iúil/July 2011.