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www.celtic-connection.com
DECEMBER 2011/JANUARY 2012
FORMER News of the World journalist Paul McMullan takes the witness box with his cuttings book at the Leveson Inquiry.
British inquiry told 'privacy is for paedos'
LONDON - He admitted that he and his colleagues hacked into people's phones and paid police officers for tips.
He confessed to lurking in unmarked vans outside people's houses, stealing confidential documents, rifling through celebrity garbage cans and pretending that he was not a journalist pursuing a story but "Brad the teenage rent boy," propositioning a priest.
After Paul McMullan, a former deputy features editor at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had finished his jaw-droppingly brazen remarks at a judicial inquiry on November 29, it was hard to think of any dubious news-gathering technique he had not confessed to, short of pistol-whipping sources for information.
Nor were the practices he described limited to a select few, McMullan said in an afternoon of testimony at the Leveson Inquiry, which is investigating media ethics in Britain the wake of the summer's phone hacking scandal.
In fact, McMullan said, The News of the World's underlings were encouraged by their circulation-obsessed bosses to use any means necessary to get material.
"We did all these things for our editors, for Rebekah Brooks and for Andy Coulson," McMullan said, referring to two former News of the World editors who, he said, "should have had the strength of conviction to say, 'Yes, sometimes you have to stray into black or gray illegal areas'."
He added, "They should have been the
heroes of journalism, but they aren't. They are the scum of journalism for trying to drop me and my colleagues in it."
Coulson, who resigned from his job as chief spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron in January, and Brooks, who resigned in July from her job as chief executive of News International, the British newspaper arm of the Murdoch empire, have both been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking, or illegally intercepting voice mail messages.
Brooks, whom McMullan called "the archcriminal," is also suspected of making illegal payments to the police. Both have repeatedly denied the allegations, and neither has yet been charged.
Nothing that McMullan said was particularly surprising; anyone following the phone hacking scandal that engulfed News International and its parent, the News Corporation, over the summer is now more than familiar with outrageous tales of tabloid malfeasance.
What was startling was that McMullan, who left his job in 2001, eagerly confessed to so much and on such a scale - no one else has done it quite this way - and that he maintained that none of it was wrong.
He told the inquiry, "Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things...Privacy is for paedos, fundamentally no one else needs privacy."
He said, "In 21 years of invading people's privacy I've never found anybody doing any good."
21,000 complain to BBC over Clarkson's comments
LONDON - Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has apologised after provoking uproar by saying striking workers "should be shot dead in front of their families."
His apology follows a day of condemnation from politicians and calls by union leaders for him to be sacked by the BBC.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Mliband were among those who took a dim view of the presenter's remarks.
The outburst led to more than 21,000 complaints and the public broadcaster issued a swift on-air apology, saying he sometimes overstepped the mark in his
quest for "comic" value.
The BBC issued an apology immediately after the incident on The One Show on the evening of November 30, the day of the biggest public sector strike in 30 years.
Clarkson (51) who is on a salary of more than £1 million and earns an additional estimated £800,000 from Top Gear merchandising, said of the strikers, "I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.
"I mean, how dare they go on strike when they've got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?"
Warning to UK banks over possible eurozone collapse
LONDON - Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has urged banks to brace themselves for a potential eurozone collapse amid fears that Britain is caught in a second credit crunch. He said financial systems around the world are vulnerable to the eurozone debt crisis and its underlying causes.
Appearing in his role as chair of the interim Financial Policy Committee, the governor said, "In the UK, we must try to bolster the resilience of our financial system to better withstand the storms that may come in our direction."
The report comes after Downing Street warned that Britain was in the grip of a second credit crunch, and six central banks, including the Bank of England, acted to encourage lending between banks and stave off economic stagnation.
In its final meeting of the year, the interim Financial Policy Committee (FPC) labelled the euro area crisis as the "most significant and immediate threat to UK financial stability."
The dilemma faced by the banks was underlined by the FPC's recommendation to boost capital levels - to protect against future financial crises - while at the same time maintaining or boosting lending to households and businesses.
In its financial stability report, the FPC said UK banks' exposure to government debts of the so-called vulnerable five -Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland - totalled £14.8 billion.
Total exposure to the vulnerable five, including private sector debt, is £191.8 billion. However, King said UK banks
BANK OF ENGLAND Governor Sir Mervyn King.
were in a better position than their continental peers to withstand future financial shocks.
But credit conditions in the UK could tighten if banks are forced to take higher credit losses on exposures to the
euro area - where the FPC warned there are already signs of a credit contraction.
Sending a stark message to political leaders, the governor said, "Ultimately, governments will have to confront the underlying causes. Resolving these wider problems is beyond the control of any UK authority."
The FPC reiterated its recommendation that UK banks cap bonuses or dividends if their balance sheets do not appear to be robust enough to withstand major financial shocks, such as a collapse of the euro or a UK credit downgrade.
He added, "The crisis in the euro area is one of solvency and not liquidity. And the interconnectedness of major banks means that banking systems, and hence economies, around the world are all affected."
King refused to be drawn on details of any contingency plans the bank or the government may be drawing up in the event of a collapse in the euro.
The governor was the driving force behind the November 30 emergency action taken by the bank and five of its international counterparts, including the European Central Bank and U.S. Federal Reserve, which triggered a rally on global markets.
Investors are increasingly worried that European banks are exposed to huge losses on loans they have made in Greece, Italy and other indebted countries.
Europe's leaders will hold yet another summit on December 9, where it is hoped they will deliver the final word on a response to the eurozone crisis.
the beginning': says architect Jacques
'Euro was flawed from
key euro Delors
Germanic idea of monetary control and the absence of a clear vision from all the other countries," he said.
Such is the scale of the crisis, he warned, that "even Germany" will struggle to find a solution. "Markets are markets. They are now bedevilled by uncertainty."
Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to protect British interests, it will be paramount if the European Union treaty is changed to help resolve the eurozone crisis.
But according to Delors, Britain is not "sharing the burden" because it is not in the euro.
But he claimed the UK is "just as embarrassed as the Europeans by the financial crisis," as some of the measures put in place to deal with the crisis pose a threat to British interests.
LONDON - A key architect of the eurozone reveals it was flawed from the beginning and efforts to tackle its problems have so far been "too little, too late."
Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission, suggested "a fault in execution" meant the present crisis in the eurozone was inevitable.
Leaders in the 1990s chose to turn a blind eye to the economic weaknesses of some member states and the response, now the issues had surfaced, had generally been inadequate.
His comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph came as France and Germany edged towards closer fiscal union to head off a potentially disastrous collapse of the single currency. He said the crisis stems from 'a fault in execution' by political leaders.
Delors was head of the commission from 1985 to 1995 and known for his clashes with Margaret Thatcher. He became an object of ridicule in the eurosceptic press.
He has admitted that when "Anglo-Saxons" warned a single central bank and currency without a single state would be inherently unstable "they had a point."
"The finance ministers did not want to
JACQUES DELORS
see anything disagreeable which they would be forced to deal with," he said.
Delors insisted all European countries had to share the blame for the excessive borrowing by countries such as Italy and Greece that have brought the system to the brink of disaster.
"Everyone must examine their consciences," he added.
However, the 86-year-old singled out Germany for its strict insistence that the European Central Bank must not support debt-stricken members for fear of fuelling inflation.
Governments and companies are preparing for a currency collapse.
The euro's troubles spring from "a combination of the stubbornness of the
Traditional English Christmas dinner
VICTORIA-The Royal Society of St. George, B.C. Branch will host a traditional English Christmas dinner on December 17 at Nanoose Bay. Contact Ken Chatterton for reservations at tosca@telus.net.