[guide.chat] news david cameron lots of love to brooks
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 22:44:07 +0100
So that's how close they were! David Cameron signed off texts to Rebekah Brooks
with 'lots of love' (and they DID discuss phone hacking)
Prime Minister finished texts with the phrase 'lol', thinking it meant lots of
love, but had to be told it meant 'laugh out loud'
Downing Street 'prepared to hand over messages to Inquiry'
Cameron apologised to Mrs Brooks for not repaying the 'loyalty' she had shown
him after he cut her loose in wake of phone hacking scandal
Sheds light on the numerous meetings she had with PM, which have been shrouded
in secrecy and confusion
She discussed phone-hacking with the PM and BSkyB takeover with George Osborne
Met Cameron at least three times over Christmas 2010
Denies telling PM to get rid of Dominic Grieve as shadow home secretary
'Threatened to put Theresa May on front page every day until she opened review
into Madeleine McCann'
She admits she 'may have' discussed phone hacking with detective who was
formerly in charge of the investigation
Criticism is 'because I'm a woman and not a grumpy old man', says Brooks
By RICK DEWSBURY
PUBLISHED: 12:36, 11 May 2012 | UPDATED: 17:26, 11 May 2012
The Prime Minister faced further embarrassment over his 'cosy relationship'
with the Murdoch empire as it emerged that he signed off messages to Rebekah
Brooks with the phrase 'lots of love'.
Former News International boss Rebekah Brooks denied that she received up to 12
messages a day from the PM but said he finished those he did send with either
'DC' or the intimate phrase 'lol'.
Mrs Brooks said that the PM believed the phrase to mean 'lots of love' and had
to explain to him that it was is actually cyber-slang for 'laugh out loud'.
The revelation will pile yet more pressure on the PM who has been heavily
criticised over his involvement with Mrs Brooks.
LOL!
Revelations: Rebekah Brooks gives evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today as she
discusses emails and texts between politicians
Mrs Brooks told the Leveson Inquiry today that it was 'preposterous' to claim
that they texted each other dozens of times a day.
She added: 'One would hope he would have better things to do. I would text Mr
Cameron and vice versa on occasion, like a lot of people.
Rebekah Brooks reveals how Gordon Brown was 'incredibly aggressive' after Sun
switched sides to Tories (and how she was 'fed stories by Blair on his rival')
Bombshell email claims Jeremy Hunt asked Murdoch empire to help him stop phone
hacking inquiry
'Occasionally he would sign them off LOL - lots of love - until I told him it
meant laugh out loud. And then he didn't sign them off like that any more.'
Downing Street is prepared to hand over the intimate text messages to the
Inquiry, according to the Telegraph. Mrs Brooks does not have access to all of
her messages because her Blackberry only has six weeks' worth of messages on.
Mrs Brooks revealed earlier that she received an apology from David Cameron
after she was forced out of her top job in the Murdoch empire over the phone
hacking scandal.
The former editor even claimed that the criticism of her has been because she
is a woman and 'not a grumpy old man'.
Friendly: Rebekah Brooks is recorded kissing David Cameron as she welcomes him
to a glamorous party attended by a string of influential figures
Friends: Mr Cameron appears startles after being photographed alongside Mrs
Brooks at a book launch in 2009. The pair are said to have texted each other
regularly
Mr Cameron texted Mrs Brooks, telling her to 'keep her head up' after she
resigned from News International last July.
But the Prime Minister followed the messages of support with an apology for
having to cut her loose and end the 'cosy' relationship.
Mrs Brooks told the Leveson Inquiry this morning that she received an
'indirect' message in which the PM said 'Sorry I couldn?t have been as loyal to
you as you have been to me, but Ed Miliband had me on the run'.
Brooks admitted she discussed the phone-hacking allegations with Cameron
between the July 2009 Guardian story and 2011.
She said: 'On occasion ? not very often, once or twice, because of the
phone-hacking story was a constant, it kept coming up, so we would bring it up,
maybe in 2010 we had a more specific conversation with it,' she says. 'It was
one I remember rather than the story being around.'
She said that Cameron was 'interested in the latest developments ? it was about
the amount of civil cases coming in around the end of 2010'.
Mrs Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie Brooks leave High Court in
London today after the former News International boss gave evidence
Tough day: Mrs Brooks leaves in a Black Range Rover after giving evidence to
Leveson Inquiry
What will she tell? Former News International boss Rebekah Brooks arrives
before giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today. Her husband Charlie Brooks
is in the car with her
Ms Brooks also shed some light over the number of times she and Mr Cameron have
met, which has been shrouded in secrecy and confusion.
OSBORNE SUPPORTED BSKYB BID, SAYS BROOKS
Rebekah Brooks admitted she discussed News Corp's bid for BSkyB with David
Cameron and George Osborne in December 2010 but said there were no
'inappropriate conversations'.
The former News International boss knew about the bid from News Corp - the
parent company - to increase its 39 per cent holding in the company two months
before it was announced.
Mrs Brooks - who admits that she lobbied politicians about the takeover - said
that George Osborne supported the bid in principle because of the 'investment'
it would bring to the UK.
She admitted discussing the bid with Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne over Christmas
dinner in 2010. She said she did not discuss it forcefully and that Mr Cameron
made clear that there would be a probe into the suitability of it.
Mrs Brooks said she brought up the takeover at three minutes at the start of
the dinner which was entirely 'appropriate'.
She said: 'For one three-minute conversation at the beginning of dinner I got
the opportunity to give our view. I don't think that is inappropriate.
'The BSkyB bid was mentioned at the dinner at our home in December, but I don't
remember having a particularly forceful discussion with Mr Cameron on it.
'It was mentioned but not widely discussed. It was mentioned because it was in
the news because Dr [Vince] Cable had resigned from that role.
'Mr Cameron always made it pretty clear it was a quasi-judicial decision and it
wasn't him. I think he had been lobbied by lots of other people. He was always
very even-handed about it.
'I think the anti-Sky bid alliance had so many members and that they I knew
were seeing politicians, I think Dr Cable had a dinner with them early on in
2010, if I met people and I had the chance to put our side of the story I
would.'
She recorded in her witness statement one lunch and four dinners with Mr
Cameron in 2010, after he had taken power.
One was the widely-reported Christmas dinner party at the Brooks' Oxfordshire
home on December 23.
She also publicly admitted for the first time that Mr Cameron attended a Boxing
Day party in December 2010.
She said: 'Mr Cameron attended a Boxing Day mulled wine mince pie party at my
sister-in-law's. I popped in on my way to another dinner.
'I don't have any memory ? I don't think I did speak to him or Samantha. I
would have seen them but not even to have a proper conversation.'
Mrs Brooks admitted that she raised the controversial BSkyB takeover with Mr
Cameron over one of the dinners in December 2010.
She said: 'It was mentioned but not widely discussed. It was mentioned because
it was in the news because Dr [Vince] Cable had resigned from that role.'
She admitted that she lobbied politicians over the bid.
She said: 'I did have an informal role as you suggest, mainly after the
formation of the anti-Sky bid alliance because that brought News International
into what was a News Corp transaction because the anti Sky alliance was ...
well, everyone else. They were using their own news outlets to promote their
view and lobby politicians, I probably did get involved.'
Mrs Brooks admitted that she also met Mr Cameron in Greece while she was there
for Elisabeth Murdoch's birthday. He was only there for an afternoon and an
evening, she says.
Mrs Brooks denied telling Cameron to get rid of Dominic Grieve as shadow home
secretary after 'heated' conversation with him over human rights act.
She also denied pressuring the Government into a review of the Madeleine McCann
case.
Mr Jay said: 'You told Number 10 that unless a review was ordered you would put
Theresa May on the front page every day until the Sun's demands were met, Mr
Jay says. Is that true?'
Mrs Brooks replied: 'No. I did not say that.'
Mrs Brooks pointed out that her husband Charlie, a contemporary of the Prime
Minister at Eton, had longstanding family links with the Camerons separate from
her own connections.
She stressed that details of the meetings came from her secretary's diary and
were 'very incomplete', as she had no access to records at her former company.
Asked whether she discussed the phone-hacking scandal with Mr Cameron between
details emerging of pay-offs to victims in July 2009 and her resignation last
year, Mrs Brooks said: 'I think on occasion and not very often. So maybe once
or twice because the phone-hacking story was sort of a constant, or it kept
coming up.
'We would bring it up but in the most general terms ... Maybe in 2010 we had a
more specific conversation about it.'
Mrs Brooks, pictured with her former boss Rupert Murdoch, edited the News of
the World and The Sun before becoming chief executive of News International in
September 2009
'CRTICISM IS BECAUSE I'M A WOMAN', SAYS BROOKS
Rebekah Brooks she would be hypocritical to complain about intrusion into her
personal relationships, but a lot of the criticism and gossip she experienced
was 'gender-based'.
She complained during her appearance today that a lot of trivial questions had
been put to her - in her evidence she quashed a rumour that the pair used to
swim together when Mr Murdoch was in London.
She also denied that, after she was arrested in 2005 over an alleged assault on
her then-husband, Mr Murdoch sent an outfit to the police station where she was
being held. Mrs Brooks was released without charge and the police took no
further action.
'I think that my relationship with Mr Murdoch - if I was a grumpy old man of
Fleet Street, no one would write the first thing about it,' she said.
She said it would be the 'height of hypocrisy' for her to complain about
intrusions into her personal life, but said: 'However, I have had these
complaints from people in my career as a journalist and I have always tried to
understand and always tried to use my judgment to where the line fell.
'As to my own situation, well, it's been a difficult year, but a lot of the
questions that I have had from Mr Jay (Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry),
I felt concentrated on quite a trivial side.
'I am happy to discuss them but I'm not sure it helps this inquiry, whether Mr
Murdoch bought me a suit or not, or I went swimming with him."
She told the inquiry the Murdochs were "just like any normal family, they have
dynamics and they change'.
Asked by Mr Jay if a claim made in Vanity Fair that she became a 'go-between'
in an increasingly fraught relationship between Rupert and James Murdoch was
true, she said: 'No, they could speak to each other. I reported both to James
and Rupert Murdoch and I would talk to them both about the issues unfolding at
News International.
'James and I had offices next door to each other. I would be talking to Mr
Murdoch every day. And if Vanity Fair wants to couch that as a go-between, then
fine, but I don't accept the premise of what they are insinuating.'
Mrs Brooks went on: 'It was to do with the amount of civil cases coming in
around 2010 and we had a conversation about that...
'It was a general discussion... I think it had been in the news that day and I
think I explained the story behind the news.'
Asked whether Mr Cameron's interest was related to the position of his
then-spin doctor Andy Coulson, Mrs Brooks said: 'No.'
Mrs Brooks was also questioned about Rupert Murdoch's attempt to take full
control of BSkyB, and said she knew of it a 'couple of months' before it was
made public in June 2010.
Asked if she discussed the issue with Mr Cameron at the dinner at her home in
December 2010, she said it was mentioned because it was in the news after
Business Secretary Vince Cable was reported to be promising to 'declare war' on
Mr Murdoch.
The incident led to Mr Cable handing over responsibility for deciding whether
to allow the bid to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. It was later dropped.
'I may have mentioned it to Mr Cameron but it is not to be dwelled on because
it wasn't a particularly long conversation,' she said.
She had a 'three-minute conversation' on the topic with George Osborne at
dinner in December 2010.
'I put my views that were contrary to the ones that he had heard from everyone
else,' she added.
The following day Mrs Brooks emailed News Corporation public affairs executive
Fred Michel saying that Mr Osborne had expressed 'total bafflement' at Ofcom's
latest response to the bid.
'It was an entirely appropriate conversation,' she insisted. 'They were all
saying the same thing - 'it is not my decision'.'
Mrs Brooks said she did not remember discussing it with Mr Cameron at a mulled
wine and mince pie party at her sister-in-law's house on Boxing Day 2010, and
she was not sure if they even spoke that night.
The inquiry has already heard that Mrs Brooks regularly met Mr Cameron and
other top politicians along with Rupert and James Murdoch.
She hosted a Christmas dinner on December 23 2010, just two days after Business
Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of his responsibility for media takeovers
for saying he had 'declared war' on the Murdochs' News Corporation empire.
Mrs Brooks's wedding on June 13 2009 was attended by Mr Cameron and former
prime minister Gordon Brown, and in March Mr Cameron was forced to admit that
he rode a retired police horse loaned to Mrs Brooks by Scotland Yard from 2008
to 2010.
from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
my skype name is rainbowstar123
Other related posts:
- » [guide.chat] news david cameron lots of love to brooks - vanessa
