"Cameron continues to insist that the inquiry is the best forum to evaluate Hunt's actions. This signals the beginning of the end for Cameron. He's proposing a solution for the Hunt investigation that is outside the rules of Parliament, in a forum that has rejected him. Upon closer examination, existing evidence will lead to even stronger condemnation of Hunt's behaviour. Any new materials produced by the inquiry will bury him.
"Where will that leave Cameron? Finished!" Michael Collins, Independentaustralia.net May 10, 2012
Queens
Counsel Robert Jay unearthed a devastating piece of evidence that will
surely create calls for the resignation of both culture secretary Jeremy
Hunt and Prime Minister David Cameron.
In afternoon testimony at the Leveson Inquiry today
(5/24), Jay confronted News Corp lobbyist Frederic Michel with an email
rendition of a Hunt to Cameron memo of November 19, 2010 (see
testimony/full memo at end of article). Hunt is clearly cheerleading for
the News Corp acquisition of immensely profitable pay TV network BSkyB.
News Corp owned 39% of the network and wanted to purchase the remaining
61%. This acquisition was absolutely critical to News Corp
profitability and as a sign that Rupert and James Murdoch actually knew
what they were doing.
One month after he got the biased memo, Cameron appointed Hunt as the government minister in charge of approving the bid. Hunt portrayed his role as "quasi-judicial" and claimed he was an objective judge. The bid was opposed by an alliance of news organizations.
Now we know, without any doubt and from Hunt's own words that he was biased in favor of approving the News Corp bid before he even got the authority to judge.
We also know that PM Cameron knew Hunt's bias and appointed him anyway.
The Guardian piece by Leigh and Nick Davies (who broke the phone hacking scandal) diplomatically noted that, "It is not known what Cameron did as an immediate result[after receiving the memo from Hunt]."
That's correct, technically. But we do know and the authors mentioned what Cameron did a month after receiving the memo. He put the man who wrote it in charge of a decision making process that was supposed to be inductive, based on reason and evidence. Hunt was one of the last people in Cameron's Conservative government qualified to claim these credentials.
It is not hard to conclude that Cameron and Hunt conspired to push through the Murdoch News Corp BSkyB bid without regard to the facts and through a process that was fraudulently presented to the public and Parliament.
Therefore, they are both subject to calls for resignation, which should start very soon and persist for quite a while.
END
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The Money Party -- Rupert Watch
Appendix: Guardian Breaking News & Leveson Inquiry testimony of Frederic Michel May 24, 2012
Jeremy Hunt urged PM to allow BSkyB deal weeks before taking charge of bid
David Leigh and Nick Davies
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