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| News International in the dock |
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| Written by Gordon Prentice | |||
| Friday, 08 April 2011 18:30 | |||
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It is a jaw dropping admission of guilt. But probably inevitable. It is also immensely satisfying. News International confesses it was into phone hacking on an industrial scale. The old excuse about one or two rogue journalists being responsible was very wide of the mark. The criminal investigation will continue even as NI offers to settle the civil actions out of court. Where does this leave Andy Coulson, Cameron’s former Director of Communications at No 10? Will the former editor of the News of the World stick to the increasingly implausible line that he knew nothing? The alternative, I suppose, is an "unreserved apology". TV election debates A group of TV executives has decided to exclude the leader of Canada’s Green Party from the federal election debate that takes place next Tuesday, 12 April. The Greens don’t have an MP in the Commons in the main because their support is evenly spread across the country. With first-past-the-post, parties with geographically concentrated support – such as the Bloc Quebecois - pile up the votes – and Commons seats. Television debates are hugely significant events in modern elections and are too important to be left to a bunch of TV executives. Remarkable as it seems now, Cleggmania took the country by storm last year as the shiny new kid on the block promised a new kind of politics. Hmmmm. In Canada, influential voices are calling for an Independent Election Debates Commission to set new rules and police them. We need something similar in the UK. The TV debates are here to stay even though many – and I am one of them - regret their arrival. Too much focus on the leader. Not enough on the rest of the team. Talking of which... Image is everything Here, the CBC’s Rex Murphy impishly asks why the Party leaders bother with ridiculous, staged photo opportunities. Because they do. 
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| Last Updated on Friday, 08 April 2011 19:59 |