PLOD OF THE YARD

I am sure that many readers have been glued to their seats in front of the TV in recent days as the revelations about Murdoch’s iffy empire poured in and his bid for BSkyB unravelled.


However one man actually made me fall out of my seat. He was Andy Hayman who incredibly was a former Met assistant commissioner and was in overall charge of the 2006 investigation.

He was up before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee and one of the MPs, Lorraine Fullbrook, described him as a “dodgy geezer”. Which is ironic as the chairman of the committee, the senior Labour MP Keith Vaz, has had his collar felt numerous times by the House of Commons authorities. As of yet Hayman is as straight as a dye till he’s ever found to be bent as a cork screw.

Hayman’s problem is he is a Cockney. Well many of us were born in the “Smoke” but few of us sound like extras playing small time crooks in an episode of Arthur Daley’s Minder.

Within months of leaving the force Hayman took a job with The Times, one of Murdoch’s upmarket organs. Not only did he see nothing wrong with this given the fact the Met have been investigating News International one has to wonder how if Hayman “can’t talk proper” he manages to write.

He told the committee his boyhood dream was to be either a journalist or a copper. A dream for him, a nightmare for both professions!

He also admitted he had enjoyed dinners with News International staff despite conducting an investigation into their behaviour although he wasn’t quite sure when the dinners took place. “It could look bad,” he admitted, “It does look bad.”

Hayman even had the nerve to mock the former Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s complaints about phone-hacking saying he’d eat his words if the claims were true. I would have thought the verbally challenged Hayman and Prescott had much in common and as Prescott’s claims have been shown to be true we all await Plod of the Yard’s paper eating feat. I guess we have to wait for him to extract his ‘daisy roots’ from his mouth first.

There are allegations that police officers had been bribed and all those appearing before the Committee were asked if they had accepted any iffy cash. The previous two officers replied firmly they had not. Hayman lost his cool: “Good God!” he yelled, “I'm not letting her get away with it! I can’t believe you asked that!” She, the doughty Lorraine Fullbrook had, and his response suggested this man doth protest too much!

Having watched Hayman before the committee it would be easy to image him as a DI down the local nick. What is as shocking as the Murdoch revelations is that Plod of the Yard was one of the Met’s most senior officers. Pot Pourri! As Del Boy would say!

TARRED WITH THE MURDOCH BRUSH

The news has broken in The Guardian newspaper that the News of the World used private investigators to hack in to peoples’ phones. Whilst it was known that News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed for four months in January 2007 for plotting to hack into telephone messages belonging to royal aides it now appears that this illegal activity was far more widespread.

It is alleged that thousands of politicians, business people, show business names and sports stars were also targeted in this way. Furthermore News Group Newspapers - part of Rupert Murdoch’s News International empire which publishes the News of the World - paid out more than £1 million to settle cases that threatened to reveal evidence of journalists hacking into telephones...so this goes right to the top.

Of course News Group Newspapers and News International is a massive empire that takes in the Wall Street Journal, New York Port, Fox News and in the UK The Times and The Sun. Also Murdoch owns Sky News and on its morning shows the journalists were clearly embarrassed and keen to stress the political angles of the case. Andy Coulson, Conservative leader David Cameron’s director of communications, was deputy editor and then editor of the News of the World when journalists were using the private investigators but resigned when Clive Goodman was jailed.

Now by chance I was going to write about journalists today because there have been recent sackings of staff at Europa Sur in Algeciras as well as at Diario Sur in the port town. This is a subject I have covered oft times before and in the case of Europa Sur relates to the disgraceful actions of the Joly media group in dumping staff piecemeal whilst at the same time organising lavish banquets to celebrate its anniversary.

Journalists and newspaper staff are under threat throughout the world because of the economic crisis and unscrupulous employers. Honest journalists are laying their lives on the line every day in trouble spots such as the Middle East, Iran, China, South America, Russia and closer to home with coverage of the ETA and IRA terror groups.

However in the public mind this will count for nothing. As in the House of Commons expenses scandal all politicians suffered even those who were whiter than whiter. So too in the world of journalism the abused, those who work under the threat of death will be tarred with the Murdoch brush and the perceived value of our collective work will be further diminished.