23 May 2012

Leveson Inquiry - Module 3 - Day 10 - Dorrell, Marr, Paxman and Reid


Useful Links:
Leveson Inquiry Witness Statements HERE 
Leveson Inquiry Witness Lists HERE 
Video Recordings of each day's proceedings HERE
Live Feed From Leveson Inquiry Site HERE
BBC Democracy Live Feed HERE 
Guardian Live Blog HERE
Previous Hearing HERE
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Links to latest articles, comment and information relevant to the Leveson Inquiry:
‪
@nataliepeck:
#Leveson‬ says the inquiry will be sitting on Friday morning this week "in light of developments and the nature of the evidence".
@skymarkwhite:
BREAKING - Leveson Inquiry sitting Friday morning to hear evidence from Culture Department Perm Sect Jonathan Stephens over BSkyB email row
(background BBC article)
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Stephen Dorrell MP    Witness Statement is Full







Guardian Live Blog HERE

Mr Barr begins his questioning...
Stephen Dorrell MP preparing to give his evidence..

@rosschawkins:
(this is going to be about his time as National Heritage secretary, predecessor to Culture secretary post)
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell now chair of the HoC health committee, was responsible for coordination of government's response to second Calcutt report.
Dorrell: The government had a strong preference to avoid any form of statutory regulation of the press.
Dorrell: Whether you address it as an issue of principle or reality, it wasn't an option that merited very serious consideration  

@lisaocarroll:
back in 94 Calcutt recommended that door stepping, bugging and long lens cameras shd be outlawed.
Calcutt in 94 also said: voluntary self regulation shd be revised + strengthened if it doesn't work with statutory complaints body
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Decision of the industry to appoint Lord Wakeham as PCC chariman reflected a willingness to do something more effective.
Dorrell: Draft white paper reccs, Independent Appoint Comm, lack of power of Privacy Comm, compensation fund and privacy tort.

@rosschawkins:
Dorrell is "personally hostile for any proposal for official regulation of freedom of expression" ‪#leveson‬ hears
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: It was time in my mind for the government to stop implying threats that were unrealistic and advertised their weaknesses.
Dorrell: White paper and discussions didn't achieve the clarity that I had an instinctive preference for.
Dorrell: Suggested improvements more independence for Priv Comm, procedural improvements and content of code, then reported to PM.

@lisaocarroll:
Dorrell response to proposals for PCC in 94: abiding weakness, rather vague, perfunctory and lack of real sanctions
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: The responses that were elicited by my minute to PM can be summarised as a re-run of draft White Paper discussions.
Dorrell: Lord Chancellor, AG and Home Sec - then Michael Howard - were in favour of a privacy tort and against criminal charges.
Dorrell told PM: The tort would be the wrong thing at the wrong time and would mean a major row with the press.
Dorrell: Mail editorial (95) "In current climate of sleaze and corruption, clamour for privacy leg seen as self-protection racket".  

‪
@IndexLeveson:
 Dorrell: Not in favour of gov’t policy being determined by press editorial, nor in favour to policy being blind to it
@lisaocarroll:
Dorrell memo to PM in March 95. Introducing criminal offence for privacy invasion would cause major row with press. Mail already attacking 
@nataliepeck:
Dorell: For politician to deny views of press editorials taken into account in policy-making both implausible + wrong in principle.
Dorrell: Downing Street were concerned criminal offence might lead to martyrdom of journalists.

‪
@lisaocarroll:
#Leveson‬ shown PM memo to Dorrell on privacy proposals in 95: worried 'editors would not be averse to martyr status and a spell in prison'
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Fundamental reason I'm against privacy is that it doesn’t deal with the issue of the protection of the little guy. 
Dorrell: Worst press malpractices are people whose private lives are paraded for public entertainment.

@lisaocarroll:
PM memo to Dorrell in 95 also says if Editors jailed "would do wonders for papers' circulation and wd b worth a fortune I'm free publicity'
‪
@rosschawkins:
#leveson‬ Inquiry hears how Dorrell explored three different ways of presenting doing nothing on press regulation
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Explored "do nothing" option for PM. Suggested "Make no statement at all. This has worked surprisingly well so far".
@rosschawkins:
Inquiry barrister quotes: "make no statement at all this has worked surprisingly well so far" ‪#leveson‬ Dorrell has good grace to laugh
‪#leveson‬ (grimly considering govt debating inaction): why do I see all this coming back to hit me?
Barr on not intending to act but suggesting govt wd if parly time allowed: that would be a rather cynical approach Dorrell: realistic
Dorrell: I was asked to dress up a do nothing option

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Other options - announce shall do nothing or confirm intention to legislate intrusion off + reassert self-reg preference.
Dorrell: Part of the intention in preparing government's response was exchange of letters between SoS and PCC.
LJ Leveson asks whether the PCC can truly regulate the press....
@IndexLeveson:
Dorrell: I saw PCC as organisation w/ responsibility to promote and define standards w/in press
Dorrell: PCC a means of giving people redress. It's part of press' recognition of their own responsibility, not defined by outside
Dorrell: possible for PCC to be champion of principle of free press.
Dorrell: PCC can be champion of press freedom but has to be willing to be critical of its own when standards it espouses aren't met
Dorrell: whole point of press freedom is that in free society it is one of most effective ways of holding power to account

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: PCC had responsibility to define standards within the press and and offer those injured redress.
‪
@IndexLeveson:
#Leveson‬: we've been here again and again and again. That's what troubles me
‪#Leveson‬: in reality the points that are being made are absolutely the same 
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Important PCC has its roots within the press - recognition of their own responsibility.Not something defined from outside.
Dorrell: PCC can be champion of press freedom but has to be critical of its own when the standards that it espouses aren't met.

@dansabbagh:
Leveson in an interesting rebuke to Lord Hunt. Rejects characterisation that he has been "in conversation" w Hunt over PCC reform...
...instead Leveson says that Hunt had been talking to him. In other words Hunt is canvassing PCC reforms but judge not convinced by them.

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: There isn’t ownership of professional standards between editors and journalists - something press needs to develop.
Dorrell: PM recognised very different views unlikely to be resolved over draft White Paper.
Dorrell: We had to present our conclusion that we were going to do nothing in the least bad way.
Dorrell: Gov response - Not sufficient public consensus on which to base statutory intervention on this area.
Dorrell: Gov response - Strongly prefer the principle of self-regulation +therefore has no intention to legislate new civil remedy.  

@lisaocarroll:
political chess - dorrell dumped in 95 as govt agreed to do nothing on press. White P magically published by Bottomly month later
@IndexLeveson:
Dorrell: if we already have set of legal standards that aren't being met, we should ask ourselves why that is
Dorrell: we should address cause of problem rather than symptom of it. Issue also of management culture
Dorrell: my instinctive response is that principles on which PCC built can be reinforced along lines Lord Hunt has been developing

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Owners and managers of media operations should be challenged to demonstrate how they plan to strengthen own organisations.
@lisaocarroll:
Dorrell written statement: I remain deeply sceptical that the desirability of statutory regulation of press 
@IndexLeveson:
Dorrell: I’m not here to defend record of PCC.

‪
@nataliepeck:
#Leveson‬: I think you'll find that one of your conclusions, there was no public appetite for something different, is no longer the position.
‪
@IndexLeveson:
#Leveson‬: I'm absolutely not suggesting gov't regulation. Have never said that.
‪#Leveson‬: am not sure contractual remedy would necessarily help "the little guy"
#Leveson‬ says he's concerned to ensure there's a mechanism that works, particularly for "the little guy"

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: What little guy wants, if there is threat of private life is being paraded for public entertainment,is ability to stop it.

Stephen Dorrell largely agrees with Lord Hunt's vision for the reform of PCC..
'But that hasn't worked!'
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Issues around standards need to be internalised within the press, not taken away from them.

Guardian Live Blog:
 
11:05 BST
Looking back, asks Barr, was the government's consideration and response a missed opportunity to do more?

Dorrell replies: "No I don't. At a purely mechanistic level the ability to do anything in legislative terms wasn't there. Even given what's happened in the intervening period I am not persuaded if we go down the legislative route here we don't create a cure that's worse than the disease."
11:05 BST
Dorrell says the problem today is that "we already have a set of legal standards that are not being met. We should ask why that is and address the cause of the problem."

"I believe the issue that's come to light in recent times is an issue that has much more to do with management culture ... than it has to the legal framework whether it's voluntary or statutory."
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: Question is what happens in the circumstances like Chris Jefferies where a judgment is made and major injustice is done?

@nataliepeck:
#Leveson‬: One of the reasons Northern & Shell left the PCC was because they had no confidence in their competitors judging their behaviour.

‪#Leveson‬: Hislop has been it abundantly clear that bc PE critical, the press are the last people he wants to judge appropriate standards.

@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: An ombudsman would exist as somebody to whom editor goes to to seek external view - doesn't require statutory framework.
#Leveson‬: I'm not suggesting that the state should have any view at all about content. I'm simply talking about structures.

From Guardian Live Blog:
11:09 BST
Dorrell says the press should shine a light on other organs of the press in the same way it does on politics and the law.

Barr says it doesn't do that, however.
Leveson goes further: "When are the occasions it has?"

Dorrell says "that's a proper question to put to the organs of the press".

Leveson says we know the answer to that already. "The Guardian article of July 2009, the New York Times article of 2010. The reaction to the Guardian article was criticism by the self-regulator about the Guardian."

Dorrell says it was "clearly a perverse outcome".

"Well, yes," replies Leveson. "That being the case ... is the PCC truly a regulator at all? One's talking about improved self-regulation when actually it's not doing that at all."
@nataliepeck:
Dorrell: The reason we're sat here is that existing laws that nobody disputes haven't been observed and enforced.
@IndexLeveson:
Dorrell: breaking of law is symptom of what's wrong in culture of an organisation that tolerates criminality.
Dorrell: no regulation will deliver outcome if core problem remains of tolerating criminality

Stephen Dorrell's evidence now complete.


Andrew Marr   Witness Statement in Full


Guardian Live Blog HERE

Corine Patry-Hoskins begins her questioning of Andrew Marr..
'Forgive the breach of copyright, Mr Marr!'

@rosschawkins:
Andrew William Stephenson Marr sworn in at ‪#leveson
We're onto books again, Marr notes his is available in all good second hand book shops
‪
@nataliepeck:
#Leveson‬ asks Marr to "forgive the breach of copyright" as he is handed a photocopied version of My Trade by NI lawyer White QC.
Marr: There has been a blurring between reporting and commentary, led by commercially successful papers like the Mail.

@IndexLeveson:
Marr: 1970s, 80s, page after page of dry, factual reporting. Not the case now
 
@rosschawkins:
Marr: temptation to salt and pepper news has been irresistible, I mourn old distinction between news & comment
@IndexLeveson:
Marr: papers are selling themselves more and more on their political views and arousing emotions of the reader
Marr says he's very old fashioned, mourns distinction between news & comment. Says he fears this is a lost cause

@nataliepeck:
Marr: As a consumer I want to know what is factual, old fashioned straight reporting. I like it, I value it. It's very expensive.
Marr: Would recoil from seeing any outside body order newspaper editors about how to arrange their pages. ‪#Leveson‬: Don't worry about that.

@rosschawkins:
Q: Did New Labour favour some political journos because they worked for Murdoch? Marr: Yes absolutely
Marr: Think decision was taken [by Labour] that it was very important to keep Murdoch papers onside - they were inside of the tent.
 
@rosschawkins:
Marr: I've got no evidence there was a darker or dirtier deal being done (between Labour & News Int) 
@nataliepeck:
Marr: Close relationships [NI/politicians], Murdoch parties + Oxfordshire get-togethers, peculiarly disheartening for press rivals.

@rosschawkins:
Marr: from the outside it felt quite cold & chilly sometimes not to be part of that group

@IndexLeveson:
Marr: NI at its height had v powerful position. Had respected broadsheet (Times), huge-selling Sun & Sunday market w/ NoW & STimes
@nataliepeck:
Marr: There was clearly a lot of work going on about how to reconcile a pro-Euro PM with a Eurosceptical newspaper [Sun].
@IndexLeveson:
Marr: Murdoch stable seen by its rivals to have privileged position
 
@rosschawkins:
Marr (from book) editors are creatures of the proprietors & that defines relationship

@IndexLeveson:
Marr: No editor who disappoints proprietor will carry on being editor for v long. This is a general thing.
@nataliepeck:
Marr: Absolutely crucial distinction between proprietors getting together with politicians and journalists using them as contacts.
Explaining the background to the interview with Gordon Brown when he questioned him on alleged use of prescription drugs...
@nataliepeck:
Marr: Political authority in the HoC is higher than when I wrote this book [9 years ago] and the status of journalists is lower.
@rosschawkins:
Marr: political authority in Commons is higher than when I wrote book; status of even leading journalists is a bit lower
Marr: we do jump v v fast to analysis & comment, almost before we've laid out facts in some case
Marr on asking Brown whether he took painkillers to "get through": not a moment in my career I look back on with enormous enthusiasm & pride
 
@nataliepeck:
[At the time, and since, Brown denied using prescription painkillers. ‪#Leveson‬]
Marr: Gordon Brown himself said in the course of that exchange "You might be right to ask them". But I wouldn't ask question again.

@dansabbagh:
Marr says context was that there "huge number of stories about intemperate behaviour" at No10.
Marr says he would not have asked Brown the painkillers question again - because it distracted from other answers Brown gave.

@JoshHalliday:
Andrew Marr says he wouldn't ask Gordon Brown about painkillers again, with hindsight. "It wasn't worth it"
@nataliepeck:
Marr: My blogging critcism (2010) probably out of date even when wrote it. Many respected political commentators are bloggers.
@dansabbagh:
Marr admits he was wrong to call bloggers "inadequate, pimpled and single" in 2010. Lots of good political blogs.
@nataliepeck:
Carine Patry Hoskins says inquiry has "no interest" in the facts of Marr's 2008 superinjunction.
Marr: Very few journalists in any position would go themselves to the PCC if they were looking for swift redress or help.
Marr: I could have not gone to the courts and let the story come out. For various reasons thought it worth going the other way.
Marr ws: Public funding of defamation + privacy cases should be limited to few serious examples where claimants effect. penniless.  

@rosschawkins:
Marr: it's my job at the BBC to criticise inquiry for whatever ideas it comes up with rather than offer my own
@nataliepeck:
Marr ws: Visited politicians' homes only 8 or 9 times in 1990s and I am not a personal friend of any of them now.
Marr: To try and create a general record of all contacts between journalists and politicians would be excessive.
Marr: If you try to get them to write down lunches journalists will have coffee with them,will end up walking in the park together.

Guardian Live Blog:
12:27 BST
Marr on the relationship between politicians and lobby journalists: "It was never easy, the time would often come when in effect you would betray that relationship."
He adds that writing about people who you had lunched with and whose children's names you knew was difficult, but it was part of the job.
He doesn't now lunch politicians like he used to as BBC political editor.
@nataliepeck:
Marr: Without contacts between journalists and politicians, I don't think the public would have know about Blair/Brown problems.
Marr: I know many eminent journalists who went on skiing holidays and played golf with politicians but they didnt't hold back.
Marr: It is a brutal thing when a minister is being assailed by the pack and it goes on day after day and is relentless.
@tom_watson:
@nataliepeck certainly is!
@rosschawkins:  Marr: new system of regulation for press in parlous state might be like taking away feeding tube Marr namechecks blogs such as @ConHome as being as influential as some
papers.  
@nataliepeck:
Marr: There is a gap between state control and free for all - it's a difficult gap but a new place to build something
Marr: Old distinction between a political player and would-be professional journalist is breaking down.

Andrew Marr's evidence is complete.


Jeremy Paxman   Witness Statement in Full




Guardian Live Blog HERE

Jeremy Paxman speaking about 'empty chairing'....
 @IndexLeveson:
  Paxman defines himself as a journalist, rather than a presenter
 Paxman: in old days we used to say "we asked x to take part but they declined". Did show empty chair ungraced by ministerial bottom
Paxman: from time to time we need to make judgment as to what's in the public interest.

@nataliepeck:
Paxman: NN in a privileged position, can say "that's fine, we will talk about the public debt and not talk about the mistress".
Paxman: If there has been an undertaking person will be interviewed discreetly then I think the audience should be told.

@rosschawkins:
Paxman describes himself as a hired hand

@nataliepeck:
Paxman: Almost all of my dealings with politicians are in the green room or studio. I do not have them as friends - find it easier.
@IndexLeveson:
Paxman: I find it easier not to have politicians as friends. I do not think they're all scoundrels, liars.
@nataliepeck:
Paxman: [The relationship between journalists and politicians] is like ticks and sheep - one can't exist without the other.

‪#Leveson‬: Nobody will think you're a prig, Mr Paxman, having just compared yourself to a tick.

@lisaocarroll:
Paxman: once you understand everything your argument becomes warped (hence my distance from politicians)
@nataliepeck:
Paxman: The last time I took a politician to lunch was around December - nothing wrong with it, it's a way of finding things out.
Paxman: If I were - heaven forbid - a government spin doctor I think I would say "let's role with the punches" [on press coverage].
Paxman: Collective ambition of those of us in this estate -that's how we justify our existence - but don't tell people how to live.
Paxman: In early stages of day agenda set by newspapers but is changing as disclosures reported in real time online.

@lisaocarroll:
Paxman: Nick Robinson and Robert Peston - these are people who change the agenda

@nataliepeck:
Paxman: Far too much journalism is simply recycling of officially approved disclosures.
Paxman paraphrases Lord Northcliffe: Journalism is something that someone, somewhere, doesn't want you to know.

@rosschawkins:
Paxman: I find impartiality quite a difficult thing to define. I don't find fairness difficult at all
Paxman: Primary requirement to be interesting. Have to catch the eyeball. If you don't you're talking to the wall
I don't think fairness is a simply a matter of process.... (to Mr Jay)
@IndexLeveson:
Paxman: newspaper readers understand that Guardian and D Tel (for example) approach a subject in a different way
Paxman: public have a v strict sense of fairness

@lisaocarroll:
Jay enjoying wrestling with paxman. Fairness is about process isn't it. Jay says. Is it? Paxman says.
Mr Jay finding great difficulty in making J Paxman understand a question...
@nataliepeck:
Paxman: When I was abroad sometimes people would say "Oh yes, you're the state broadcaster". That is not the case with the BBC.
#Leveson‬: Alternative is no regulation because nobody can require a newspaper to be part of system entirely subject to local agreement.
Paxman: Remember lunch with Sir Victor Blank very vividly. In Canary Wharf (Trinity Mirror). Jay asks him to "set the scene".
Paxman: Piers Morgan, ed of Sunday Mirror, Ulrika Jonsson and Philip Green in attendence.

@rosschawkins:
Paxman recalls Piers Morgan telling Ulrika Jonsson he (PM) knew about her conversations with Sven-Göran Eriksson
Piers Morgan explained way to get access to peoples' message was to go to factory default setting 
Paxman on incident (which happened over lunch) I didn't like the atmosphere, struck me as close to bullying

@nataliepeck:
Paxman: I don’t know whether he was making this up but it was clearly something that he was familiar with and I wasn’t.

Guardian Live Blog:

Jay asks: "Did Piers Morgan say anything interesting or unusual?"

Paxman replies:
I was really struck by something Piers Morgan said, I was sat between him on my left and editor of Sunday Mirror on my right. Ulrika Jonsson was sat opposite.

Morgan said, teasing Ulrika, that he knew what had happened in conversations between her and Sven Goran Eriksson and he went into this mock Swedish accent.

Now I don't know whether he was repeating a conversation that he had heard, or he was imagining this conversation ... It was a rather bad parody.

I was struck by it because I am wet behind the ears, I didn't know this sort of thing went on.

He turned to me and said have you got a mobile phone I said yes. He said, have you got a security setting on the message bit of it .... I didn't know what he was talking about.

He then explained that the way to get access to people's messages was to go to the factory default setting and press 0000 and 1234 and if you didn't put your own code in, his words were, 'you are a fool'.
@rosschawkins:
Looking back denied listening to Jonsson's messages in relation to Sven Goran Eriksson?  
@nataliepeck:
Paxman: I think your challenge is to stop yourself becoming a total irrelevance.

@estherraddley:
Paxman, leaving court, confirms he has not previously told story abt explaining how hacking worked in 02

Jeremy Paxman's evidence now complete.



  • From WSWS - 16th March 2012: -
Last Thursday Peter Clark, the Metropolitan Police’s ex-deputy assistant commissioner, informed Leveson that a confidential report on the phone-hacking discoveries had been sent to John Reid, then Labour’s home secretary, as early as 2006.
That original investigation was known as Operation Caryatid. Clark claims he provided Reid with a briefing paper and another was written by the private secretary to the Home Office’s permanent secretary. This detailed widespread illegal phone hacking by News International, including that of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
Clark explained the briefing was also sent to the cabinet office at Number 10 [Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence] and to the secret service at MI5. He told the inquiry, “I am absolutely clear in my mind that Her Majesty’s government was fully aware of this case at the time... I recall discussing the case with Dr. John Reid, the then Home Secretary, shortly after Goodman and Mulcaire had been arrested [in August 2006]. This was in the margins of a meeting about broader counter terrorism issues”.
Guardian Live Blog HERE
Lord John Reid beginning his evidence session..
Corine Patry-Hoskins posing questions..
@nataliepeck:
Reid has held several senior positions inc Home Sec, SoS for Defence/Health/NI leader of HoC and chairman of Labour Party.
@rosschawkins:
Reid says 30 paragraphs in his witness statement on original phone hacking investigation; was misleading article in press
@nataliepeck:
CPH asking Reid about original phone hacking investigation, Operation Caryatid.
Reid: When I came in as Home Secretary, there were around 70 terrorist plots ongoing. Most of them emerged May-Aug 2006.
Reid: Didn't know about Op Caryatid until 8 August, I wasn't briefed on it.

@IndexLeveson:
Reid: to best of my knowledge I'd not received any info or briefing about Op Caryatid before 8 Aug 06 [Mulcaire/Goodman arrests]
Reid: when I say that throughout this I wasn't receiving briefings, it isn't a complaint.
Reid: I know what counter-terrorism units had on their plate.

@rosschawkins:
Met press notice and briefing when Goodman Mulcaire arrested said police thought figs beyond Royal household had phones intercepted
@nataliepeck:
Reid: Became aware of the investigation because the media were reporting on it.
'I only knew what was in the public domain...'
@nataliepeck:
Reid: My reaction went beyond surprise. Spoke to Perm Sec office and Met Commissioner to ask "what the hell is going on?"
Reid: Met Comm kind enough to confirm media stories, including fact a friend of Cabinet minister was a suspected hacking victim,
Reid: Perm Sec note - this is operational matter for Met, hacking criminal offence and seeking to learn whatever lessons necessary.
Reid: No recollection of seeing this note and Home Office records shows no acknowledgement of receipt.

Guardian Live Blog:
15:28 BST
The Met police statement had indicated there were "other victims, not journalists", says Reid.
He adds that he had not received "secret briefings" as he says has been suggested.
@nataliepeck:
Reid: Almost exactly as Mulcaire and Goodman were being charged, Pakistan authorities had lifted ringleader in a terrorist plot.
Reid: Home Office have checked for any written briefings after 8/9 August but can't find any. Checked 4,500 diary entries also.
Reid: As Home Sec I personally responded to 215 oral questions, I am informed that not one of them referred to this issue.
Reid: Met with Comm and discussed phone hacking. Was told there was a huge amount of handwritten information to look through.


@lisaocarroll:
Reid: no meetings/briefings about phone hacking during my time as home sec. Day Mulcaire arrested I was at emergency meeting re liquid bomb
@nataliepeck:
Reid: What ministers knew was very tiny dot at the far edge of very crowded radar screen in HO and where it remained until 2009.
Reid: Possibly touched on area with Andy Hayman or Peter Clarke but no specific discussion had.
Peter Clarke said he discussed the case with Reid in aftermath of Op Overt arrests.

Guardian Live Blog:

15:58 BST
Patry Hoskins turns first to the briefing paper which Clarke says was sent to the Home Office and seen by Reid. She asks if Reid ever saw this,.

"Not to the best of my knowledge, not to the fullness of my recollection. First time I saw this was immediately after Peter had given his evidence. It was never sent to me," he replies.
@nataliepeck:
Reid: The info I had in the first instance came from the television, radio, internet and then brief conversation with Met Comm.
Reid: Pefectly possible I had a conversation with Peter Clarke of little significance on Aug 9.
Reid: In public domain that were victims other than the royal households,had no knowledge at the time there were other journalists.
Reid:Since neither of them said any more than was already in the public domain, then my reaction wouldn't have been any different.

@lisaocarroll:
Reid: Peter Clarke thinks my brief conversation on hacking in aug 06 was based on memo. It was based on media reports on Goodman
@rosschawkins:
Reid evidence detailed - boils down to this: suggestion was he had somehow overlooked important warnings at time or Goodman arrest...
.... he says he didn't know there was suspicion other journos were involved & that there perhaps 100s of victims inc Dep PM...
... and those facts were not in public domain at time.

@nataliepeck:
Reid: Did not know Prescott one of the potential victims. In some reports it's implied I must have known at the time - untrue.
Reid: I hope that what I have said today puts to rest the the conspiracy theories.

@lisacarroll:
Reid: I did not get favourable coverage from Sun. They called me Ali G of labour and man who'd lost his brain 
@rosschawkins:
Reid: Brooks asked me to make it clear I wouldn't run again Gordon Brown for leadership
 
@nataliepeck:
Reid: Rebekah Brooks asked me why I didn't withdraw from Labour leadership race. She told me "You know we can't support you". 
Mr Garnham for the Met questioning Lord Reid about his evidence..
@nataliepeck:
Reid: If Clarke or Hayman or anybody else wished to send me an urgent note wouldn't go through the TPU. Would send it to me.

Lord Reid's evidence is complete.


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