Johnson…major contribution to make to the Leveson Enquiry

As Rebekah Brooks thought it was amusing to give just a hint of wit and glimmer of smile during her Leveson evidence – betraying the fact that she still thinks this is all a merry lark – I don’t see why The Slog shouldn’t get into the act on the side of the Good Guys.

In his evidence, Rupert Murdoch referred to Gordon Brown in 2007-8 as “not of sound mind”. As Roop has no axe to grind about this one (the Laird having returned to his cave) I thought I would remind the MSM that, when I revealed via evidence and testimony in 2009 that it was highly likely Brown was taking MAOI anti-depressants and clearly mentally unwell, I was hounded by the Left  – and was eventually forced to change my blog identity to The Slog we all know and love today. Ben Bradshawe said about my post on Question Time, “But it’s a lie”. Turns out that Ben was the one lying. Andrew Marr asked Brown about “prescription painkillers” to help Brown deny something of which he wasn’t accused. Turns out Andrew too did A Bad Thing.

Brooks herself referred to “an extraordinarily aggressive” telephone exchange she had with Brown at the same time. I had a contact in Number Ten at the time insisting that the PM was “ghastly and uncivilised” in the way he yelled at secretaries and threw phones around the place. Charlie Whelan, on reading that piece, went on radio and called me a “Far Right liar”. Turns out Charlie did A Bad Thing as well. (Nothing new there)

So when it comes to standards in the media, perhaps we should get Gordo, Charlie Boy and Andy in front of Leveson and ask them about it all in the context of media standards. It could be fun.

But while the Newscorp nihilists are busy ruining the career of Jeremy Rhymyng-Slange, they may at long last be doing A Good Thing on behalf of the decent folks. As the initial molehill of suspicion about The Cheerleader has turned into a mountain of hard evidence, both the lad isself and Dave have been trying to magic it back to molehill proportions again.The process is pure Tommy Cooper, with bottles refusing to disappear from inside canisters, and long strings of snotty handkerchiefs emerging from both ears without warning. I’m waiting for the first sign of squawks and feathers the next time Mr Hunt says “Observe – nothing up my sleeve”.

This is what makes the Hunt for Jello Jeremy funnier every day, and so most of us can’t wait for his evidence…if only because he’ll probably be out of a job by then. But in brief, these are a few of what are likely to be his least favourite questions when that day dawns:

1. Do you think you got the job because of the slavish adoration for Murdoch plastered all over your constituency website?

2. Do you think tits, hamster-eating fiction, hacking dead people’s mobiles, falsely accusing Elton John of being a paedophile, and editorially supporting the lies of bent coppers represents a rise or fall in the standards of UK journalism?

3. When the Newscorp driver told you about the brown envelopes he took to bribe coppers, why didn’t you go the Home Secretary about it?

4. Was this the point at which you decided some private advice from these goblins about handling sensitive stuff was in order?

5. Why did you lie to the House of Commons about ‘full disclosure’ of all the correspondence between your Ministry and Newscorp?

6. Given you avoided £100,000 in tax this year, why does David Cameron still “want to be associated” with you?

7. Can you just give us a brief resume, Mr *unt, of how you made a fortune between 2002 and 2007, and the role played in that process by senior people at The British Council?

Another chap I’d like to see up before Leveson is Boris Johnson. First of all, he is a unique figure in that he not only courts publicity, he often writes his own in the Daily Telegraph. Secondly, as it’s pretty obvious he’d like to stab the Prime Minister in the front at the earliest suitable opportunity, Mr Johnson would be jolly good grist to that overworked mill churning out damp flour to throw at Dave on a daily basis. And finally, he’d be an excellent witness on the subject of shadowy proporietors who pay no tax and yet feel quite at ease trying to destroy governments. If nothing else, it would give Bojo the chance to thoroughly repudiate all those malign rumours circulating about the nature of his relationship with the Sarkistas, and whether it is in any way financial, which no doubt it isn’t. Allegedly.

Like an increasing number of people in the UK, I’m tired of enquiries. Not because I want to let all the perjurous witnesses off (perish the thought) but because, as I’ve posted before, I’m all enquiried out. It’s high time we got into the Criminal Trial-Jury-Verdict-Banged up axis of action. Time we stopped arresting, questioning, summoning and publicising. Time we let real justice take its course.

If there’s still enough to go round, that is. After all, those pointless gnat-bites of political showboating wicked Tory cuts have probably reduced the CPS budget to zero by now.