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Smoking Mirrors / Goings On

Smoking mirrors

When the Prime Minister announced on 13 July 2011 that Lord Justice Levison would lead a two-part inquiry investigating the role of the Press, Politicians and Police in the phone-hacking scandal, Downing Street believed that kicking the “hacking scandal” down the road with a two year public inquiry would take the heat away from the Prime Minister; particularly his relationship with former top executives inside Rupert Murdoch’s News International empire; e.g. the former News of the World Editor Andy Coulson who left Murdoch to be his Press Officer and Rebecca Brooks, the former CEO News International. This week’s revelations to Levison from the Metropolitan Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Sue Aker exposed a level of police and media corruption that was more akin to Chicago in the 1920’s.

Goings on

Levison began his inquiry saying the central question for him would be, “who guards the guardians?” The goings on inside Downing Street this week since Sue Aker’s evidence exposed rifts between top advisors and Civil Servants that may or may not have something to do with Levison. The sabbatical/resignation of the PM’s top guru may also be coincidental. Smoking mirrors only hide the truth until the haze clears. There is a lot of smoke still to clear before Levison is over.