New Labour and The Sun – a “kissy-kissy celebration

Ben Stoneham, a recently ennobled Liberal Democrat activist, had a lively anecdote to throw into Lords debate on the Leveson report. “A shocking experience for me was to attend the retirement party in 2003 of the editor of the Sun, David Yelland,” he said. “In effect, it was the crowning party for Rebekah Brooks. Pretty much the whole of the Labour cabinet, with the honourable exception  of (John) Prescott, was there that night. This was no respectful attendance for a colleague stepping into retirement; it was a more familiar, kissy-kissy celebration than I would ever have anticipated. This was a meeting for colluding friends.”

It was not particularly admirable of Lord Stoneham’s to wait ten years until Rebekah Brooks was in no position to hit back, to share this story with the public, but it is an another interesting insight into how Tony Blair’s government courted Rupert Murdoch’s empire.

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• Junius

  Tony Blair was long gone when Ed “I’m a-listening” Miliband and Ed “I’m all ears” Balls dutifully turned up to pay homage at the News International summer party in 2010. Indeed, there is a scurrilous report headlined “Miliband ‘went to News International parties’” dated July 30th 2011, alleging that Mr Miliband and his shadow colleagues attended a string of NI parties.

  “Two days before it emerged the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World, shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander attended a social event in the Cotswolds with Mrs Brooks and Mr Hinton… The party was hosted by Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth and her husband Matthew Freud in Burford…”

  It is a disgraceful attempt by the gutter press to smear Listening Ed and Co, that is what it is. Oh, but hang on a mo. The paper is none other than the highly-respected Indy. So it must be true – mustn’t it, Mr McSmith?

• creggancowboy

  Miliband failed to put clear blue water between himself and Blair-Brown. As such he is merely ZaNuLabour Lite (now with added civil liberties abuses).