Top Telegraph Hack Taped Discussing Blagging
In the summer of 1990 Boris Johnson was The Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent. In the now famous taped conversation between him and Darius Guppy, just months before the latter would be busted in a £1.8 million insurance scam, Boris conspired to have a News of the World journalist, Stuart Collier, beaten up on behalf of his old School chum. In the tape Boris says he’ll obtain Collier’s phone number and then get an address. As the UK has never published reverse directories how would Boris achieve this?
Well blagging of course. It had to be via the police or a British Telecom staffer. Most likely would be a copper, as it was standard practice on Fleet Street back then to take advantage of the fact that the Police National Computer did not record such inquiries unless an individual was flagged as a person of interest. BT on the other hand much tighter internal controls. Boris displayed both the knowledge and intent to blag, though there is no evidence that he actually supplied the requested information, despite saying he would. Perhaps The Telegraph’s leading columnist would like to explain what the public interest angle was on this one…
Oh dear, still going to get re-elected mayour tho.
No longer pink, eh Billy?
Its an offence even to beat NOW journalist. I hope police looks at it.
Where is William Hague? He seems to have disappeared.
Hee Hee
dear mr miliband. can i ask you what you discussed with Rupert Murdoch at the recent NI party? i assume you castigated him for his company’s underhand tactics…..
Hang on!!!!!
re-read it.
Submit now, and get ansers at 5 ish
In english = Submit now so we can carefully screen them and get ED to only answer the ones that fit around labour policy, plants etc
What policies? Plants will probably be the only things left to discuss.
Well the shadow cabinet is full of vegetables
What Mrs Bollocks gets up to with her own cucumbers in the privacy of her own…
When are you going then, Ed?
How do I jump the Nhsh waiting lisht
From 1994 – 2010 Labour was in bed with Murdoch.
ALL the criminality happened on labour’s watch.
Labour’s own spin and smear machine was in full operation during this time that labour were in bed with Murdoch and when the hacking and blagging was taking place.
There is far far more shit on labour’s hands than on Cameron’s over this.
Ed Miliband STILL TO THIS DAY is employing an ex-NI journalist, as his director of communications, who is implicated in an alleged illegal blagging scam. I have not heard one single labour MP question Miliband’s judgement on this and so far, in spite of these allegations being raised and passed to police, Miliband has utterly failed to issue any substantive statement on the issue comparable with the allegations he is throwing out against Cameron and Coulson.
This whole episode makes labour look far worse than the tories.
After all it is Cameron who is following the law, and lawful procedure to open up and fully investigate this, under oath and in public.
Labour covered it all up when they were in office, and now in opposition seek to use media spin and allegations to convict, without proper trial, people who have not even been charged with a crime yet, let alone lawfully convicted.
Compared to labour’s disgusting and hypocritical, party political, behaviour in this, Cameron’s hands are clean. Labour have only looked at this with an eye to narrow party political interest. They have ignored all the cases of hacking, blagging and improper relationships between former Minsters and the left wing media.
Cameron is opening it all up to ALL media, left, right and independent and the relationship between Media and the police and the media and all current and former Ministers.
For Brown to complain about a “criminal underworld” in News International when labour MPs and former Minister’s in Brown’s cabinet are in prison for their own criminal acts and further when Tom Watson expresses fake outrage and sympathy for the hacking of phones of victims of the September 11th attacks, when his own party thought that September 11th was a “good day to bury bad news!” shows with crystal clarity what is wrong with the labour party’s morality.
I look forward to the open, public inquiries exposing more and more labour sleaze, lies and corruption from their disastrous 13 years in office, working for the Murdoch press.
“ALL the criminality happened on labour’s watch.” It started under Mrs T, Major wasn’t cooperating so Rupert went with Blair, Brown didn’t cooperate so Rupert went with Cameron.
All these started will before Blair. Only surprise is Rupert isn’t paying Blair for advice.
So they were all squeaky clean in the 1970s.
Which of any of the current allegations being investigated happened prior to 1997? So far I have only heard of allegations of alleged criminal acts which occurred during the last labour government.
You may wish for the inquiries to extend back to the beginning of the printing press, covering every illegal act covered by anybody loosely connected to a newspaper, but that is not what is being investigated.
However, well done for trying to move the spotlight away from labour again.
I repeat that ALL the current allegations of illegal activities relate to events which happened under LABOURs watch!
Excuse me , mobile phones had barely started to be Used when Mrs T was in power, … so no it did not start under thatcher!
It was very easy to listen in on the unencrypted, analogue cordless phones in the 1980s.
It was a piece of piss to listen in to my neighbours arranging a delivery of their drug of choice, and for the disposal of lots of copper immersion heater tanks…
‘Brown didn’t cooperate’
Lies don’t get much bigger than that, are you Blinky per chance?
Dear Ed what are your hobbies?
Dear David
What is your drugs policy?
My name’s not David.
and why shouldnt he?
guido seems to have missed a pc program called uk info that allowed (or could be easily hacked to allow) reverse lookup of all uk numbers.
it was quite expensive to buy but it was widely pirated, in fact i cant think of anyone with a pc back then who didnt have access to a copy so maybe boris had access to someone who had a legitimate (or pirated) copy in which case such a lookup was entirely possible.
i should say that later versions called uk info pro removed much of the phone lookup system and in fact from the 2003 version onwards it was a waste of money.
All init together
I love the sound of breaking green house glass in the morning…
I hear no glass breaking…..just the sound of straws being clutched!
is that you Peter?
interesting piece on BBC website about powers of MPs:
MPs’ DISCIPLINARY POWERS
MPs used to have the power to fine people held to be in contempt of the Commons
That would include refusing to appear before a select committee
They still have the power to imprison but it has not been used in modern times
They can send a Speaker’s warrant, which means the police and other authorities can be called in
The last time a warrant was served was in 1992 to the Maxwell brothers
They can also summon a non-MP to the bar of the house – last used in 1957
MPs tried to clear up confusion about their powers in 1967 but no change resulted
the last one says it all though, comfusion about their own powers remain …. as a voter in this fucking country CAN I HAVE MY MONEY BACK?
We should still have those powers. I am off on holday to the Costa Del Crime, to my Villa; a present from my grateful boys in Portsmouth. They are throwing a special dinner in my honour in the local Lodge in Marbella. Jahbulon.
Errmmm….Have you just re-hashed a 15 year old story and inserted the word ‘blagging’ ? Way to go Bernstein
Of course, this is all ancient stuff really, that we’re all sort of aware of. It puts good old boris right in the middle of the picture.
As for blagging … couldnt they use a technique like phoning up and pretending to be a delivery company that had got the address wrong?
Yes, just say you’re from us, very believable.
If there was anything in this story, Red Ken would have used it, and still be using it.
A reverse directory is Telephone number and then this provides the address. NOT the other way around.
Reverse directories were standard issue to exchange operators.
This is barking (as in up the wrong tree).
Consult the electoral roll to find an address.
Thats how we find addresses for long lost rellies.
A reverse directory would be a Yrotcerid
Was Stuart Collier subsequently beaten up?
No, he wasn’t – http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/politics/Boris2.html
This is all very well. but WTF is Stuart Collier?
Evidence from a Marxite magazine. Very dodgy, full of dialectical materialism, coitus interuptus and other such clap trap.
hooray, ken for mayor……
not sure this is evidence rather than conjecture though.
evidence would surely be that you had phone records or computer records of him actually doing this rather than joining the dots.
would this convict him in court?
ken for mayor? OMG you’d vote for anyone even oona before you’d vote for him!!
Nope. You keep doing what you’re doing Boris. You’re doing just fine!
i was being sarcastic – it would be a tragedy if something like this was blown up out of proportion and lead to ken becoming mayor. “by the time the truth has got its boots on the lie is half way round the world” and all that..
It wouldn’t convict him in court no. a) it didn’t happen, and b) I don’t think phone evidence is allowed to be used in court.
So you’re trying to prove something that didn’t happen, was arranged in a bantery conversation on the phone.
Christ I’m sure I’ve threatened to do horrendous things after a few beers on the phone to a mate. That’s why phone evidence is unreliable.
“Boris conspired to have a News of the World journalist, Stuart Collier, beaten up”
surely the court of public opinion (copywrite H Harman) would actually reward him under the current mindless diana style public fever?
Cutting edge stuff
I smell a rotting corpse
http://www.peterrisdon.com/blog/
Guido Has Got This One Wrong
Our local police station was burgled last night and the villains got away with three toilets. A police spokesman said they had nothing to go on.
OK, I’ll get my coat…..
Britain is finished unless we get out of the EUSSR.
Emigrate NOW!!!!
Tory and Lib Dem traitors are finished.
Labour will win a landslide at the next election
Or maybe, just maybe, he’d ASK a mutual friend. Dear Christ!
Aged rehash of old Private Eye story in public domain for decades shocker! Unworthy of our attention and your energy.
Now, there’s plenty of contemporary shit going on out there – get to it.
Not going to hold together Guido, Boris might have been able to find out Collier’s phone numebr by other means than blagging. I can’t believe Boris didn’t know someone at NI who would give a rising star a phone number. Furthermore there’s no evidence that Boris ever did get hold of Collier’s phone number.
Are you sure about reverse directories Guido? I clearly remember, twenty or more years ago in my teens and early 20s, being able to call BT Directory Enquiries on 192 and receive the postal address corresponding to the phone number quoted. It was actually really handy – and I used it many times. This service was later withdrawn – although you can still give 118500 the dialling code and the first two digits of the number and they’ll give you the location (albeit not the postal address).
So Boris finds out a phone number, not necessarily by nefarious means, and DQ provides the exact postal address. Unless BT withdrew the address service before 1990 (which I’m pretty sure they didn’t), then yours might be an assertion too far in this case.
“the bullshit piled up around here so fast you needed wings to stay above it”
Must have some inside on this – on the other hand Bonking Boris is hardly likely to sue.
Thank you so much Guido.
The obligatory crate of Guiness will be dropped off at the usual spot.
Keep on blogging/blagging,it keeps you young.
Put it next to the case of chardonnay.
Doesn’t Ken only drink Champagne and newt piss?
Is this Osborne (indirectly) having a crack at Boris in reply to Boris’s assertion that he warned Osborne about Coulson?
If it is, (and it’s a big if), it is a little undignified and the end result will be that they are both discredited.
It is not possible to throw mud without getting your hands dirty.
If you are smart, you get someone else to do the actual throwing.
Guido perhaps?
Almost as good as blagging foreign car number plates in Oxford. :0)
Would that be connected with walkers in the woods?
Milliwit has opened such a can of worms as will ensure that he will never be elected PM as he has pissed of the Press, the Police and the Politicians, many on his own party simply for a piece of showboating. Nice one ,Boy.
I’d like to agree with you dear boy but sadly most of the electorate are positively bovine.
The BBC will still support him.
Labour need about 9.5 million votes. Given the combined number of public sector employees and benefit recipients, which should be multiplied by 2 since they have relatives), he doesn’t that many more votes than labour polled in 2010.
Maybe spanish house prices will soon bottom as more brits emigrate.
And don’t forget to get your savings out of sterling.
On another note, it looks like pilgrim will need a new place to live.
http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/moj/newsrelease130711a.htm
Not sure how this got in this discussion. However,the all time best story on evicting squatters has to be the late John Aspinall borrowing a gorilla from Howletts, his zoo in Kent, shoving it through the front door and squatters emerging rapidly through the windows. Taken to court, he successfully pleaded that the gorilla was harmless and almost a family pet and got off.
Headlines just a few months later, “Gorilla kills keeper”. Yes, the same one !
Is that an urban myth? Nothing on google search. Like the X files, I want to believe..
Domestic violence is a very difficult crime to prevent.
u-Turn Number 64
Plans for major cuts to the coastguard service have been scaled back by the Cambos Cockalition, Transport Secretary Philip ( The Mong ) Hammond told the House of Commons today.
Nice thread. Boris is a nasty thug….We all knew this long ago
Why did you name yourself after a complete c-unt?
Immunity Immunity Dave’s gonna give me Immunity. That will be U-turn Number 65.
Pool is very cooling today, 35 in the shade here
Guido got his orders atraight from Conservative Central Office then, did he?
Ah. You mean a nasty thug as opposed to Alastair Campbell? Or Ed Balls? Or any other of Liebore’s henchmen?
And why do you think Dc has had to scale back the Coastguard Services?
Could it possibly be that we don’t have enough money to pay for it?
I wonder why that is.
Could it possibly be because Labour spent money we didn’t have over their 13 years in Government?
And….
Using a thing called reasoned thinking, they have found a way to have reduced costs, reduced the number of stations, but increased coverage by keeping all the remaining stations open 24/7
Reasoned thinking, eh?
Just shows what can be done when things are thought out properly.
The pool my be cool but I think you’ll find Ed’s just pissed in the water.
Ed voted in to leadership by unions not all he now will share a platform , who’s blagging who?
The public , the unions , labour party ?
I keep getting creepy calls in the middle of the night from somebody who says his name is Gordon, is he hacking my my voice mail?.
You have to ask how did he get hold of your number dear. Probably in cahoots with some underworld types.
He says here on HIGNFY “Due to my incompetence as a journalist I wasn’t able to get it”
It all depends if Stuart Collier is
a suspected closet…omg…Socialist.
If he is..then marvellous, absolutely marvellous.
well done.Congratulations.
If he isn’t. Oh never mind, anyone can make a mistake.
So if you don’t attend a select committee when summoned then you are in contempt of parliament. What is the punishment?
Given that most people have nothing but contempt for parliament does it really matter?
And I would certainly have contempt for any committee that slimy Vaz runs and shit stirrer Bryant sits on.
Nothing, many people have refused to give evidence.
I hope Rebekah Brooks gives as good as she gets. This select committee is just a platform for pompous MPs to grandstand from. Andy Hayman should have got up and walked over to Bryant and pinned him to the floor when Bryant laughed at him.
Remember how they treated the good Doctor Kelly and called him Chaff?
It is nothing more than a Kangaroo court
Strewth mate, it’s not my bowl of rice whatever.
That tells me they have something to hide.
They should be Summoned.
James is in august, Rupert said he co-op witht the judge led inquiry.
Oh dear, should I hand myself in for being contempteous of Parliament ?
21 year old story! I doubt Bojo can remember.
In fact 7 years before NuLav started their project to destroy Britain.
HAPPY DAYS!
Despite this very old rehashed story I still would vote for Boris over the jihadist cuddling Livingstone.
Bring it on, a lablib coalition!
As an investor living outside UK i can’t wait to renew the short gilts, short sterling trades.
Easy money to be made soon.
PS If my memory serves me correct, in 1990 you could ask directory enquiries pretty much any phone nr. Seems a bit OTT this thread.
This is a pyramid of piffle! A basilica of bullsh*t! A kremlin of crap! A Chichen Itza of chaff! A ziggurat of something beginning with ‘Z’ and meaning ‘nonsense’!
Ziggurat of Zilch/Zero/Zip?
Can I add A Balderdash of Brown !
Today I shall mostly be going on Wikipedia as David Rose to smear my critics.
Sounds like Boris was fobbing him off to get off the hook, rather than simply saying ‘no’. Like most people would do.
We fucking wouldn’t.
Totally off topic and no doubt you all know this anyway but the collective noun for a group of Cheetahs is a Coalition. There is no truth in the rumour that a group of laughing hyenas is known as a Select Committee.
Very drole !
Guido, this is bollocks. Have you actually heard the tape of that conversation? It’s quite obvious Boris is trying to get rid of Guppy without being rude. That’s his style.
Did he give him the number? Not as far as we know. Was Collier beaten up? No?
Leave Boris out of it. He’s OK.
Meanwhile the EU is robbing us blind and taking us into the USSR 2.0. Never mind though, lets just moan about Murdoch and have a big circus shall we? Nothing to see here, move along now.
Hang on a minute…..wasn’t Darius Guppy one of Earl Spencer’s mates? I think he was Best Man at his first wedding.
I thought Guppy played for Liecster in the late 90s?
Blimey Bill, did he? He doesn’t look the type. Bit of a wimp.
You do a great job Guido, but as others have pointed out, your supposition is easily defeated. Not only that but it was 21 frigging years ago, and nobody gives a toss about toff on toff, except maybe a toff.
Sort of, ‘Toff on crime, toff on the causes of crime’ ?????
Time that tiresome sanctimonious twat Miliband got some kicking for his po faced hypocrisy.
Come on Guido time to rally and get back at the triumphalist behemoth the BBC and its tiny mate the Guardian.
It seems like yesterday, is it really 21 years ago?
Im surprised BJ had the time. surely he was otherwise engaged BJ-ing totty??
the totti was bj-ing him!
Reverse telephone directories were available to the public for a few years, I still have mine somewhere! I believe I bought it around the year 2000. It might be called something like UK Info-Pro or similar. They were stopped after a year or two because vulnerable people who were too thick to hide their numbers were being traced by people who were up to no good.
+1
I had one, too. I think someone in Malta, of all places, was doing them.
Guido, probably Boris was just stringing him along to get him off the phone! You know how you have a friend who hates her boyfriend and she says let’s pinch his credit card and go on a spending spree, will you help me nick it. You say Oh great idea, of course! you have absolutely no intention of doing anything, you just want her to feel better or shut up.
Like a gang of thieves when justice looms, each will now stab the other as all the big talk and false promises of a decade collapse into recrimination and malevolence.
Maybe he just rang them and asked for their address?
While the Police Computer is amazingly easy to access, if you can get at an authorised terminal, your assumption of Police involvement is most likely erroneous.
Having worked with the Police AND BT, on communications security, I have certain insights into the hows and whys.
At this stage, all I am prepared to say is that, according to OFCOM (for and with whom I have worked at various stages of my worling life) 95% of Telephone Fraud (the general lable for the hacking and blagging, among other crimes) is committed by TELEPHONE ENGINEERS AND OPERATIVES!
Whilst BT et al would like us to believe that they have a firm grip on subscriber security, it is untrue!………. and most of the insecutities lie in the stranglehold their UNIONS have on Procedures!
Using BT personnel as a conduit is far less risky than using a Cop!……… but the Official Secrets Act prevents me from providing a full explanation……….