A real time poll conducted for this website during Piers Morgan’s witness interview in front of Lord Justice Leveson  found 96% didn’t believe him, 3% did and 1% didn’t know. Piers squirmed and squirmed throughout. Crucially he refused to explain how he came to be listening to the voicemails of Paul McCartney to his wife, citing source protection. Guido suspects that if Heather Mills or Sir Paul wanted to, they could make life very difficult for Morgan. There is no public interest defence for hacking celebs.

He claimed that it was not unethical to listen to the tapes and insisted ”I am not going to discuss where I heard it or who played it to me”, on the grounds that “I am not going to do anything that may identify the source.”

Morgan finished his evidence with the  ”Je suis un rock star” claim that he was like a rock star having the worst songs picked from his back catalogue. Some front…

Last night Guido tweeted

If Osborne doesn't risk any more British taxes to the IMF I'll run naked from the EU HQ around Smith Square on St Patrick's Day.—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) December 19, 2011

Guido reckons the spin coming from the Treasury about them saying “No” is bluster. Guido suspects they mean they are not ready to send billions to the IMF just yet…

If by St Patrick’s day Osborne has kept his promise, made to MPs on October 27, that “Britain will not be putting money into the bail-out fund either directly or through the IMF” Guido will keep his promise* and run naked around Smith Square from the EU offices right past Transport House and back. Don’t count on seeing Guido’s bare arse streaking past the daffodils on March 17…

*Iain Dale has yet to “run naked down Whitehall” as promised on election night.

Catastrophe : xmas tree knocked over while I was out, and everyone tried to pretend it didn't happen *totally rumbled the cover up*—
Sarah Brown (@SarahBrownUK) December 19, 2011

Brownite destruction? Cover up? Surely not…

Via Paul Waugh

Piers Morgan has been less than his usual fluent self since Louise Mensch messed up accusations against him. He is appearing via television link at the Leveson Inquiry this afternoon. His famous retort to Louise Mensch MP was

“I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone.”

The evidence shows he is lying. During his editorship of the Daily Mirror plenty of stories were published that were based on information obtained from phone hacking. Not only was his paper under his editorship hacking, it was illegally blagging private data on an industrial scale. The police led “Operation Motorman” investigation reveals that the Mirror Group paid private investigators some £442,878.73 to illegally procure personal data like tax records, DVLA records, medical and phone records. Invoice by invoice analysis by Guido traces sixty five invoices for potentially criminal transactions back directly to Piers Morgan’s Daily Mirror during his time as editor. A time when he told the DCMS he should be “congratulated” for cleaning up the paper and operating the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice “effectively and seriously”.

Back in August we wrote to the Leveson Inquiry putting the case for Piers Morgan to be questioned and suggested some questions on the charge sheet:

Since that time he has refused to comment on the issue, British law does not allow a witness, even one in America, to “take the fifth”, he will almost certainly try to avoid self-incrimination by evasion. This could be Piers Morgan’s most difficult interview yet…