The Telegraph’s Ben Brogan takes Adam Fleming through his morning briefing on the Daily Politics:
Before taking him to school:
Busy morning!
Looks like Mark Thompson is going to make a good go of bringing everyone else down with him when he gives evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on Monday. Thompson is accusing Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, of misleading parliament:
“The picture painted for the PAC by the BBC Trust witnesses on 10 July 2013 was – in addition to specific untruths and inaccuracies – fundamentally misleading about the extent of Trust knowledge and involvement. The BBC Trust witnesses strove repeatedly to play down the significance of the two documents which had emerged at that time, and to make misleading and inaccurate statements, all of which served to minimise and draw attention away from the Trust’s own knowledge and involvement.”
Specifically, this focuses on Patten’s claim he did not know anything about the huge payouts awarded to two BBC executives. Thompson says he is lying:
“In fact, Lord Patten was himself fully briefed, in writing as well as orally, about the Mark Byford and Sharon Baylay settlements soon after his arrival as chairman in 2011.”
Which would be a resigning issue if proven. Tory MP Rob Wilson told Guido last night:
“It is not altogether surprising that Mark Thompson and Chris Patten are fighting like ferrets in a sack. As the light has been shone into the dark corners of the BBC, people with questions to answer have began to mount campaigns to save their own skin. They’ve been caught out and it’s now become every senior executive for himself at the BBC, whether a past D-G or a current chairman of the BBC Trust. It’s all deeply disappointing and embarrassing but altogether predictable.”
Of course Thompson knows all about telling select committees one thing when the opposite turns out to be true…
Usually reliable sources tell Guido that James Kirkup is being promoted from Deputy to Political Editor for the Telegraph. Rob Winnett will go back to Telegraph Towers to shake up things as the new Head of News. Guido has noticed that of late a lot of Telegraph news stories seem to be lifted from CityAM and elsewhere…
Dan Evans is being described almost universally as a “former News of the World journalist” following the CPS’ decision to charge him with phone hacking this morning. Which is true, if slightly misleading. To what time period does that first hacking charge relate?
Charge 1:
Between 28 February 2003 and 1 January 2005, conspired with others to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority, namely the voicemail messages of well-known people and those associated with them.
Between 2003 and 2005 Evans was not working at the Screws, but at the Sunday Mirror. Who have always denied hacking ever happened…
Former Mirror and News of the World hack Dan Evans has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to hack phones, perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. Evans worked at the paper’s Sunday operation under Tina Weaver before moving to the Screws in 2005. He has been awaiting a decision for two years…
UPDATE: Crucially, the the hacking charges relate to Evans’ time at the Mirror, not the News of the World.
Dan Evans charges. Note dates charge 1 & 2 of alleged interception were when he was employed by #DailyMirror http://t.co/oVQKwshpz4
— Mark Lewis (@MLewisLawyer) September 3, 2013
After a column spanning 18 years at the Mirror, Tony Parsons has joined the Sun on Sunday. Parsons wound down his metaphorical car window outside the training ground to explain his decision:
“I am thrilled to be joining the best-selling newspaper in the country. Every footballer wants to play for Real Madrid, every actor wants to work in Hollywood. And any journalist who truly wants to reach millions of the British public wants a column in the Sun.”
Presumably on slightly less than £300,000-a-week…
