John Simkin

I have just finished a page on another member of the Eagle House group. Vera Holme was open about her lesbianism. In August 1909, she was appointed as Pankhurst's chauffeur. The author of The Pankhursts (2001): "It is probable that Vera Holme had learnt to drive as a result of touring the provinces with a theatrical company; since driving tests had not been invented the chief requirement was a capacity to cope with the frequent mechanical breakdowns and to deal with horse traffic."

In 1911 Vera Holme began living with Eveline Haverfield. On the outbreak of the First World War, Holme supported the decision by Emmeline Pankhurst, to help Britain's war effort. In 1914 Haverfield founded the Women's Emergency Corps, an organisation which helped organize women to become doctors, nurses and motorcycle messengers. Holme was commissioned as a major in the Women's Emergency Corps and in 1915 she was placed in charge of horses and trucks in the Scottish Women's Hospital Units sent to Serbia.

Eveline Haverfield died of pneumonia in 1920. In her will she left Vera Holme £50 a year for life. She went to live Margaret Greenless and Margaret Ker. She also spent a lot of time with Edith Craig, Clare Atwood and Christabel Marshall, who had formed a permanent ménage à trois at their home at The Priest's House, Tenterden. It was Craig who gave Vera Holme the nickname "Jacko". Other visitors included Radclyffe Hall, Una Troubridge, Vera Holme, Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf.

Here is a photograph of Vera Holme with a girlfriend in the 1920s.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WholmeV.htm

"So far, I have only dealt with the evidence which was available to the Commission and which has since been published. But of course there is also evidence which did not come before the Commission: evidence which the Commission did not think worth hearing, or which the "existing agencies" did not think worth bringing to its notice, or the agencies concerned did not wish to transmit.

Such evidence is necessarily rather less effective than the evidence actually submitted to the Commission. It has not been tested in some way; it is unsworn; and the characters of the witnesses have not been so clearly brought out. Nevertheless, it cannot be rejected out of hand. The mere fact that the Commission heard a witness does not necessarily make his evidence more credible than that of a witness who has not been heard, and indeed much of the testimony which was heard was of very little value."

Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper

Peter, do you have a full-copy of the introduction?

It is the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the City of Benares by the German Navy. As a result, 81 child evacuees died.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWbernares.htm

Wyndham Robinson is an under-rated political cartoonist from the 1930s. In 1932 Robinson was appointed as the political cartoonist for The Morning Post. During the Great Depression he became a strong critic of the government of Ramsay MacDonald. In one cartoon published on 31st July 1933, Robinson's compared MacDonald's inactivity with that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. He also portrayed Stanley Baldwin as disinterested in the subject. The same cartoon could be used today with David Cameron in the hut.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTrobinsonW.htm

I went along to the Chelsea game on Saturday without any great expectations.

For once I sat at the right end (or wrong end ?) as I had a good view of 3 of the goals scored. I also had a great view of Piquionne's miss from about yard. More of that later.

I don't know if I've mellowed with age but the verbal abuse that Drogba received when he trotted over to take an early corner seemed a bit unneccesary. He had the last laugh when Essian got on the end of his cross to give Chelsea an early lead.

Worse was to quickly follow when Drogba ignored more verbal onslaughts to fire in a dipping free kick which Green fumbled. Upson inexplicably kicked the rebound against Malouda which sent the ball looping over Green to make it 2-0. Upson had time to clear the ball anywhere other than where he did. It really is alarming how West Ham have contrived to give the opposition headstarts in recent times.

Nobody ever seems to return the favour ...

From then on West Ham did manage to rally a bit and for long periods of the game were certainly a match for Chelsea, although they could have gone further ahead when Mikel hit the bar as Green looked on rooted to the spot.

I really don't know if Cole was offside or not just before half time but it was a well worked move which he finished off nicely only for the lino to raise his flag. If we'd gone in 1-2 it would have been a big lift.

As it was in the second half Chelsea were content to sit back as West Ham buzzed around without ever looking like scoring.

When Chelsea did eventually press forward Green produced a couple of outstanding saves to keep the lead down to just 2.

Finally Essian got on the end of a good cross to make it 3-0 and that really should have been that... but West Ham heads didn't drop and Parker pulled one back with a deft lob from the edge of the area.

Cue Piquionne's extraordinary miss on 90 minutes. From where I was sat Illunga's cross eluded everybody. Cole didn't get a touch, Cech was beaten and the ball was about to curl nicely into the back of the net when up popped Piquionne to head the ball up and onto the cross bar.

2-3 would have flattered West Ham at that point but as Everton showed earlier in the day flattery gets you everywhere.

I wandered away from Upton Park feeling the team are beginning to get things together and will start to get some points on the board soon. At times they performed very well against a Chelsea side that are currently sweeping all before them. However, they've got to start games more brightly (Chelsea caught our defense cold early on ) and hopefully Green's second half display will restore his confidence.

Hang in there everybody...

I saw the game on Sky on Saturday night. The performance was much, much, better than against Manchester United. I think the team is better than last year. Grant is also a better manager than Zola. I fully expect us to eventually get out of the relegation places as I think there are at least three teams in the league worse than us.

I thought Jacobsen looked solid (a great improvement over Spector). I would like to see Dyer start instead of Boa Morte. Parker and Noble make a good partnership at the centre of midfield and I think Cole and Obinna will eventually make a good partnership. My biggest concern is over the form of Behrami. He looked completely out of form and I disliked his constant fouling.

I am in desperate need of help or feedback, from an administrator on the forum regarding my sudden inability to post anything more than two paragraphs, although

I am not a computer guru, I have managed to contribute over 1,800 posts in the JFK Debate without too much trouble, and all of a sudden, [no I have not changed

anything on my computer, that would affect how it interacts with the forum, although I do use APPLE MAC OS X] I cannot post anything over 2 paragraphs without the

remainder, simply not showing up at all in the thread.

If you are an administrator and read this please contact me, to help me resolve this issue.

Even if there is not technically a new format, anyone with eyes can see changes in how the forum looks, and apparently functions different

than say weeks before this thread was started.

I am certainly not imagining the serious difficulties I am having, which, if left unremedied, would leave me no recourse

other than to no longer post on the forum.

I cannot understand what can be causing this problem. I always write by contributions in "Word" and then paste it into the box. I have never had any problems doing it that way.

Telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and George Smathers (2.10 pm, 23rd November, 1963)

Lyndon B. Johnson: Tell me, what is the situation on the tax bill? I am going to meet with the Cabinet at two-thirty and...

George Smathers: ... I made a deal, just confidentially . . . that Ribicoff and Long and myself and Fulbright would vote against any motion to take the bill away from the Chairman... He would agree to... close the hearing... Now, I asked them the other day what Byrd was really trying to accomplish. It's to hold up the tax bill until he could prove that Kennedy was going to have the budget... over $100 billion. So he could then argue, you know, that we are financing these tax amendments with debt. So I... told him that... if we, the President would come out and tell him now in December what he thought his budget was going to be, would Byrd cooperate and help them to get the clearance in the Executive Session over with?... He said, "I don't have any problem." . . . Now at the last legislative breakfast - you were not there - I very strongly said that I thought we had enough votes on the floor to pass the tax bill this year. But.. we were going to have to go around Harry Byrd in the committee... I don't know if you want to do it or not, but the smart thing to do, in light of developments, would be for you to get the appropriation bill through real quick and then just...

Lyndon B. Johnson: No, no, I can't do that. That would destroy the party and destroy the election, and destroy everything. We've got to carry on. We can't abandon this fellow's program, because he is a national hero and there are going to be those people want his program passed and we've got to keep this Kennedy aura around us through this election.

George Smathers: Yeah. Well, in that connection... I had a most interesting visit with Hubert last night, after we met with you. He invited me over to his office to have a drin... Hubert and I think that the new President has just got to have a liberal running with him as VP candidate and - I am just speaking for myself - I think, my God, that most of the Southerners would be for Hubert... He was not at .all averse to the idea... He jumps for it... I says, "Can you hold Joe an... Paul and can you keep them lined up?" And he said, "I'm sure I can. This is going to be the problem.... They are going to try to make the new President look immediately like he is an old Texas oilman and... he is now the President of everybody."

Does anyone have the phone number or email address for Gil Jesus, the JFK researcher who posts a lot on You Tube? I and a lot of other researchers are trying to track down the source for this BLOCKBUSTER nugget:

Just before John Kennedy headed to Dallas he had a conversation with his good friend Florida Senator George Smathers; here is how it went:

George Smathers is a much ignored figure in the case. See this thread:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1113

This subject has been dealt with in great detail here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5945

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKarbenz.htm

Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) is probably the most important political blogger in the UK:

http://order-order.com/

He is a right-wing Tory that usually concentrates on Labour Party scandals. However, like other right-wing extremists he is also homophobic and recently broke the William Hague story. Even that might have been an attempt to direct attention from the important political scandal of the moment, the Andy Coulson phone-hacking story. This is a story that Staines has been unwilling to contribute. In fact, his main role in this matter is to smear those who have come forward to provide evidence that Coulson was guilty of phone-hacking. He has been especially harsh on Chris Bryant, the gay Labour MP who is taking legal action against the News of the World for hacking his phone. He is one person who will not settle out of court.

Yesterday it was the turn of Paul McMullan to come under fire from Staines. McMullan gave an interview to the Guardian claiming that Andy Coulson was aware of phone-hacking when he worked under him at the News of the World.

Staines posted on his blog yesterday: “Coulson Cleared: Well not quite, but Channel 4 News have certainly put The Guardian in a tricky spot. The paper’s strategy is to drip out one former Screws hack every day to keep the story alive, but it seems that they are grasping at straws already:

“Paul McMullan told the Guardian newspaper this morning that David Cameron’s communications chief “would certainly be well aware that the practice was pretty widespread,” but Channel 4 News has learnt from the former features executive that he left the paper in 2001, two years before Mr Coulson became its chief.”

What Staines failed to tell his readers is that this item did not appear on Channel 4 News because by the time it went out at 7 pm they realised it was they who had made the mistake. McMullan was employed by the News of the World from May 2000. He worked under Andy Coulson, who was deputy editor at the time, for 18 months. Channel 4 News and Paul Staines had failed to acknowledge that Coulson was deputy editor before he took the top job.

The strangest aspect of this case was why did David Cameron employ Andy Coulson as his Director of Communications, only six months after he was forced to resign because of the strong suspicion that he had ordered journalists to hack the phones of politicians. This straight away illustrated that Cameron was willing to engage in dirty tricks in order to win the next election.

Could it be that Cameron had no choice in the matter? Is Cameron being blackmailed by Coulson? I suspect that the private detectives employed by Coulson were not only getting information for the News of the World but was also getting the dirt on Labour MPs for Conservative Party headquarters. If that is the case, can you imagine what impact this would have on the public if this information came out in court.

This theory became even more credible with the news yesterday that the only Tory on the phone hacking list was Boris Johnson. Cameron was at Eton with Johnson and the two have been deadly rivals ever since. Cameron believes that Johnson has the potential to challenge him for the leadership of the party.

Evidence that the government is rattled by the Coulson story was the announcement made by George Osborne of 4bn extra welfare cuts. This was not even discussed with other members of the cabinet. The only reason for the announcement was to take the Coulson story off the front pages. It did but this is a story that will not go away. Although it is extremely unlikely that Cameron will ever be named as being one of those who commissioned the phone hacking, it will do him long-term damage and will definitely tarnish his image as “Mr. Clean”.

It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.

Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.

OK. I'll take a risk here and say something positive about Gerald Posner. I came across him several years ago and was not the least bit shy in telling him what a sleaze I thought he was, in fact I was abusive. He AND his wife were so damn nice to me that I calmed down and we had a very interesting conversation. We agreed on nothing; but his demeanor and attitude were quite a surprise. That's as positive as I can get.

He is also charming in his emails. He has told me several times that he intends to join the forum in a "few weeks" but he never does.

The myth that he sucked off "Lady Birds" wealth to rise to power was very self - serving indeed.

In fact he used her wealth as a cover for his corruption. For example, the radio station in Texas that he got his bribed money to be paid into was in her name.

I fail to see what this case has to do with the JFK assassination. It seems more about smearing the Kennedy family than anything to do with the assassination.

John, this article is in the Political Conspiracies section - not the JFK assassination.

So we are therefore talking about the Kennedy conspiracy?

I have just come across this fascinating account of schooling in London in the early 1870s. It comes from the trade union leader, Harry Gosling's autobiography, Up and Down Stream (1927):

I went to school at Marlborough Street, now known as Grey Street in the New Cut, Waterloo Road. The school was under the British and Foreign School Society, but when the Education Act of 1870 was passed it was taken over by the School Board and rebuilt, and for the first time in his life the head master had an assistant. When I went to school at the age of five he was in sole command of two hundred and fifty boys of all ages. He appears to me now as a kind of chairman of a permanent mass meeting.

I wish I could get a plan of the old building; it would surprise people nowadays. It was just a long, narrow hall with no classrooms or partitions even. At one end there was a raised platform running the whole width of the hall with about eight steps on each side leading up to it and a long rail in front. In the middle of the platform stood a desk at which the master sat, and always with his cane under his arm. The forms at which we sat were fixed to the floor and had no backs. They had little desks in front of them, about half the width of the slates we wrote on. The seats were very narrow, and if one did not sit well forward it was easy to catch a crab. No paper was used in my time. Boys cleaned their slates by spitting on them and rubbing them with their caps or sleeves. There was no other way of doing it. A few of the scholars from particularly respectable homes had a little sponge tied on to their slates, but their parents must have been well in advance of the times; also, the sponges never lasted long. A gangway ran down each side of the building. Right in the centre was a closed-in stove for heating purposes. There was no other source of heat. When we stayed for dinner, as we sometimes did, we used to get a beer can and boil chestnuts in it when they were in season.

Across one corner of the school building ran a gallery for the accommodation of the very small boys. I have often wondered since what those very small boys ever learned on that gallery. My only recollection is of a big boy looking after them. Every Friday afternoon, year in year out, the master used to place a chair in front of the stove and one of the best readers would stand up on it and read. One-half of the boys turned round to lean against their desks and the selected boy read aloud from some standard book. When he had done his bit, he passed the book to another good reader, and so on, for the boys did not have a copy each as they have now. In the meantime the master walked round with his cane. Naturally the dilatory and ignorant boys were not very interested in the reading, and especially on hot days were inclined to fall asleep. When this happened the master would get a glass of water, dip his cane into it, and let the water drip into the boy's ear. Not a single boy dared to laugh at this quaint form of punishment.

The master was a very keen sportsman and taught the boys cricket. As there was no playground, and, by the way, no playtime either, we practised before and after school hours in one of the five-foot gangways that ran down the hall, with a soft ball and three stumps fixed in a block of wood.

He also taught us to read the Bible, this being practically the only religious instruction given. It was his boast that he never had a difficulty with parents on religious matters, though this was a frequent problem in those days.When I was monitor I sometimes took charge of the gallery and in this way avoided the necessity of doing home lessons. The fees for attending the school were twopence per week for ordinary classes and fourpence for the first class. If a pupil did not bring the fee with him he was sent home for it. The curriculum consisted of reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography. There was also a voluntary singing class to which we contributed a halfpenny per week.

Every Guy Fawkes Day the master rigged up a little toy cannon on his desk and fired it off. The boys gave three cheers and sang the National Anthem after he had related the story. There was what would now be called a thoroughly good tone in the school, for the great thing Mr. Strong taught us was to "play the game," and sneaking was not thought of. Before dispersing on Friday afternoons the scholars always sang:

"Childhood years are passing over us, youthful days will soon be gone. Cares and sorrows lie before us, hidden dangers, snares unknown."

A solemn peep into an adventurous yet gloomy future!

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUgosling.htm

I fail to see what this case has to do with the JFK assassination. It seems more about smearing the Kennedy family than anything to do with the assassination.

John Yates, the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, announced today that he intends to interview Sean Hoare and Andy Coulson. I would also suggest he also interviews Andy Hayman, who carried out the original investigation, about his relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

He also needs to interview the following News of the World journalists: Ross Hall (transcribed illegally-hacked phone messages); Neville Thurlbeck (News of the World chief reporter who appears on compromising emails and memos); Sharon Marshall (News of the World reporter who told the New York Times that she witnessed phone hacking whilst working for the newspaper) and Matt Driscoll (News of the World journalist who claimed he was shown private phone records belonging to Rio Ferdinand by a senior editor).

There is a strange confession in Tony Blair’s memoirs, A Journey (2010). At the beginning of April 1994, when John Smith was leader of the Labour Party, Blair was staying in a hotel in Paris. Blair writes:

I remember waking up the first morning and then waking Cherie. I said to her “If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon (Brown). And somehow I think this will happen. I just think it will.”

The following month, on 12th May, the 56 year-old John Smith died of a heart-attack. Later that day, Blair, according to his memoirs, bumps into Peter Mandelson:

“Peter” I said, “you know I love you, but this is mine. I am sure of it. And you must help me do it.”

As Craig Brown has pointed out:

“The echoes of Jesus saying “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build my church” are creepy and unavoidable.

Peter Mandelson agrees to change sides and abandons Gordon Brown, the favourite to takeover from John Smith. What is more, he spreads rumours amongst Labour MPs that Brown, like Mandelson is a homosexual and that this information will be used against him by the press during the next General Election if he becomes leader of the party. This frightens the Labour MPs into supporting Blair as leader. Brown withdrew from the contest and quickly finds himself a woman to marry. He also receives a promise from Blair that he will replace him as prime minister if he wins the 1997 General Election (a promise that he did not fulfil until 2007).

Blair might try to convince his readers that the prediction of John Smith’s death came from God. However, I suspect that this information came from another source. Maybe it came from a fellow member of MI5? Maybe the death of John Smith needs to be investigated.

There is a strange confession in Tony Blair’s memoirs, A Journey (2010). At the beginning of April 1994, when John Smith was leader of the Labour Party, Blair was staying in a hotel in Paris. Blair writes:

I remember waking up the first morning and then waking Cherie. I said to her “If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon (Brown). And somehow I think this will happen. I just think it will.”

The following month, on 12th May, the 56 year-old John Smith died of a heart-attack. Later that day, Blair, according to his memoirs, bumps into Peter Mandelson:

“Peter” I said, “you know I love you, but this is mine. I am sure of it. And you must help me do it.”

As Craig Brown has pointed out:

“The echoes of Jesus saying “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build my church” are creepy and unavoidable.

Peter Mandelson agrees to change sides and abandons Gordon Brown, the favourite to takeover from John Smith. What is more, he spreads rumours amongst Labour MPs that Brown, like Mandelson is a homosexual and that this information will be used against him by the press during the next General Election if he becomes leader of the party. This frightens the Labour MPs into supporting Blair as leader. Brown withdrew from the contest and quickly finds himself a woman to marry. He also receives a promise from Blair that he will replace him as prime minister if he wins the 1997 General Election (a promise that he did not fulfil until 2007).

Blair might try to convince his readers that the prediction of John Smith’s death came from God. However, I suspect that this information came from another source. Maybe it came from a fellow member of MI5? Maybe the death of John Smith needs to be investigated.

Dr. Nicholas Hunt, the doctor who carried out the post-mortem on Dr. David Kelly, faces a formal investigation after making 14 mistakes in his report on the death of an airman in Afghanistan, including wrongly recording his height, weight, hair and eye colour. It seems that the man is completely incompetent. Maybe that is why he was chosen to carry out the post-mortem of Kelly.

It seems that he was MI5's leading expert at getting information from other people's computers. He was part of a secretive "cell" that created devices that can steal data from mobiles and laptops.

His body was also covered in a liquid that accelerates decay and complicates toxicology tests. It seems that only intelligence services have access to this liquid.

The strangest aspect of this case was why did David Cameron employ Andy Coulson as his Director of Communications, only six months after he was forced to resign because of the strong suspicion that he had ordered journalists to hack the phones of politicians. This straight away illustrated that Cameron was willing to engage in dirty tricks in order to win the next election.

Could it be that Cameron had no choice in the matter? Is Cameron being blackmailed by Coulson? I suspect that the private detectives employed by Coulson were not only getting information for the News of the World but was also getting the dirt on Labour MPs for Conservative Party headquarters. If that is the case, can you imagine what impact this would have on the public if this information came out in court.

While I was travelling back from Calvi in Corsica on Sunday I noticed that one of my fellow passengers was Justine Greening, the MP for Putney and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury in David Cameron's government. I decided to have a bit of fun at her expense. I stood behind her and her girlfriend at baggage reclaim. I then began to talk to my partner about what I knew about William Hague's sexual past. She was so busy listening to me that she missed her suitcase going past her. I suppose I should have asked her if she had been sharing a bed with her girlfriend in Calvi (she was very attractive, unlike Miss Greening).

http://www.conservatives.com/People/Members_of_Parliament/Greening_Justine.aspx

News Corporation has at last replied to the allegations made in the Guardian. They have now admitted that they did pay Gordon Taylor and two other men, over £1 million over the hacking into mobile phones. This seems very generous of them as they have also said that journalists working for the organization have not hacked into anybody’s phones other than that involving Clive Goodman and the royal family.

This admission also shows that Les Hinton, the chairman of News International, lied when he told a parliamentary committee that he had carried out a full investigation into the case and he was convinced that Goodman had been acting alone. The same goes for Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, when he claimed that his investigation showed that other News of the World journalists were not involved in phone hacking.

It has also been revealed that Stuart Kuttner, the managing editor of the News of the World, approved all payments to Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective used in phone hacking. He resigned last week, however, News Corporation is claiming that this has nothing to do with phone hacking.

The real struggle over the next few weeks will be to get the High Court to the unsealing of the documents that were used to establish that the News of the World did illegally hack into Gordon Taylor’s phone. Even when the sealing of documents that prove illegal activity has taken place, courts are reluctant to act in these cases. It seems that police cover-ups have to be protected at all costs. After all, we cannot be allowed to know that we have a corrupt police-force.

The House of Commons Select Committee will try to get the police to release all the evidence they have on how News Corporation journalists obtained information by hacking into people’s phones. Apparently, parliament does not have the power to do this and as it will reveal police corruption, they are unlikely to approve this request.

One suggestion is the police were blackmailed into restricting their investigation into phone-hacking. It would not be surprising to discover that journalists working for News Corporation hold on senior figures at the Metropolitan Police.

It might be worth summarising this story so far.

August 2005: Private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, is secretly paid by the News of the World, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, to hack into the phone messages of Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

November 2005: The News of the World royal editor, Clive Goodman, commissions Glen Mulcaire to hack into the phone messages of staff at St. James’s Palace. Stories appear in Murdoch newspapers about Prince William that the royal family conclude that must have come from intercepting their telephone calls.

December 2005: The Royal Family communicate their suspicions to Scotland Yard. Andy Hayman leads the investigation into the possibility of the staff at St. James’s Palace and members of the royal family having their phone messages hacked. Hayman, the Metropolitan Police Service's Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, a role which placed him in overall charge of counter-terrorism operations. It seems that this suggests that initially, the police thought the phone hacking was being carried out by terrorists.

April 2006: Hayman discovers that the hacking of the royal telephones was being done by the News of the World.

August 2006: Hayman and his officers come to the conclusion that the News of the World has been hacking the phones of a large number of people. A memo dated 8th August stated that the “investigation was likely to reveal a vast array of offending behaviour”. However, it was decided to “focus on a discrete area of offending relating to JLP and HA.” This is a reference to Jamie Lee Pinkerton (JLP) and Helen Asprey (HA), two members of the royal staff.

October 2006: The Metropolitan Police Service raid the offices of the News of the World and arrest Clive Goodman. However, the search-warrant is restricted to Goodman’s desk. This enabled others working at the newspaper to destroy incriminating information. One journalist in the building at the time, described seeing two senior members of staff removing “black bin bags full of paperwork from their office desks”. The police also arrest Glenn Mulcaire. They also have search-warrants for the homes of Goodman and Mulcaire. According to the Guardian this included the mobile phone numbers of 2,978 people as well as 30 audiotapes of voicemail messages and 91 secret PINs for accessing voicemail for the minority of people who change their factory-set PIN. The police recorded at the time that “a vast number of unique voicemail numbers belonging to high-profile individuals (politicians, celebrities) have been identified as being accessed without authority.”

November 2006: Goodman and Mulcaire admit conspiracy to intercept calls “without lawful authority”. Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, denies knowing about the telephone hacking. At the time, several former editors go on record as saying this is unbelievable as the News of the World would not have published these stories without knowing where the information had come from.

January 2007: Goodman sentenced to four months in prison. Mulcaire gets six months. Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, resigns, still claiming he knew nothing about the phone hacking.

July 2007: Andy Coulson is appointed by David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, as his Director of Communications.

Over the next few months members of Metropolitan Police Service began leaking information of the phone hacking to the victims. This included Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, Max Clifford, a press agent for several stars and football agent, Sky Andrew, whose clients include Sol Campbell and Jermain Defoe.

December 2007: Andy Hayman is forced to resign from the Metropolitan Police following allegations about expense claims and alleged improper conduct with a female member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and a female Sergeant. He was also heavily criticised by the IPCC over the mistaken shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station on 22 July 2005.

January 2008: Andy Hayman is employed by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, as a columnist. The very organisation that he failed to investigate properly in 2006. In other words, this is his payoff for not arresting Andy Coulson and other senior figures at the News of the World.

In July 2009 News Corporation paid Gordon Taylor and two other men, over £1 million over the hacking into mobile phones. This was followed by another £1 million to Max Clifford. These cases were settled out of court and so no details have been revealed about who was behind this hacking. There is an estimated 20 other cases pending. Hopefully, some of these people will insist that the evidence is presented in court.

In September 2010 the New York Times claims it has interviewed several journalists who worked for the New York Times who claim that Andy Coulson knew all about the phone hacking. However, only one of these witnesses, Sean Hoare, is named. A smear campaign is launched against Hoare who is described as someone who was sacked for drink and drug problems.