Should David Cameron resign?

[Gritt23]

However, he was warned about Coulson, so hindsight has little to do with this. And he's best chums with Brooks.

It's a tricky one for him, no doubt, but clearly not a resignation issue for me.

Coulson, was a dangerous appointment in the first place, he was warned, but the desire to get the red tops on side seemed to be the deciding factor.
Brooks is a bit different, as I believe they are friends, but that comes largely from the fact they are near neighbours, and clearly have some very obvious cross-overs in their professional lives as well. I would be amazed if they weren't friends.

However, Cameron can't really be accused of being guilty of very much "by association".

The issue for me is yet to come, and that's how "soft" politicians of all parties may have been on the press down the years due to a veiled threat of being the subject of investigations, allegations, and a red top campaign if they crossed them.

 

[CHAPPERS]

No, though I think he needs to be taking a little harder line here.

 

[Forster's Armband]

And go back to the mess we were in when Labour left...yer right!

You sound like a Tory MP! Boo hoo it was all someone elses fault. I am not excusing Blair and Brown I am dealing with the question. We now have a government that are sooooooo out of touch with us citizens its unreal. Also it's not just a bad judgement call Cameron was aligning himself with Murdochm about to let him take over Sky (totally unacceptable monoply) and is good friends with Brookes. This is the tip of the iceberg for Cameron and NI. The tories are and always have been the same, they are making more of a mess of the mess Labour left and selling us normal folk down the river. People who don't realise this need to wake up SOON!

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

David Cameron looks like a freshly wanked penis.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Cameron is going to be on very thin ice if he doesn't display a stronger line on Brookes, personally I hate the sucking up to press leaders by ALL party leaders, but it's the here and now - Cameron is the PM and is in very close circles with the big players here, Brookes and Coulson, and his reticence to condemn them stinks.

You ain't wrong there mikey, top post. I've little doubt that Diddy Dave will have a very strong team of schemers to hand who'll manage to spin him into the clear, but there must be a number of embittered (& soon-to-be unemployed) NOTW Journo's who have a whole box of dirt to dish...

 

[mikeyjh]

see Peter Oborne's piece in the Telegraph yesterday

In case you missed it:- David Cameron is in the sewer because of his News International friends Telegraph Blogs

 

[paddy]

Someone remind me who Ed's Director of Communications is... that's right Mr Tom Baldwin, a former employee of News International who himself has been accused of being involved in hacking. The whole political elite are guilty of getting to close to News International and Cameron resigning is going to get us absolutely nowhere. What we need, and what Murdoch is truly afraid of, if a full review of media practices in this country and the replacement of the Press Complaints Commission with a body that actually has some teeth. If history teaches us anything, it's that simply changing the prime minister is not going to be sufficient to get rid of Murdoch's influence.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Yes

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

No, he should be voted out, although that doesn't happen very often, just two since 1979 and one of those was still hanging on to power for a few days after the election.

and as long as Labour have their version of Ian Duncan-Smith as leader and the Libdems do everything possible to make the public hate them, its not going to happen for a while yet.

This Coulson thing is pretty weak to get at Cameron over, however, its the NOTW, Coulson himself and a load of other media bods who should be strung up here. But in our country its the media who dish out justice, so I'm not over hopeful

 

[Albion Dan]

I look at the disaster the condems are becoming and hope that it may not last too much longer, then I hear the leader of the Labour party speak and my heart sinks.

 

[sten_super]

In case you missed it:- David Cameron is in the sewer because of his News International friends Telegraph Blogs

Thanks, I hadn't seen that previously. I could not disagree more strongly with most of that article, despite probably being amongst the Telegraph's target market. I think Cameron deserves criticism for his decision to hire Coulson, but it is simply a mistake of judgement. I think Peter Oborne is being extremely naive, or more likely deliberately obtuse, in that he doesn't state that I would imagine anyone with any degree of power in this country is on first name terms with Rupert Murdoch and the powers-that-be at News International. Someone has already posted about Milliband's connections with News International (and the News of the World, no less). Does anyone believe that Brown and Blair before him did not have similar connections?

There are two things I take issue with, in the article and the topic generally.
1) I don't like the close connections that the media (and especially large media groups like News International) have with the the power brokers in this country. But I wouldn't limit that to Cameron; if you want him to disclose all meetings with people from the media, make all MPs do it. It's unrealistic to expect one person (or a select group) of people to be whiter-than-white while the rest of their profession aren't; all you are going to do then is force this contact underground.
2) Why does this matter? The angle for the media clearly is that, because Cameron made this error of judgement he is seemingly of questionable character, and what other errors of judgement has he made? But that's politics for simpletons. Don't force people out for minor mistakes, don't hold them to a greater account than we hold ourselves; judge him on the job that he's doing. Our political system already does that, and if he gets voted out at the next election I would hope it's because people didn't believe in what he was doing, that his economic and political plan was working, not because 'he's a bit of a smarmy git'. The way this horrific misbehaviour from a select number of journalists is being reflected onto politicians stinks of gutter politics.

 

[keaton]

This... and the ridiculously embarrassing 'Cool Britannia' when they sucked up to the likes of the Gallagher brothers.

Good point, inviting some musicians to your party is definetely the same

 

[Shooting Star]

Would love him to piss off and see the whole ConDem thing collapse but it wont happen. Also I am afraid we need a stronger Labour leader to put the boot into these Tory dickheads.

Absolutely this.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Call me a silly middle aged fool but I'd rather DC waited for the results of the ongoing investigations before condemning any individual. If Brookes and Coulson are found guilty of something then by all means the PMs judgement should be called into question - especially if he doesn't condemn them. Until then I will reserve judgement but no doubt the NSC kangaroo court will continue to pass knee jerk comment.

 

[MattBackHome]

Good point, inviting some musicians to your party is definetely the same

Think Mick Hucknall might have been there as well that night. Now there's an error of judgement.

 

[Superphil]

Of course Blair and Brown did nothing to court favour did they ?.

They were complete and utter ***** of the highest order. Why should Cameron resign? He hired someone, but at least he got rid of him. Blair kept hiring and re-hiring Mandleson, and he was a far worse piece of conniving shite than anyone else I can ever remember in politics.

 

[readingstockport]

They were complete and utter ***** of the highest order. Why should Cameron resign? He hired someone, but at least he got rid of him. Blair kept hiring and re-hiring Mandleson, and he was a far worse piece of conniving shite than anyone else I can ever remember in politics.

Jeffrey Archer?

 

[simmo]

They were complete and utter ***** of the highest order. Why should Cameron resign? He hired someone, but at least he got rid of him. Blair kept hiring and re-hiring Mandleson, and he was a far worse piece of conniving shite than anyone else I can ever remember in politics.

I will throw in Alistair Campbell too, whose character defamation of Dr David Kelly led to him well....we all know what happened to Dr David Kelly.

 

[Triggaaar]

Kick the Tories out, get Labour in, stop the cuts and party like it's 1999. Let our children pick up the pieces, we can have a ball!

 

[Superphil]

We now have a government that are sooooooo out of touch with us citizens its unreal.

with Murdochm about to let him take over Sky (totally unacceptable monoply)

Not out of touch with me, he has made some really tough decisions, and some I don't like at all, but the alternative was far worse IMO. (BTW, I am not a Tory)

And why can one private organisation not take over another private organisation? What the f*** has it to do with you, me or anyone? It isn't a monopoly, there are other TV broadcasters, Terrestrial, Freesat, Cable, Virgin, BT, Freeview.