Gordon Brown phone-hacking inquiry halted by civil service ("Too sensitive" before 2010 election)

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, blocked attempt by former PM to hold judicial inquiry into phone-hacking allegations
Nicholas Watt, Patrick Wintour and Dan Sabbagh | Sunday April 10 2011 22.15 BST

Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, blocked an attempt by Gordon Brown before the general election to hold a judicial inquiry into allegations that the News of the World had hacked into the phones of cabinet ministers and other high-profile figures.

As News International prepares to pay compensation to victims of the illegal practice, the Guardian understands that Britain's most senior civil servant took steps to prevent an inquiry on the grounds that it would be too sensitive before last year's general election.

The then prime minister, who warned Peter Mandelson in 2009 that his phone had been hacked on behalf of the News of the World, wanted a judicial inquiry after new evidence of the illegal practice emerged that summer.

=snip=

The revelations were of acute political sensitivity because Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World between 2003 and 2007, was by then David Cameron's communications director. Coulson was asked to appear before the Commons culture select committee after the publication of the Guardian disclosures.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/10/gordon-brown-hacking-inquiry-civil-service

---

Related OP from January: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4704969">Andy Coulson resigns as David Cameron's director of communications

Was Sir Gus O'Donnell - an unelected official - trying to protect David Cameron's chances in the 2010 election? It appears so.

The article goes on to state that he told Brown... "...it would be inappropriate to hold a judicial inquiry so soon before the election. Coulson was by then one of the most senior members of Cameron's inner circle and was appointed as the Downing Street director of communications after the general election."

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Yeh..can't have none of those "consequences" thingy's happening, right?

[Demeter]

2. Co-opted cowards

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Despite this delay, don't you think that this is being handled more

expeditiously than it would have been handled in the US? I mean, once law enforcement has been bribed, we would never have heard about it. It's probably going on in this country to this day.

Meaning, that the U.S. has become the old U.S.S.R.

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R n/t

[TheMadMonk]

5. "Yes Minister."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister

nuff said.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. My first thought was

Sir Humphrey still has his hands on the reins of power.