"A torrent of revelations in recent weeks has undermined confidence in the media, police and politics." A storm from which British Prime Minister David Cameron, returning from a visit to Africa, must take shelter. However, the storm front today is much closer to home than where he left it when he left, and it is the Commons, the lower house of the English Parliament. The prime minister is a flood of justifications and explanations. “People want the government to end the illegal practices and for us to act on the side of the victims,” he said. The investigation into illegal practices in the media - he assured - will involve not only the written press, but also television and social media. It will be "wide-ranging", so that we can establish what happened and "prevent it from happening again". The goal: to unravel the interweaving between the press, politics and the police.
Beyond the words, however, the facts remain. Those to whom the opposition nails Cameron: the BSkyB affair and his closeness to Andy Coulson, who ended up in handcuffs during the investigation, former director of the News of the World, Murdoch's newspaper that ended up in the storm, and spokesman for six months of Downing Street. “I made a mistake about Coulson,” the prime minister admitted for the first time. “In hindsight I never would have offered him the job and I expected he wouldn't have taken it. He learns from his mistakes, I have learned ”, assured the premier, who however says he is convinced that Coulson is innocent until proven guilty:“ I may be old-fashioned, but I still believe it ”. However – he added -, “if he proves that he lied to me, he would have to apologize to me and I would not easily accept his apologies from him”.
With regard to BskyB, Cameron defended himself thus: he could not have any responsibility – he claims – in the final decision. But no denial has been expressed about any contacts with the top management of News International with respect to the takeover bid launched by the Murdoch group on the largest satellite broadcaster in the United Kingdom. Too little for the opposition, too little to consider the premier's position secure. Ed Miliband, Labor leader hit hard: the prime minister is a prisoner of a "tragic conflict of loyalties" and "should take responsibility for him - he pressed - as did the former head of Scotland Yard, Sir Paul Stephenson ”.
