Nearly half of all voters question the prime minister's judgement following the phone-hacking scandal, a new survey reveals.
The poll comes amid new questions for David Cameron, after reports show the extent of the Cabinet ministers' meetings with News International figures.

Government information released yesterday showed chancellor George Osborne had met News International representatives 16 times since the general election. Eyebrows were also raised at education secretary Michael Gove, who had 21 meetings.

“It reveals a lot about Michael Gove’s priorities that he has found time to meet with News Corps executives 21 times since he became education secretary - including meeting Rupert Murdoch on seven separate occasions - but in his first seven months in the job he didn’t manage to visit a single sixth form college, further education college or special school," said shadow education secretary Andy Burnham.

As the documents were released Downing Street again found itself defending Ed Llewellyn, Mr Cameron's chief of staff, after it emerged that he had dinner with Neil Wallis and then Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. Mr Wallis' network of contacts in the media, Scotland Yard and Downing Street has proved problematic for several senior figures over the last few weeks.

A ComRes poll for the Independent found that all party leaders had been hit by the phone-hacking scandal - even Ed Miliband, who was widely considered to have dealt with it well - but that Mr Cameron was considerably the most damaged.

Asked whether 'David Cameron's actions over the phone hacking scandal make me question whether he has the right judgment and skills to be prime minister', 47% agreed and 44% did not.

In a finding which will cause consternation in Downing Street, 31% of people who voted for Mr Cameron also agreed with the statement.

 

Ping! It's a missive from solicitors Harbottle & Lewis. Is this a new statement about its role in the now infamous 2007 investigation into internal emails at the News of the World conducted on behalf of News International? Er, nope. Harbottle wants to share the important news that "the firm has a dedicated theatre group with over 50 years of experience in the theatre industry" and has acted for the National Theatre and Sadler's Wells. The press release continues: "The firm has been at the centre of many of the media and entertainment industries' largest and most high-profile transactions and cases, and its lawyers are recognised for some of the most pioneering work in the exploitation of digital media and content." Just don't mention those emails..

Matt "vampire squid" Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine's view on the Journal: "Seeing a Rupert Murdoch publication whine about the meanness and editorial excess of other media companies is almost indescribably hilarious. For sheer preposterousness, I struggle even to come up with credible rivals to this editorial passage. In the ballpark, maybe, is [serial killer] John Wayne Gacy's famed post-arrest complaint: 'I see myself more as victim than perpetrator. I was cheated out of my childhood.'"

Prince Andrew will give up his title as Britain's "special representative" but will continue to travel the world in a less formal role to promote UK trade, the Daily Mail reported.
He is said to have already consulted with the Queen and spoken to Downing Street about the move which comes after intense controversy over his links to an American sex offender.
It is expected that he will make an announcement about his future in the next few days.
He is reported to be preparing to take up a new role promoting the Government's drive to boost the number of apprenticeships for young people.
The Duke came under intense pressure to resign as trade envoy earlier this year over his friendship with Jeffery Epstein, the American billionaire who pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and a single charge of procuring minors for prostitution in 2008. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

 

THE damage to the reputation of News International from the phone-hacking scandal was underlined further yesterday as organisers of the London Olympics withdrew a deal giving them exclusive access to athletes.
Team 2012, a Visa-backed project supporting potential British Olympians, had signed up News International as its official partner, in a deal which would have allowed the firm's titles to bill themselves as "the official newspaper of Team 2012".

But the project declared in a statement yesterday that "as a result of the closure of News of the World the contract can no longer be fulfilled as originally envisaged".

The development is a further blow to News International which had invested heavily in a project with social media website Facebook and plans for content generated ahead of next week's one-year-to-go celebrations. Team 2012 said they were now "exploring media partnerships across a range of channels".

The blow came as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced he had asked Ofcom to explore whether News International should be forced to give up its holding in BSkyB.

Mr Clegg said Ofcom should move "quickly" to consider whether Rupert Murdoch's News International was "fit and proper" to help control a British broadcaster in the light of the phone-hacking scandal. It represents a huge turn around in fortunes for a company which only three weeks ago had seemed certain to win its battle to win complete control of BSkyB, but which now has major question marks hanging over its future.

It comes as Mr Murdoch returned to New York yesterday, facing pressure from shareholders, and the likelihood of legal action in the US as well.

An investigation into whether News Corp employees hacked phones of 9/11 victims in the US is already under way by the FBI, while bribes the company allegedly paid to British police could also violate the corrupt practices act in the US.

One legal expert, Washington lawyer James Tillen, said: "Any payments to police that were inaccurately recorded or payments to phone hackers paid from some kind of slush fund, would make it easier for the US authorities to go after News Corp."

Yesterday, there were fresh allegations that a News Corp subsidiary hacked into the computers of a New Jersey rival to steal business secrets in 2004. News America Marketing came to a $29 million settlement with marketing firm Floorgraphics. Democrat senator Frank Lautenberg yesterday wrote to FBI chief Robert Mueller and US attorney-general Eric Holder urging them to examine the case as part of their investigations into the conglomerate.

 

Scotland Yard has beefed up its team tackling phone hacking as its workload continues to grow.

Officers working on the inquiry have been been boosted from 45 to 60 after a "significant increase in the workload", Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said.

She said the move came as officers experienced a "surge of inquiries and requests for assistance from the public and solicitors" as the scandal snowballed over the last fortnight.

High Court judge has ordered police to disclose information relating to alleged hacking of the voicemail messages of Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan.

Mr Justice Vos said the Metropolitan Police should disclose details of alleged hacking by a private investigator for the News of the World.

Mr Grant and Ms Khan were not in court and the Met did not oppose the order.

Hugh Grant was among figures who led calls for a public inquiry into phone hacking by the News of the World.

During the 20-minute hearing at the High Court in London on Wednesday lawyers representing Mr Grant and Ms Khan said police had indicated their telephone messages may have been intercepted.


There is certainly interest (in my private life) but it's back to the old cliche of what is interesting to the public, and what is in the public interest”

Hugh Grant
Can celebrities expect privacy?
Mr Grant's belief he was a victim of phone hacking led him to carry out an undercover investigation on the issue for the New Statesman magazine in April.

Ms Khan recently told The Independent she had become a member of the "hacked club".

She told the paper: "I do remember noticing that voicemail messages, which I had not yet listened to, were going directly to old or saved messages.

"I assumed, as any techno-moron would, that I had simply messed up the phone settings."

After it emerged earlier this month that among the phones hacked was that of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, Mr Grant joined the Hacked Off campaign calling for a public inquiry.

The government later announced a judge-led inquiry to look at phone hacking and the wider issue of media regulation.

Hacking on 'industrial scale'
Mr Grant recently told the BBC how he secretly recorded a conversation with former News of the World journalist Paul McMullen after he "boasted" about phone hacking "on an industrial scale".

Asked if there was legitimate public interest in his private life, Mr Grant said: "There is certainly interest but it's back to the old cliche of what is interesting to the public and what is in the public interest.

"A lot of it is of interest to the public but none of it is in the public interest."

Mr Grant is one of thousands of people - from footballers, politicians and actors to "ordinary people" - whose phones are believed to have been hacked by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Several high-profile figures, including former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott, actor Jude Law, television presenter Ulrika Jonsson and retired footballer Paul Gascoigne, have launched damages claims against News Group Newspapers, publishers of News of the World.

A civil trial at the High Court is due in January.

Mr Justice Vos is due to hear evidence about several "lead claimants" at the trial and assess damages.

Several people, including actress Sienna Miller and football pundit Andy Gray, have already settled out of court.

 

Senior royal staff were "gobsmacked" over the appointment of the former News Of The World (NOTW) editor Andy Coulson by David Cameron, Sky sources have said.


Royal correspondent Paul Harrison said there were "grave concerns" within the household when Mr Coulson was taken on by Mr Cameron in 2007 when he was in opposition.
Mr Coulson was then made director of communications when Mr Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010.
The journalist resigned as editor of the NOTW in 2007 after royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for hacking the phones of royal aides.
Mr Coulson has since been arrested and questioned by detectives on the new hacking inquiry launched earlier this year.
Harrison said it was not known if the concern went up to members of the royal family or not.
Downing Street has said the claim is a "scurrilous allegation" and "complete rubbish".

Buckingham Palace said: "On no occasion did anyone from Buckingham Palace raise concerns with Downing Street."
During a debate on the phone-hacking scandal in the Commons, the PM has admitted that "with hindsight" he would never have given a job to Mr Coulson and said he is "extremely sorry" about the furore it has caused.
On Tuesday Rupert and James Murdoch were quizzed by a committee of MPs about allegations of hacking at the NOTW.
Rupert Murdoch apologised and said it was the "most humble day" of his career.
Mr Cameron has been facing demands to apologise for appointing Mr Coulson, who resigned in January.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Sky News the PM had been entitled to rely on assurances given by Mr Coulson that he had no knowledge of the practice by journalists at the paper.

James and Rupert Murdoch spoke for over three hours
"What the Prime Minister didn't have was a crystal ball that enabled him to predict all the appalling wrongdoing at the News Of The World that we now know about," he said.
"He had assurances that Andy Coulson had not just made to him but to Parliament and to the police that he knew nothing about phone hacking.
"What people will judge the Prime Minister for is 'does he show the leadership to sort out this crisis?'.
"I think what we have seen in the last couple of weeks is that he is grappling with the problem previous prime ministers have ducked for very many years."

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, on Tuesday denied responsibility for alleged phone hacking at his News of the World newspaper but admitted to a committee of MPs that the heads of his British business had failed to inform him of key developments as the scandal unfolded.
Mr Murdoch, flanked by his son James, described his appearance before the media select committee as “the most humble day of my life”.
More


He said that he was “clearly” misled by his staff after originally claiming that phone hacking was the work of a small number of rogue employees, following the first police investigation into the practice in 2007.
Questioned by Tom Watson, the Labour MP, Mr Murdoch said that he was not informed about allegations that News of the World employees made payments to police, given that News International made up only a small part of his News Corp empire. “The News of the World perhaps I lost sight of because it was so small in the general frame of our company,” he said.
“This is not as an excuse. Maybe it’s an explanation of my laxity… I employ 53,000 people around the world.”
Rupert Murdoch often struggled to hear questions and attempted to defer several answers to his son, but was prevented from doing so by questioners. Shares in News Corp rose around 4 per cent in New York at the time of the hearing, amid reports that some shareholders were pushing for Chase Carey, its chief operating officer, to replace Mr Murdoch as chief executive.
Mr Murdoch said he was informed of the conviction of Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s royal correspondent, but was not made aware of further allegations of misconduct by senior reporters, involving blackmail, and lawyers’ apparent mishandling of e-mails.
He said he was also unaware of settlement payments in the hundreds of thousands of pounds made to some victims of phone hacking, which were approved by his son James.
Further, he claimed he was unaware that a previous committee of MPs had found News International executives guilty of “collective amnesia”.
“It is revealing in itself what he doesn’t know and what executives chose to tell him,” Mr Watson said of the News Corp chief.
The phone hacking scandal has gripped the British public public, many of whom spent the afternoon grouped around televisions in pubs, and generated dozens of related messages on Twitter every second, according to Tweetminster.
James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer at News Corp and head of its international business, opened proceedings by apologising to the victims of phone hacking, although he was denied the opportunity to read out a prepared statement. “It’s a matter of great regret of mine and my father’s and everyone at News Corp.”
Quizzed over out of court settlements, he said he took the decision to sanction the payments over phone hacking in 2007 – including one of £700,000 to a hacking victim – confident that the issue had been dealt with following the arrest and prosecution of Clive Goodman, royal reporter at the News of the World, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator.

Mr Yates, who quit his job as assistant commissioner yesterday, said he saw the tabloid's former deputy editor "two or three times a year" as a friend and had been to his house to pick him up for a football match.

His comments came as departing Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said he regretted the Wallis appointment - and blamed Mr Yates for telling him two years ago that there was nothing new in the phone hacking allegations.

Mr Yates was also blamed by Scotland Yard PR chief Dick Fedorcio for giving the go-ahead for the appointment of Mr Wallis, who is now under arrest for alleged phone hacking, to a £1,000-a-day press office job with the Met.

Mr Yates hit back by saying that Mr Fedorcio was "over-egging the pudding" and should have carried out "due diligence" on Mr Wallis himself before taking him on.

The clashes came during a dramatic hearing of the Commons home affairs select committee on the scandal attended by Sir Paul, Mr Fedorcio and Mr Yates.

Asked about his links with Mr Wallis, Mr Yates replied: "I would see him two or three times a year - he's a friend. Don't get the impression we are bosom buddies going round to each other's houses. I do not go round his house on a regular basis. I think I have been round there once to pick him up for a football match."

On the decision to hire Mr Wallis, Mr Yates said that he had a phone conversation with the former deputy editor before his employment with the Met and "sought absolute assurance" that there was nothing "still being chased" by journalists over the phone hacking inquiries that could embarrass the Metropolitan Police.

He added: "We should not forget that Neil Wallis is still an innocent man."

In further evidence, Mr Yates said that the Met had offered to explain to David Cameron about the scope of the phone hacking investigation, but said that Ed Llewellyn, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, had "for whatever reason" chose not to inform Mr Cameron.

When asked why he didn't reopen the investigation into hacking in 2009, following new allegations in the Guardian, Mr Yates admitted that he had been wrong.

He said: "Why would we have done, with what we knew at the time?" He then said "we know now what we know now" and added: "God, I wish I'd done something different."

Sir Paul insisted he had had no idea that Mr Wallis might be linked to the phone hacking scandal.

In a defiant appearance before the committee two days after his resignation, Sir Paul said: "I am quite happy to say, knowing what we know now, that I regret that contract [with Wallis] because it's embarrassing. I was consulted in the procurement process but I didn't hire him. I knew nothing to his detriment."

Sir Paul quit on Sunday after it was revealed that he enjoyed a free five-week stay at Champney's health spa worth £12,000. Mr Wallis was the PR for the spa, but Sir Paul said today that he had not known of the link. He had been in pain and in a wheelchair at the time following an operation to remove a pre-cancerous tumour from his leg.

Sir Paul said he had told Mr Fedorcio to take on "additional support" because his deputy was off sick, but did not put forward Mr Wallis's name. "When Neil Wallis's name came up I would have no concerns about that," he added.

A Downing Street official told Scotland Yard to keep the Prime Minister in the dark about Mr Wallis, Sir Paul said. The disclosure caused surprise because Mr Cameron has since made clear he should have been told earlier that Mr Wallis had been paid £24,000 by the Met for PR advice.

Responding to suggestions that he did not trust the Prime Minister, Sir Paul said he had tried to avoid "compromising" him by revealing operational details about an imminent arrest.

He went on: "I think there is something very relevant here: My understanding is that it was exactly the advice of a senior official in No 10, so we don't compromise the Prime Minister.

"A senior official in No 10 guided us that actually we should not compromise the Prime Minister. And it seems to me to be entirely sensible."

Committee chairman Keith Vaz mocked the appointments of Mr Wallis and former Downing Street spin doctor Andy Coulson, saying they looked like "fashion accessories" and sounded incredulous that Sir Paul never wondered if Mr Wallis had been involved in phone hacking.

"You are a police officer- surely you would have had suspicions?" he said. Committee member Nicola Blackwood suggested Met officers were "blinded by friendship" with Mr Wallis.

The former Met boss also said he regretted the failures of the original investigation and appeared to blame Mr Yates for his decision not to re-open the probe.

Asked about visits to The Guardian in December 2009 to tell them that their stories about phone hacking were "exaggerated and inaccurate", Sir Paul said: "Mr Yates gave me assurances that there was nothing new coming ... I think I had a right to rely on those assurances."

He appeared before MPs as it emerged that Boris Johnson is attempting to rush through the appointment of a new Met commissioner. The Mayor has instructed key staff to look into ways to "speed up" the appointment of a replacement to "restore public confidence in the Met".

Mr Johnson has asked his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister to explore how quickly he can start conducting interviews. Sources said he hoped he may even have a new commissioner in place by the end of next month.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is in a mess of trouble in the wake of the News of the World hacking scandals, but new allegations from Jude Law and David Beckham could open up the media conglomerate to even more legal problems, this time in the United States.

According to the Daily Mail, Law has alleged that News of the World hacked into his cell phone and that of his personal assistant Ben Jackson when they arrived at JFK airport in New York City. Since the cell phones were then operating on American networks, News Corp could be open to prosecution and law suits for breaking U.S. federal law.

Law, 38, is already suing The Sun, a sister to News of the World, for allegedly hacking into his phone and using the content of voicemail messages for several articles in 2005 and 2006. The articles detailed Law’s arrival in New York City (where he briefly stayed before going to Montreal to film I Heart Huckabees), the hotel in which he stayed, his room number and how much he spent on room service.

"The allegation that they may have been hacked while on private visit in the United States is of great concern to them both,” a source close to Law and Jackson said, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Law isn’t the only celebrity who may have been targeted by News of the World: the Daily Telegraph reports that David Beckham is considering legal action himself. The footballer believes he was the target of hackers throughout the last decade and has reportedly asked his legal team to contact Scotland Yard to find out if his name is among the 4,000 possible victims.

An anonymous News of the World source told the Daily Telegraph that Beckham’s worries are probably legitimate.

"They were always hacking the Beckhams," the source claimed. "David was on the front pages probably more than any other celebrity in the decade from 2000 onwards. If you look at what they have done with him you would assume he is a target.”

However, Beckham is reportedly waiting until there is proof before filing suit. “He doesn't want to start proceedings until we have proof," a source said, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The London Nominees Football Fund, which employs former England and Manchester United midfielder Bryan Robson as an adviser, is a group “investing in football clubs, players, franchises, merchandising and sponsorship in this outstanding growth industry”.
But an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme screened on Monday night shows members of the fund, including Robson, talking about loopholes that enable foreign owners, with the help of offshore bank accounts and front groups, to buy two English clubs.
The undercover reporters, who claim to be working on behalf of an Indian businessman who makes his money in “India’s illegal gambling market”, meet London Nominees chief executive Andrew Leppard and Robson, then manager of Thailand, in Bangkok’s officially franchised Manchester United Bar.
They are then introduced to Joe Sim, a Far Eastern businessman and adviser to the Thai FA, who talks repeatedly of his close personal friendship with Sir Alex Ferguson. He even passes the phone to the Manchester United manager to talk to one of the reporters when they are out together for a meal.
Sim and Robson both boast how they would get players on loan from United once they had bought one or two of the many Championship and Football League clubs they claim are open to a takeover.

They also claim other Premier League managers, including Kenny Dalglish, Harry Redknapp and Steve Bruce, would help them out with loan signings to make success more likely because of Sim and Robson’s personal connections. These claims are denied by lawyers acting on behalf of Ferguson and the other managers mentioned at the end of the programme.
Clubs offered as potential takeover targets include Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester City, Cardiff City, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace.
Key to the London Nominees business plan, according to Leppard, is taking over a big club outside of the top flight, getting them promoted in the space of three or four years and selling at a huge profit.
Other ideas mentioned include the selling of training grounds in prime locations to supermarket chains and the employment of PR firms to get supporters to “accept the new owners” by announcing they intend to “put a substantial amount of money into the club.”
London Nominees denied that they, or anyone associated with them, would breach or offer to breach FA or Football League regulations.
Sim denied saying that Ferguson would “call in favours from other managers” but that as a friend “Mr Sim was confident that Sir Alex would help if he could”.

 

Lulz Security hacker group on Monday attacked the website of the Rupert Murdoch owned Sun newspaper, replacing the online version with a fake story pronouncing the mogul's death.
The tabloid quickly took down reports that the 80-year-old had been found dead in his garden after ingesting palladium but visitors to the site were redirected to LulzSec's Twitter feed, which celebrated the high-profile attack.
The group also claimed to have hacked the homepage of the phone-hack scandal hit News International, the Sun's parent company, and the webpage of sister paper The Times was also inaccessible.
"We have owned Sun/News of the World - that story is simply phase 1 - expect the lulz to flow in coming days," a message from the group warned.
Another message taunted "We have joy we have fun, we have messed up Murdoch's Sun"
A News International spokeswoman said the company was "aware" of the attack.
The hacker collective said it was "sitting on their (the Sun's) emails" and was prepared to publicise them on Tuesday.
Lulz has been in the spotlight after taking credit for cyberattacks on high-profile companies including Sony and Nintendo.

London police recovered a computer, telephone and paperwork found in the garbage outside the London home of former News Corp. executive Rebekah Brooks, the Guardian reported.

According to the paper’s account, Brooks’s husband, Charlie, tried to reclaim the bag from a security guard who found it, but was unable to prove he owned it.


A Brooks spokesman told the paper none of the bag’s contents belonged to Rebekah, who until Friday had served as CEO of News Corp.’s British newspaper division. She was arrested by London police Sunday for her role in the phone hacking scandal.

Brooks, along with James and Rupert Murdoch, is expected to testify before Parliament Tuesday.

The spokesman’s account, given to the Guardian, had a friend of Charlie Brooks returning the bag to the Brooks home but left it in the wrong place in their garage.

“Charlie has a bag which contains a laptop and papers which were private to him,” the spokesman said. “They were nothing to do with Rebekah or the [phone-hacking] case.”

The spokesman said a cleaning person found the misplaced bag and put it in the garbage, where a security guard found it and called police.

Police, the Guardian said, are now examining closed-circuit video to try and determine who placed the bag in the garbage.

 

James Murdoch faces being quizzed by the police over claims that he tried to cover up phone hacking by authorising ‘hush money’ payments to victims.

Scotland Yard detectives want to talk to him over the alleged cover-up of the hacking scandal. No date has been set for him to be interviewed. 

But the chairman of News International will face rigorous questioning from MPs today over why he paid huge sums to celebrities whose voicemails were listened to by the News of the World, one of its papers.




The Commons Culture Committee will force him to defend himself against the charge he helped engineer a cover-up and silence victims of phone hacking – which could see him accused of perverting the course of justice.

Labour committee member Tom Watson, who has campaigned against hacking, said: ‘I think the focus will very swiftly move on to James Murdoch now and what he knew and what he was involved in.’


He will testify, together with his father Rupert Murdoch, to the Culture Committee from 2.30pm this afternoon.


Training: Rupert Murdoch has received media coaching ahead of today's interview in order to fend off questions and avoid damaging his company even further

The 80-year-old tycoon has been receiving media training in order to fend off questions and avoid damaging his company even further.

John Whittingdale, Tory chairman of the committee, has said it will be ‘firm’ but ‘not a lynch mob’. However Rupert Murdoch’s biographer Michael Wolff predicted he would lose his temper.

He said: ‘He will handle it very poorly. This is something that Rupert doesn’t know how to do, has never done, has resisted doing and frankly can’t do.

‘Rupert is – on top of everything else – an incredibly shy man and he is also a very inarticulate man. I don’t think he is going to know what to do with the fact that he will be confronted here.

‘It is very likely he will get angry. He will say things that people should not say in public.

‘I know they are drilling him and rehearsing him over and over and over and over again and they are saying to him: “Do not say anything, just answer the questions in as few words as possible.”  

‘Whether he absorbs that lesson or not, I can’t imagine that he will or that he has.’

Pressure for his son James to quit the company intensified last night when a poll found that 65 cent of voters think he should resign.

The ComRes poll for ITV News also found that 57 per cent believe that his father Rupert Murdoch should be disqualified by law from being a company director.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates followed his boss out of the door today after Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson announced his resignation on Sunday evening at a hastily assembled press conference at Scotland Yard.

Mr Stephenson was facing increasing pressure over his employment of former News of the World assistant editor Neil Wallis as a paid adviser and also for accepting a freebie stay at a spa resort owned by a firm which also employed Mr Wallis.

Green Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) member Jenny Jones said: "I said last Wednesday that Stephenson's position was untenable and he should resign, but I was surprised. Usually people in that position hang on like grim death.

"He has done the decent thing."

Regarding a possible successor for the role of commissioner, she said: "Obviously the relationship between the Met and News International has been far too cosy. The job for the next commissioner will be to clean up shop.

"Sir Paul was too rigid and inflexible. His successor has to have as unblemished a record as possible and must have a very good sense of judgement."

She said she did not believe Sir Paul was corrupt but that he had shown "very poor judgement."

Mr Yates fell on his sword after initially bullishly defending his position.

It is believed he took the decision to quit after the MPA decided he should be suspended from duty.

His role, as head of counterterrorism, will now be filled by Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick.

Ms Dick was in charge of the botched counter-terror operation which led to the execution by armed police of the innocent Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005.

The departure of London's two most senior officers raised serious questions about the handling of the situation by London Mayor and MPA chairman Boris Johnson and his deputy with responsibility for policing Kit Malthouse.

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone said: "Under Boris Johnson the situation has been allowed to get out of control. This is the second commissioner to leave prematurely on his watch.

"He smeared the Guardian's original phone-hacking reports last year as 'codswallop cooked up by the Labour Party' and a 'song and dance about nothing.'

"His policing deputy claimed he and Johnson had their 'hands on the tiller' of the Met but one month later Neil Wallis was appointed. Johnson refused to back calls for Rebekah Brooks's resignation, a bad judgement call made worse since her resignation and arrest."

Mr Livingstone said the mayor needed to "urgently reshuffle" City Hall and that Mr Malthouse "who he has relied on throughout this chaotic period, must be moved. We need a new start."

Alongside photographs of her husband and his horses in Rebekah Brooks's grand News International office is a pen and ink sketch of an old man with a twinkle in his eye. The A5-sized picture could have been a portrait of her father but it is actually of her boss, Rupert Murdoch.

Few executives at News Corporation enjoyed the closeness that Brooks did to the Murdoch family – as well as her relationship with Rupert after 22 years with the company, she spent holidays and festive dinners with his two UK-based children, James and Elisabeth. But what the departure of Brooks shows is that when it comes to business and the Murdochs, blood is still thicker than water. Her surname meant she was always dispensable, in the end.

But her belated resignation has only intensified the spotlight on James Murdoch, her direct boss as head of News Corp outside the US. This is nothing less than a fight for the survival of News Corp's heir apparent, and the notion that one of the largest media companies in the world can still be run like a dynasty.

"This is the beginning of the end for the whole dynastic thing," said someone who has worked closely with the Murdochs, but who did not wish to be named. "A head of steam is growing now that if News Corporation is to have a future, the Murdochs must be remote and reduced in number."

So grave is the current crisis that Rupert's four oldest children – James, Lachlan, still a board member despite quitting to run his own business in Australia, Elisabeth, whose independent production company was bought by News Corp this year, and Prudence, the only one without a senior position in the business – converged on London for a crisis meeting this week.

"Of course there's tension in the family," said another close source. "The business is facing major reputational issues."

Under a trust arrangement negotiated by their mother, Rupert's second wife, Anna, the four children will take the lion's share of their father's stake in News Corp. And in March, when Rupert turned 80, the regular quarterly meetings of what is essentially a minority shareholder group started to discuss the patriarchal legacy.

Murdoch Sr had just anointed James, at 38 his youngest son, as his successor by making him deputy chief operating officer of the whole company, learning at the foot of Chase Carey, a News Corp veteran. "It's part of the overall family plan to have James mostly in charge," said David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak in New York at the time.

James's admission last week that he approved the £700,000 payment to Gordon Taylor without having "the full picture" has damaged this reputation for being in charge. "There were three people in that room when the payment [to Gordon Taylor] was signed off: James Murdoch, Colin Myler and Tom Crone," said Professor Brian Cathcart, professor of journalism at Kingston University and a member of the Hacked Off campaign group. "Now two of them are no longer employed by the company."

This week's meeting with his three siblings and father focused on the phone-hacking scandal. James was to move to New York this summer, while keeping a home in the UK as well as responsibility for the UK business.

"The succession has to be in doubt," said Cathcart. "If you were a News Corporation shareholder, you must question whether this company is safe in the hands of someone who has so mishandled the UK operation."

Astonishingly, Rupert Murdoch used an interview in the Wall Street Journal, his first since events began, to praise his son's management of a crisis that has so far led to the collapse of a long-cherished takeover, the closure of a 168-year-old newspaper and the departure of Brooks.

Events had, he claimed, been managed "extremely well in every way possible", with the company making just "minor mistakes". Such remarks have not helped instil confidence that Rupert Murdoch is coping with the crisis now so close to his progeny. "The fact that he is running around London in a Jimmy Savile outfit shows that he's lost the plot," said one former executive who refused to be named.

It is James who is most vulnerable. As well as his involvement in the phone-hacking scandal, institutional investors have started to flex their muscles in Sky, a publicly listed company in which the Murdochs have a majority vote of 39%. Some are already understood to have voiced their concerns to independent directors, including Nicholas Ferguson, about Murdoch's role as chairman of a £12bn satellite business, given the continuing investigations.

Sky insiders also pointed out that the arrival of Tom Mockridge to replace Brooks introduces someone who could take the reins as BSkyB chairman almost immediately, given his experience at Sky Italia. Mockridge was in line to succeed Tony Ball when James was controversially given the job of chief executive in 2003.

Where the real pressure comes, however, is in News Corp's US business.

The ongoing scandal has led a group of dissident shareholders in News Corp to renew their complaints against the company. In March, Amalgamated Bank, a trustee for several investment funds, filed a lawsuit that accused Rupert Murdoch of treating News Corp "like a wholly owned family candy store" after paying $675m for Elisabeth Murdoch's production business, Shine. Independent shareholders, who own 61% of the business, were "paying for nepotism" given the unusually high multiple paid for a business with revenues of £258m in 2009.

Last week, as details of the Milly Dowler phone hacking emerged, Jay Eisenhofer, counsel to the group, renewed its complaint about corporate governance. "News Corp's behaviour has become an egregious collection of nepotism and corporate governance failures, with a board completely unwilling to provide even the slightest level of adult supervision."

The lawsuit, by a relatively minor shareholder, has been dismissed by the company as without merit. During previous complaints about corporate governance, shareholders typically showed themselves willing to countenance senior involvement of the boss's children because of his success in creating a $50bn multinational. Yet an FBI investigation into allegations that phones belonging to victims of 9/11 were hacked into, calls by politicians for bribery investigations, and possible fines under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for illegal payments to sources are all combining to make such shareholders jittery.

"Politicians are not really interested in crossing Rupert Murdoch and being targeted by Fox News," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is calling for a congressional investigation into News Corp. "However, 9/11 is part of the US consciousness in a way that cannot be underplayed. If it came to a choice between taking sides with Murdoch or with the victims of 9/11, there'd be no choice."

Given this uncertainty, Elisabeth Murdoch faces an uphill struggle when her attempt to finally join the News Corp board comes before shareholders later this year. "She can kiss that goodbye," said one small shareholder, who refused to be named.

The owner of Shine flew off for a summer holiday with husband, PR boss Matthew Freud, on Friday, but not before denying a story that she had criticised Brooks, a close friend, for "fucking the company". The failure to gain a seat on the board is hardly likely to stop any Murdoch family member having their say, of course. She has been an observer for several years anyway.

The family's involvement in the business, natural given their huge financial stake, has prompted many to question the future of the declining and now tainted newspaper business. James, a sometimes awkward technocrat, is more at home with the technology of a satellite platform business than with the declining print business, while Elisabeth has rarely worked outside television. Lachlan quit as an executive in 2005 and has failed to win significant plaudits with his Australian ventures.

Few family members have talked disrespectfully of the print business so beloved of their father; James tends to refer to newspapers as "products".

They could, of course, be simply listening to the views of other shareholders. One shareholder has suggested that the group's newspaper assets be hived off into a "Murdoch publications" trust, leaving the more profitable bits of the empire to the market. Whether such a future would live up to Rupert's idea of leaving his children a proper legacy, of course, remains to be seen.

 

David Beckham's official web site DavidBeckham.com has been hacked and his homepage has been replaced with a dog's photograph along with the tag 'FAIL'.

Fans noticed the funny photo, which shows a dog trying, and failing, to eat from a bowl of food painted on a German advertisement poster, reports the New York Daily News.

The ad in the photo says, "Listen to your nose," while over the image the hacker has added the tag "ScooterDaShooter = FAIL."

"Fail" in Internet was popularized by sites like FAILBlog.org, which mock instances of human error.

The exact motive behind the breach is still not clear and the footballer star's camp has denied any comments.

Police are investigating claims that News International deleted millions of emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct a police inquiry.

All this came as the Prime Minister made the extraordinary suggestion that Mr Murdoch’s son and heir apparent James had ‘questions to answer’ to police after admitting paying hush money to victims of hacking by the News of the World.


Murdoch HQ: Investigations are underway to find out if an executive deleted millions of emails

In his most difficult day since becoming Conservative leader, Mr Cameron repeatedly refused to apologise for hiring as his media chief ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was arrested yesterday and held for ten hours.

The Prime Minister admitted he, as well as other political leaders, had been wrong to spend years courting the Murdoch empire – and turned on his horse-riding companion and Oxfordshire neighbour Rebekah Brooks, the media group’s UK boss.

 

The worst is yet to come, Brooks tells journalists as they ask searching questions about paper's demise
BSkyB shares slump as Ofcom warns it is now monitoring News Corporation 'very closely'
Cameron can't be allowed to shackle the Press
Police raid house of Cameron's ex-aide and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson after he and former royal editor are arrested
Coulson's 10-hour grilling by hacking probe detectives as David Cameron says: 'I was right to hire him'
He said Mrs Brooks, editor of the News of the World at the time it is accused of hacking mobile phone messages of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, should go.

‘It has been reported that she offered her resignation over this and in this situation I would have taken it,’ the Prime Minister said.


Under pressure: Murdoch's empire is slowly faltering and the Prime Minister has turned his back on Rebekah Brooks

In further dramatic developments:

Media watchdog Ofcom said it was ‘deeply concerned’ and investigating whether News Corporation would be a ‘fit and proper’ owner of broadcaster BSkyB, which saw £1billion wiped off its value as investors took fright;
Two independent inquiries were announced into press ethics and regulation and the phone hacking scandal;
Police arrested former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, jailed over the original hacking investigation in 2006, and raided the offices of the Daily Star Sunday where he now works;
Mrs Brooks, who was removed from an internal investigation but clung desperately to her job, told staff that much more damaging revelations were to come in the hacking scandal;
Ed Miliband was dragged into the row as he faced questions over the conduct of his own spin chief, former News International journalist Tom Baldwin.
Mr Murdoch’s decision to close the News of the World in an attempt to save his bid to seize full control of BSkyB appears to have done little to stem the tide of allegations engulfing his empire.

Police are examining claims that a News International executive may have expunged millions of emails from an archive believed to date back to 2005.

The Guardian reported that ‘massive quantities’ of the archive appear to have been deleted on two separate occasions, the most recent in January of this year.

It also claimed the newspaper tried to hide the contents of a senior reporter’s desk after he was arrested in April.

If proven, the acts would appear directly to contradict claims from News International that it has been co-operating fully with police.

They could also be seized upon by Ofcom as it assesses whether the company can pass a ‘fit and proper person’ test for its proposed purchase of BSkyB.

Mr Cameron upped the pressure on the company by suggesting James Murdoch, chairman of News International, has questions to answer from the police over his role in the phone hacking affair and subsequent cover-up.

In an email to staff announcing that Sunday’s edition of the News of the World will be the last, Mr Murdoch admitted approving ‘out-of-court settlements’ to alleged victims of phone hacking, adding: ‘This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.’ The Prime Minister suggested it might, in fact, be a matter of interest to police.

‘I read the statement yesterday. I think it raises lots of questions that need to be answered.’

Mr Cameron said he took responsibility for hiring Andy Coulson, but surprised some colleagues by repeatedly refusing to distance himself from his former spin chief, who resigned from Number Ten in January.

‘Yes, he became a friend and is a friend,’ he said. I have spoken to him, I have seen him, not recently and not frequently.’

Mr Cameron said he had discussed the hacking allegations with Mr Coulson on several occasions, but never had reason to doubt ‘the assurances he had given me and I accepted’.

The Prime Minister said the wave of allegations about hacking of the families of murder victims and servicemen killed in action by journalists at the News of the World ‘and possibly elsewhere’ was a ‘wake-up call’.

‘The truth is, we have all been in this together – the press, politicians and leaders of all parties – and yes, that includes me.’

News International denied claims that police are investigating suspected deletion of emails by an executive at the company.

A News International spokeswoman said: 'This assertion is rubbish. We adopted a documented email retention policy in line with our US parent’s records management policy. We are co-operating actively with police and have not destroyed evidence.'

PM DEMANDS INDEPENDENT WATCHDOG
David Cameron opened the way yesterday for unprecedented restrictions on press freedom -- saying all party leaders had 'turned a blind eye' to the issue for too long because they wanted to win media support.

The Prime Minister rounded on the Press Complaints Commission, suggesting self-regulation had failed and there was a need for a 'new system entirely'.

He announced an independent inquiry into press ethics and regulation, which is expected to begin this summer.

It will be conducted by a team of experts in the media, law and regulation, and will also examine relationships between senior politicians and newspaper editors and proprietors.

But Mr Cameron appeared to pre-empt its conclusions by saying it would have to draw up plans for a powerful, independent media regulator.

A separate inquiry, into specific allegations of phone hacking and the conduct of police, will be judge-led, but will not start work in earnest until criminal inquiries are complete.

The freedom of the press has been enshrined in Britain since 1694, when a system which meant no publication was allowed without the accompaniment of a government-granted licence was brought to a end.

The Press Complaints Commission has 17 members, of whom ten do not work in the press.

Mr Cameron declared: 'When the inquiries are over, the questions have been asked, and the truth found out I want a police that has proved itself beyond reproach, a political system that people feel is on their side, and a press that is yes, free and rigorous; that investigates and entertains; that holds those in power to account and occasionally -- yes, even regularly -- drives them mad, but, in the end, is a free press that is also clean and trustworthy.'

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said the idea that the scandal had demonstrated a failure of ethics across the industry was 'total nonsense'.

And he said the PCC, like Mr Cameron, had been entitled to believe that the original police inquiry had dealt with the situation thoroughly after the convictions of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman.

'This story is not about media ethics, it's about crime. Phone-hacking is against the law. What's absolutely clear now is that the police didn't look at all the evidence. If they had, the PCC might have come to a different view and taken a tougher stance against the News of the World.

Hugh Grant, in his time, has played many parts. He has been the diffident, floppy-haired charmer in Four Weddings And A Funeral; he's been the caddish lothario in the Bridget Jones movies and the troubled quasi-dad in Nick Hornby's About A Boy. Off-screen, he's been the sheepish bad boy caught in flagrante by the roadside in LA, but also the brilliant investor in property and contemporary art.

But now he's found what could be his greatest role. On BBC TV's Question Time, he was the campaigner for decent values and fearless scourge of the slimy News Corporation which hacked into people's phones and sacrificed 200 jobs to protect Rebekah Brooks. It was a magnificent performance – and TV watchers all over the country remembered why they loved Hugh Grant.

With elegance, with insouciance, Grant dismissed the whingey complaints from fellow panellist, Sun columnist Jon Gaunt. He suavely batted away jibes about blow jobs. He called Rupert Murdoch's act of corporate self-mutilation "cynical" and the studio audience applauded.

The Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir has jeered at "St Hugh of Grant", and Piers Morgan – a man whose moral compass directs him unerringly to that side of the bread where the butter is to be found – tweeted that Grant was "a screechy, sanctimonious little prick". He found himself un-followed in droves. Morgan discovered that people supported Grant. And they wondered if being screechy and sanctimonious was a wise subject for Morgan to be talking about.

Grant had already shown remarkable flair and boldness in uncovering hacking, making secret tape recordings for the New Statesman. His detestation for the tabs and the paps is well known, and has occasionally sounded petulant on the subject. But the Hacked Off campaign had brought out in him a new authority: in interviews, he has even, emolliently, conceded that the general public were not too sympathetic about publicity-hungry celebs getting hacked, but Milly Dowler was a different matter entirely.

How has Grant emerged as the scourge of News International? I think it is because he, unlike everyone else, really doesn't care about the whole silly showbiz carousel and could step off any time he liked. Perhaps that is what he is doing now. Very often he had given the impression that he wouldn't be fussed if he never made another movie ever again. Plenty of stars hate Murdoch's papers, but they want to appear in movies made by Murdoch's Fox group, and to work with people who are similarly in awe of the great potentate's tentacular reach.

Grant is different. He is now rich and successful enough – and perhaps simply unconcerned enough – not to care. He is the unruffled David Gower of the cinema – and campaigning. And his new role as the Hammer Of Rupe is just so unlikely that it commands attention.

This is a great new career direction for him. I say: bravo Hugh!

 

Prince Harry's new girlfriend Florence Brudenell-Bruce has told friends "I'm in love", according to the Sun.
The 25-year-old model, known as Flee, reportedly told a friend: "It was a bit of fun but it's getting serious. I think I might be in love!"
Harry and Flee have known each other for six years, the newspaper revealed, but she apparently fell for him after he used a polo-related chat-up line.
Referencing the term used for practicing the sport he and his brother Prince William play, he is said to have asked her: "Fancy a spot of stick and balling with me?"
Ms Brudenell-Bruce dated 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button before reportedly falling for the prince.
A close friend told the Sun that Flee loves being Harry's girlfriend and has "fallen for him fast".
"She's a party girl and Harry loves her wild side," the source continued. " Ibiza is one of her favourite holiday spots and she's always in the Blue Marlin beach bar. She's trying to get Harry to go."

 

The divorce will mark the end of the couple's 25-year marriage
Maria Shriver cited irreconcilable differences for the breakup with the Terminator star, but offered no additional details.
The couple announced they had separated on May 9.
A week later, the Austrian-born former action star and ex-California governor admitted he fathered a child with Mildred Baena, a member of his household staff, years ago.

The Terminator star admitted he fathered a child with a member of household staff
Shriver's filing does state that the couple has a prenuptial agreement, which is likely to mean that Schwarzenegger's Hollywood career earnings will be evenly divided with his estranged wife.
She is seeking maintenance from him with the amount to be determined through a settlement agreement or by a judge, but details of the the divorce are expected to be handled in private.
Several of Schwarzenegger's biggest hits, including Predator, True Lies and the blockbuster sequel Terminator 2 were made during his marriage to Shriver.

Schwarzenegger's Hollywood earnings are likey to be split
Shriver was an award-winning television journalist but put her career on hold when Schwarzenegger ran for governor.
When Schwarzenegger left as California governor in January, disclosure forms showed he had at least eight interests worth $1m (£622,000) or more, although the full extent of his wealth is not known.
The forms also show that the Terminator star still retains rights to intellectual property from his days as a fitness guru and movie star.
Shriver's holdings are listed as being worth more than $1m; she is a member of the Kennedy family and is a beneficiary of some of its assets, and also owns rights and royalties from her work as an author.

Maria Shriver stood by her husband during his campaign for governor
In recent months, Shriver has appeared in videos posted on YouTube in which she talks about stress in her life, the weight of expectations and the search for faith in a troubled world.
She signed her divorce petition around two weeks ago, but her attorney filed it on Friday afternoon.
Shriver and Schwarzenegger were married in 1986 and have four children together, including two sons who are still minors.
Shriver's petition seeks joint custody of the teens, who are 17 and 13.

Arnold Schwarzenegger during his time as California' governor
She stood by her husband as he ran for California's governorship in 2003, despite reports by several women that they had been groped by the movie star.
Schwarzenegger, who later admitted he "behaved badly sometimes," was twice elected to the governorship.
He failed to fix the state's chronic budget problems and left office in January, hoping to work on environmental projects and return to the big screen.
One of his projects was an animated collaboration with comic book legend Stan Lee entitled The Governator, but the project was shelved after Schwarzenegger's admission that he had fathered the child.

when Heidi Withers received a vitriolic email apparently from her fiancé’s step-mother, accusing her of a lack of manners, it was clear she had not got off on the right foot.
Unfortunately things got a great deal worse when she forwarded the stern email to some of friends - who astonished by its tone - decided to give it a wider audience.
In no time at all the email had gone viral, becoming an internet sensation, and reaching tens of thousands of readers.
Problems began when Miss Withers, 28, a PA, who lives with her fiancé Freddie Bourne in Fulham, west London, visited his parents at their home in Dawlish, Devon.
Following the visit, Freddie’s step-mother, Carolyn Bourne, 60, a celebrated flower breeder, apparently fired off an email to her future daughter-in-law accusing her of being uncouth, rude and graceless.

The email said: “It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence and I feel sorry for you.
It went on: “Your behaviour on your visit to Devon during April was staggering in its uncouthness and lack of grace.”
It added: “If you want to be accepted by the wider Bourne family I suggest you take some guidance from experts with utmost haste. There are plenty of finishing schools around. You would be an ideal candidate for the Ladette to Lady television series. Please, for your own good, for Freddie’s sake and for your future involvement with the Bourne family, do something as soon as possible.”
The email said Miss Withers’ behaviour had been so rude that it had left the family dog, Bomber, traumatized, depressed and anxious.
Listing a litany of alleged transgressions, the email accused Miss Withers of staying in bed too late; complaining about the food; cracking inappropriate jokes about the family and failing to send a card thanking them for their hospitality.
It also said: "You regularly draw attention to yourself. Perhaps you should ask yourself why...It is vulgar.”
In addition Mrs Bourne apparently criticised her future daughter-in-law’s plans for the wedding and said her aspirations were outstripping her finances.
The email said: “No one gets married in a castle unless they own it. It is brash, celebrity style behaviour.
“I understand your parents are unable to contribute very much towards the cost of your wedding. (There is nothing wrong with that...)
“If this is the case, it would be most ladylike and gracious to lower your sights and have a modest wedding as befits both your incomes.”
And in a stinging pay-off she apparently remarked: “One could be accused of thinking that Heidi Withers must be patting herself on the back for having caught a most eligible young man. I pity Freddie.”
Mr Bourne, 29, who runs an online bicycle shop, Capital Cycles, refused to comment on the email last night but conceded the matter had been discussed within the family.
He said: “Obviously this has been discussed within the family but we are not commenting other than that.”
Mr Bourne would not comment on whether the wedding was still going ahead.
Meanwhile Mrs Bourne, who runs Whetman Pinks Ltd nursery near Dawlish in Devon, also refused to be drawn on the content of the stinging email.
Yesterday she was attending a Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) plant show at Stonleigh Park, Coventry, with her husband Edward.
Mr Bourne said: “We are aware of what is being said. I know it is very boring, very repetitive and very dull but we will not be making any comment and neither will my wife.”
Miss Withers, who has a 23-year-old sister, September, was keeping a low profile last night and there was no sign of her at the flat she shares with her fiancé.
Her parents, Alan and Sylvia, who live in Ledbury, Herefordshire, were also not available for comment last night.
Miss Withers and Mr Bourne have been together for several years and enjoyed an extensive trip across the United States in 2009.
This is the latest example of an email that has caused embarrassment after going viral.
In 2009, Holly Leam-Taylor, a graduate trainee at consultants Deloitte quit after emails she sent to friends discussing attractive male staff, spread like wildfire across the internet.

 

The male water boatman hits 99.2 decibels – equivalent to hearing an orchestra from the front row – as it belts out its mating call.

The two-milimetre insect creates the sound by rubbing its penis against its abdomen – making it the noisiest species relative to its size.


Researchers from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, recorded the sound using underwater microphones.

Dr James Windmill said: “It’s so loud, a person walking along the bank can hear these tiny creatures singing from the river bottom.

“If you scale the sound against their body size, they are the loudest on Earth.”

The study was published in the journal PLoS One.

Tony Blair believed that the Prince of Wales publicly interfered in sensitive areas of government policy in a manner that sometimes stepped over the constitutional boundaries historically respected by the royal family, according to Alastair Campbell.

In extracts from the latest volume of his diaries, published in the Guardian today and on Monday, the former No 10 communications director writes that Blair became so exasperated he once privately accused the prince of "screwing us".

Campbell, a teetotaller, also discloses in today's extracts that the pressure of working in Downing Street became so great that he started drinking again around the turn of the millennium. He never told Blair.

He also reveals that George Bush said in July 2001 that Vladimir Putin had "looked a bit scared" when he accused the then Russian president of selling more than conventional weapons to rogue states.

The main focus of today's extracts confirms what ministers across the spectrum have long complained of in private: the Prince of Wales regularly attempts to influence government policy, usually in long handwritten letters.

In the most detailed account of the prince's interventions, Campbell suggests that the heir to the throne even displayed signs of disapproving of the government. Campbell indicates that at one point Blair raised his concerns with the Queen.

"While publicly we stayed supportive, TB said Charles had to understand there were limits to the extent to which they could play politics with him," Campbell wrote on 31 October 1999 of a meeting between Blair and the prince after he took Prince William on a provocative day's foxhunting. "He said it was 90 minutes of pretty hard talk, not just about hunting."

Campbell writes that Blair, who was not invited to the royal wedding, became angry when the prince:

• Made "deeply unhelpful" interventions during the foot and mouth crisis in 2001. Campbell wrote on 16 March 2001: "TB said he knew exactly what he was doing. He also asked whether Charles had ever considered help when 6,000 jobs were lost at Corus [the steel manufacturer]. He said this was all about screwing us and trying to get up the message that we weren't generous enough to the farmers."

• Boycotted a banquet in 1999 for Jiang Zemin, then president of China, a decision criticised by Blair as "silly". In a long paper to Blair the prince wrote: "I feel very strongly about it."

• Challenged Blair on plans to outlaw foxhunting. In what Campbell described as a "long note on hunting" in late 1999, the prince said it was good for the environment.

• Declared in the same note that hereditary peers, the majority of whom were abolished by Labour in 1999, had much to offer. Campbell wrote that the prince had said "menacingly": "We don't really want to be like the continentals, now do we?"

• Insisted that he had to speak out about GM foods after Downing Street had made clear its unhappiness with what Campbell describes as a "dreadful" Mail on Sunday article. In the same note to Blair the prince wrote: "I cannot stay silent."

Campbell said Blair was furious with the prince's Mail on Sunday article in May 1999. "He was pretty wound up about it, said it was a straightforward anti-science position, the same argument that says if God intended us to fly, he would have given us wings. It certainly had a feel of grandstanding."

Campbell writes that Blair thought the prince had a political agenda because he was upset by the former prime minister's speech to the Labour conference in October 1999 in which he attacked the "forces of conservatism". He wrote on 1 November 1999: "TB said he bought the line that because we were modernising, that meant we were determined to do away with all traditions but he had to understand that some traditions that did not change and evolve would die. It all had the feel of a deliberate strategy, to win and strengthen media support by putting himself at arm's length from TB and a lot of the changes we were making."

Campbell added: "TB felt he had been really stung by the forces of conservatism speech. He said they felt much more vulnerable than in reality they are. We know they still have the power to 'keep us in our place' but they don't always see it like that."

Blair even appeared to have raised his concerns with the Queen. On 1 June 1999, shortly after publication of the prince's article, Campbell wrote: "TB saw the Queen and seemingly didn't push too hard re Charles, but he was very pissed off."

Campbell said last night that the anger in the Blair team was mainly caused by the prince's media operation under Mark Bolland, his deputy private secretary between 1997 and 2002. Matters improved when Paddy Harverson, the prince's head of communications, joined his team in 2004.

Campbell told the Guardian: "Tony Blair valued their regular private conversations and respects Prince Charles's right to speak up on important issues. But this was a period when it seemed Charles's media team was proactively and publicly setting them at odds on some of the government's most difficult issues – not just hunting, where the differences were well known, but GM food, China, and agriculture.

"When Paddy Harverson [Bolland's successor] came in, things improved greatly. It might seem ironic me complaining about the media operation but just as I felt Charlie Whelan gave Gordon Brown problems so I thought the same of Mark Bolland at times for the Prince of Wales."

Clarence House declined to comment.