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.