My Name Escapes Me

To the Leveson Inquiry to witness the PM's testimony about his manifold contact with the generals of the Murdoch Empire.

Perhaps it was unfortunate lighting in Court 73 but throughout Cameron resembled an apoplectic beetroot as he feigned a casual air in the face of the relentlessly inquisitorial Mr Jay QC.

Cameron's extensive legal preparation was very apparent just by his vocabulary unless he often uses words such as 'recused', 'provenance' and 'elision'. What also came across was his much trumpeted crusade when first he became Tory leader for "a new politics" was never genuine. His seduction of media companies and individual journalists was not just extensive but serial in its scale - 1,400 meetings, meals and interviews in four years.

But in the great swathe of communication there were some individual details of bowel emptying embarrasment.The text from Rebecca Brooks prior to his 2009 conference speech captured an intimacy even complicity which could not be diminished whatever Dave said. ("I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we’re definitely in this together! Speech of your life? Yes he Cam!"). And Mr Jay's prolonged focus on the Brooks' was all the more poignant as they had appeared in court the previous day charged with the emminently imprisonable offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

So naturally he played down his contact with them, couldn't recall how often these weekend pub chums met in wellies splattered with the Oxfordshire mud. His memory was extra-ordinary partial; at times it seemed he couldn't remember if he could remember. His lawyers, no doubt, had advised him not to admit to that which he did not need to. But lawyers are only expert in the narrow confines of legal argument. It may not occur to them how damaging it is to a PM's integrity to present such a selectively fallible memory.

He also suggested before handing Jeremy Hunt the role of arbiter on the BSkyB bid they had never even discussed it. This £8Bn deal was easily the biggest in media history, and Hunt was Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport - that part of Cameron's testimony was barely credible.

But this lack of frankness was still not the most glaring ommission. Cameron had established this inquiry himself yet found no time to show any statesmanlike qualities, to rise above the hurly burly and share his strategic overview of the media's future with His Honour, Lord Leveson. When Cameron could not resist having a pointless swipe at Gordon Brown it showed him for what he is: strong on political instinct, weak on political judgement.

The Reckoning

William Hague is proving to be a fairly competent Foreign Secretary. He has done some pretty good quiet work on Syria of late and had taken a public stand on issues where no doubt his officials have suggested a bland communique instead.

The Ministerial boycott of the Euro 2012 to protest at the imprisonment and ill-treatment of former PM Yulia Tymoshenko (pictured) is a good principled stand. It is also yet another of the countless reasons why the 2012 tournment will be a PR disaster for the game and for English FA in particular.

It comes as no surprise at all to learn of Netherlands team being subjected to racist chants although before the tournament starts shows this is merely a taster.Teams like France and England have several black players but even Sweden and German have enough to spark the racists into action.

Of course any subsequent protests by the FA can be countered by pointing a finger at our one reminang centre-back John Terry awaiting trial on racism charges and the obvious 'political' exclusion of the blameless and highly experienced Rio Ferdinand.

UEFA and FIFA have never really got to grips with actual racism, celebrity players wearing anti racist T-shirts does not change social attitudes. Poland and Ukraine should never have been given this tournment to host. Their officials, politicians and police are in denial there is any kind of problem. Such complacency and corruption will yield its inevitable outcome of violence, hatred and victimisation. This is not the beautiful game.

While Rome Burns

Michael Gove's set may have been quite pleased with the way he pompously 'explained' the libertarian view on press freedom at Leveson on Tuesday. But that is not to say things are going terribly well for Conservatve Party inc.

While Govey argued for the virtue of the status quo, former key allies were being arrested and charged with serious offences. Rebecca Brooks faces three charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice and Andy Coulson was charged perjury by Stratchclyde police yesterday. In both cases convictions would routinely result in imprisonment.

Gove thought he should bring the Inquiry to its senses and elucidate on what would be lost in pursuit of media regulating. He appeared to be advocating the abolition of the PCC and having no regs at all. He also spoke about the behaviour of journalists as if they were all economics editors at the Times when Leveson has been addressing the most salacious and aggressive variety which dominated the business.

Brian Leveson was pretty astonished at Govey's ethos and arrogance,"Mr Gove, I do not need to be told about the importance of freedom of speech, I really don't." before reminding him of the type of cases they had heard involving the Dowler family, Cheryl Gascoigne, Charlotte Church, Sienna Miller...Not to mention e-mail hacking at the Times and then obfuscating about it to the court.

He may be feeling pretty puffed up after his terribly hammy performance but next under oath is the wide-eyed Jeremy Hunt. After we know there were interventions when he said there none, and a confirmed view on BskyB takeover when he said there wasn't, Hunt's career will not see next week. And all the dreadful developments for Tory High Command all point directly at the judgement at the PM.

Maybe Gove was finding solace in Dave's discomfort too.

Perfect Storm

Football is not like other sports. Rugby and cricket, demonstrate how the adherence to the rules and fair play give players a sense of honour and integrity. Football players and administrators alike seem to regard the rules of the game as an occupational hazard to be avoided whenever possible.

And into that moral vacuum has stepped racism and bigotry where it has no traction in other parts of social life. This week's BBC Panorama 'Stadiums of Hate' was a horrifying prelude to the Euro 2012 tournament where racist violence appears guaranteed.

The presenter, Chris Rogers, was pretty staggered to witness a couple of thousand fans in Ukraine giving the Nazi salute with acommpanying Sieg Heils. The spineless response from officialdom was simple denial and claiming the supporters were simply "pointing." The police and stewards were hopeless and were clearly subordinate to the Ultras.

The hate groups in both Poland and Ukraine are deeply anti-semitic and racist and have adopted as their symbol the Celtic Cross (above). It will be ironic and pretty sickening for the Irish fans who have been abused by fascist unionists in the past to see a national symbol used to propagate such bigotry.

In the programme, former England defender, Sol Campbell was quite right to suggest black British fans should not consider travelling to the tournament as they would be walking targets. The families of Theo Walcott, and Oxlade-Chamberlain have already said they won't be going. Why exactly are we playing in a tournament where such poison pervades that black players will not be able to feel the pride in having their families there? What is the point of any of it?

At a recent Europa Cup game Man City were fined 10K euros more for being a minute late resuming the field than Porto were for allowing their supporters to racially abuse City players Toure and Balotelli. So there is EUFA's moral lead and as for FIFA, Blatter has already failed to condemn racism out right, saying effectively it's all in the game. Our FA are hardly any better for allowing John Terry to play just prior to his day in court on racism charges. And Roy Hodgson should not have picked him for the same reason.

The stage is set for a huge conflict between several national firms of hooligans. It will be a fitting tribute to the administrators' amoral view where only commercial rather than human interests are to be protected.

Stand on Your Own Two Feet

The Daily Mail Reader's poll today is, "Should amputees be forced to work?" Quite a question.

The debate follows the introduction of the Work Capability Assessment, a simplistic model of ensuring many disabled people are deemed by DWP to be seeking benefits when they should be doing the nine to five slog.

Darren Gilligan (pictured) is one example. Despite losing a leg in an industrial accident and injuring the other as well as his back, the DWP's crude point system has assessed him as "fit". He captured the essence of the attitude to the mentally sick and disabled perfectly when he told the Mail, "If you can breathe and blink they want you back to work." The Department wishes to cut payments from 500,000 of the poorest to save, £2.25Bn.

Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘It’s not like incapacity benefit, it’s not a statement of sickness. It is a gauge of your capability. In other words, do you need care? Do you need support to get around? Those are the two things that are measured. Not “You have lost a limb”. Well, now we know.

If such heartlessness, roundly condemned by Mail readers does not leave you slack-jawed, then the Express's campaign supporting the disabled workers at Re-employ just might. "Asked why the disabled were being robbed of a choice between a segregated or mainstream workplace, Mr Duncan Smith snapped: “How far do you want to go with the idea that you can choose to do exactly what you want?" Adding to one of the soon to be sacked workers, "You don't make much."

IDS clearly lives in a world of theories and charts chewed over with officials and advisers divorced from the extremes of life. He never seems to recognise the harshness of his measures nor does he accept the disabled are being told to find jobs which in most areas don't exist. After tax cuts for the top rate tax earners this Victorian punishment is pretty obscene politics.

Mr Coulson...he say yes!

The only point Andy Coulson looked a little uneasy during his cross examination at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday was when he was asked about his shares in News Corp.

He held £40k worth during his entire time as Cameron's media supremo and at no point considered the potential conflict of interest.  "In retrospect I wish I had paid more attention to it," he added.

Mr Jay's next question was even more revealing. No-one had even asked him about the shares. Such was the paucity of clearance procedure for someone at the heart of No.10. He admitted yesterday he wasn't even aware himself of what level of clearance he had. And tied to this was Coulson's jaw-dropping admission he regularly had access to Top Secret material and attended the National Security Council. The obvious inference of not having him properly cleared was that it would have been a test he would have clearly failed. So Cameron's 'solution' was consistent breaches of security.

Coulson generally managed to limit the damage to his former employers by his stonewalling and refusal to agree even the most inconsequential detail. Asked whether he himself wrote a kind editorial about George Osborne hit with accusations of cocaine use, he said he didn't always write the editorial, he spoke to someone, they did a draft, he edited it, then agreed it or just wrote it. Much simpler to just say, yes.

But there were enough hand grenades in there which had to explode as he was under oath. It is beginning to look rather foolish of Cameron to order this Inquiry as it is inflicting more and more political damage on him. The again, Nixon thought it a good idea to reveal the Oval Office tapes.

A Fool Such As I

If you're ever lost, don't ask Danny Alexander (left) the way.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury's analysis of the Scottish elections was breathtaking and laughable. It couldn't have been just arrogance and a dash of wishful thinking to suggest the SNP, the winning and most dominant party in Scotland must have been "bitterly disappointed" by the vote on Thursday. But even a crude view of the numbers would indicate something more delusional.

The Liberal Democrats in Scotland are a spent force. Their previously poor total of 151 councillors was reduced to a rump of just 71, some way short of the dismal Conservatives on 115. Meanwhile the good ship Salmond has 424 seats and Labour 394. Alexander bemoaned the mid-term blues of the Coalition's cumalitive loss of 800 seats to Labour across Britain. But the SNP were in their mid-term too yet they picked up 57 seats.

Danny's pompous sniping at the Nationalists reminded me of a prefect poised to fail all his A-Levels. We know, and he knows, all his authority will soon me taken from him yet in the meantime he throws his weight around at his familiar enemies.

The Liberal Democrats now have less than 3,000 councillors nationwide so have returned to where they were in 1988 under David Steel before Ashdown and Kennedy carved them a niche as a proper third party. Yet, Danny Boy seems fine about pontificating about SNP's "failure" to convince the electorate on the case for Independence. He is tallking about people's convictions based on the way he wishes the world to be and not by what people actually think.

In Edinburgh ward of Pentland Hills, the Lib-Dem candidate lost to a man dressed as a penguin. As a Minister Alexander can make any observation he likes, however obtuse. But very soon he will have no right to even say it.