Hackgate: Was It This Gaydar Pic What Started It?

'Bryant's enemies are unlikely to let up, however, though the Murdoch red-tops might be well advised to lay off him for now. Now, more than ever, Bryant is loathed by the right. Only yesterday Richard Littlejohn used his Daily Mail column to write about "the self-appointed moral conscience of the nation, Chris Bryant – last seen posing on the internet in his underpants, soliciting for casual gay sex".
'That refers to Bryant's entirely unforced error of appearing on the gay dating website Gaydar posing only in his underpants, and apparently unflattering ones too. He could be allowed some pride in his physique, being the parliamentary swimming champ, and obviously fit. How he thought he might remain anonymous in such circumstances remains a mystery almost as deep as how News International thought its industrial-scale hacking could remain a secret.
'"I honestly don't know how they got hold of the story – it was the Mail on Sunday that ran it," he told me yesterday. "I remember a woman turning up at the constituency office [in Rhondda] and I thought, 'That's a very posh coat she's wearing' and they doorstepped me. It was horrid and I didn't sleep very well."
'He went on to describe how his phone was hacked. "On 3 December 2003, four attempts were made to blag my PIN number from my mobile phone. I don't know if that was News International. But I was a Mulcaire target for the News of the World." It was after that that Bryant began pursuing the police over the scandal and pressing for a judicial review and inquiry, which he has now achieved...'

From a profile of Chris Bryant in The Independent last Friday (When Fagburn was away - try and keep up).
The Mail On Sunday story appears to have been removed from their website - here's The Sun's charmless take on it - it was Bryant who had a few months before the Gaydar story surfaced who asked Rebecca Brooks the killer question at committee if she'd ever ever paid police.
Chris Bryant has behaved quite heroically over this story.

Rupert Murdoch Hearing: Over-Used Wizard Of Oz Metaphor Ahoy!

Christ, this is like sitting through Double Geography or something!
Thank fuck for the pieman.
Fagburn is still officially "away", by the way - back Thursday...

Rebekah Brooks: Ding Dong!

The witch is dead...

• Fagburn is still officially away until next week...

Chris Bryant: Apologise!

Chris Bryant and Sky News' Kay Burley have form, you know.

George Michael: Dishing

"Rees is the ex-jailbird hired after his release by Andy Coulson when he was still working at the NOTW...
Paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in return for private information, and perhaps most importantly.....
HACKED INTO COMPUTERS all the time. The two photographers who sat outside my house in their cars night after night for several years....
Were regularly seen with computers open on their laps. I presumed for years that i was under surveilance....
In fact, one night in particular, I strolled over the road to one of them and tapped on his window..... :)
and said..... :)
'I hope you like my taste in men.'


George Michael via Twitter.

News Of The World: And In Other News...

There isn't any.

• hasrebekahbrooksbeensackedyet.com

Chris Bryant: Man Of The Hour/Month

"With a grimace, Chris Bryant recalls the last time he met Rupert Murdoch's embattled lieutenant Rebekah Brooks face to face.
"She came up to me and said, 'Oh, Mr Bryant, it's after dark - shouldn't you be on Clapham Common?"
"At which point Ross Kemp [the ex-EastEnders actor and her then husband] said, 'Shut up, you homophobic cow'." The MP, who is openly gay, can afford to smile at the incident, which happened during a News International reception at the Labour Party conference several years ago.
"At the time he was a mere irritant to the powerful Brooks. But after this week's torrent of revelations about phone hacking he may prove to be her nemesis. We talked over a glass of wine in Covent Garden after a dramatic 48 hours of ever more shocking disclosures that culminated in David Cameron conceding a public inquiry into the ethics of the News of the World and the police failure to investigate..."

Chris Bryant MP is profiled in London's Evening Standard, with very good timing.
Sadly it looks like Murdoch was happy to sacrifice The News Of The World to protect Ms Brooks [Update: This rapidly became a cliche - true, though].
How peculiar.
Thanks for your diligence over this Chris - a real scandal, that continues to unfold.
It took much bravery - as an out gay Labour MP taking on the cunts from News Corp involved great personal risk.
And no more will that unfortunate Gaydar/Y-fronts business be the thing you're best known for.
Hurrah!

Breaking News: Bryant & Paddick Charge Met Over Phone Hacking

"A lawsuit alleging a police cover-up of phone hacking has been launched by one of Scotland Yard's own former senior officers, Brian Paddick [above], together with the former Labour minister Chris Bryant," The Guardian reports this evening.
"The claim for judicial review accuses Assistant Met commissioner John Yates of making misleading statements to parliament and the public, and the police of failing to carry out a proper investigation."
Interesting that the action should be led by two drama queens gay men...
We saw Chris Bryant overboil - quite understandably - over phone hacking live on Sky TV on Thursday.
Presenter Kay Burley's ludicrous performance clearly had nothing to do with both Sky News and the News of The World being owned by Rupert Murdoch.
According to the statement quoted in The Guardian, Paddick "feared interception after a tabloid story emerged that he had bought his partner an expensive watch while on holiday in Sydney. He had not told anyone apart from his partner about the purchase, but had to speak to the bank on his mobile phone ... to allow the bar on his credit card to be lifted."
"Subsequently, another tabloid discovered Paddick's then partner was on a particular transatlantic flight, and was able to accost him: 'The inference must be that private information was obtained.'"
The full story thus far is on The Guardian's website here.

Chris Bryant vs Kay Burley: "You seem to be a bit dim..."

Poor old Chris Bryant.
He could single-handedly pay off the national debt and bring peace to the Middle East, and the news story would still begin; "Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who once posted a photo himself on the gay dating website Gaydar wearing nothing but a pair of old y-fronts..."
He's a funny old thing; an out Labour MP who trained for the priesthood and used to be a member of the Conservative Party.
But he did play a key role in getting Tony Blair to back down over the exemption for Catholic adoption agencies, so clearly he can't be all bad.
Anyway, Mr Bryant now has another claim to infamy.
He's had a live on air spat with Sky News presenter Kay Burley.
Bryant was being interviewed about the News of the World phone hacking story - he said it was "endemic" in the newspaper industry, citing a report by the Information Commissioner that identified 1,000 cases.
Burley asked him: "So you are in a position to have listened to the debate and read the report and as a result you are content to say that on telly."
Chris Bryant's reply: "I have just said that. You seem to be a bit dim, if you don't mind me saying so."

The whole thing is great fun to watch.
And through the magic of Sky Plus someone has managed to record it for posterity here.