Jago Hazzard presents a short but complicated history.
Note one of the comments:
You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page.It seems to have been forgotten that the initial pressure to build Bermondsey (and Southwark) Jubilee line stations came from the then local MP Simon Hughes, whose aims came to fruition, meaning that the line didn’t run direct from London Bridge to Canada Water without stopping.
The Daily Mail’s parent company is facing its first legal claim for phone hacking, after the former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes filed a case against the newspaper publisher.Hughes is alleging that Associated Newspapers – the owner of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline – misused his private information. He is expected to claim that the newspaper publisher employed a private investigator who improperly accessed his voicemail messages.
Evan Harris didn't just make a statement to court as his claim against The Sun and the News of the World was settled, he made one outside court too.
And here it is.
In settling Evan Harris's claim, the owner of the papers, News Group Newspapers, made no admission of liability.
I did start this feature a while ago but, what with one thing and another, it was not possible to continue it.
Here, however, is an extract from Lord Bonkers' Diary in the May 1992 issue of Liberator (no. 204).
As we join the old boy, he is reflecting on the result of the recent general election.
Saturday
Perusal of the morning's newspapers brings a little cheer. Painful as our losses were, we can take in pride in some results Mr Paul Tyler, who was a Member with me in 1906, has finally contrived to regain a seat, the Reverend Hughes has been returned in triumph, Dame Vera Lynn has held Rochdale - how appropriate that she should follow dear Grace Fields in sitting for that happy town! - and those of us who, in recent months, have intimated that we thought Father Alton to be a few Shuttleworths short of a committee room clearly owe him an apology.
Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.
Dr Harris told the High Court that he believes some of his close friends and associates, including Vince Cable and former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, received calls from NGN journalists which cannot be "explained by anything other than voicemail interception".
Representing Dr Harris, barrister David Sherborne read a statement to the court, as the claim was formally settled:
Mr Sherborne said Dr Harris "believes that disclosed documents show that private investigator activity – which he considers to be unlawful – was directed against Hugh Grant … a few days prior to Mr Grant giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry in November 2011".
He also said NGN had disclosed other documents which Dr Harris believes reveal that fellow former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes was "outed" by The Sun as bisexual based on an itemised phone bill said to have shown Sir Simon calling a gay chat line.
In settling the claim, NGN made no admission of liability in relation to The Sun or The News of the World
From the Guardian:
The publisher of the Sun has paid a substantial sum to settle a phone-hacking claim brought by the former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes, who claimed he was illegally targeted by reporters wanting to out his sexuality.
Speaking to Byline Investigates, Simon said:
‘This was to do with unlawful obtaining of phone bills by The Sun.
‘This explains what happened 15 years ago when The Sun came to me and said they had information about my relationships.
‘In this case, we know that it wasn’t just private investigators – it went right to the top. The people at the top were quite clearly involved.’
Byline Investigates also explains exactly what went on between Simon and The Sun.
In 2006 the paper had found out the numbers that he called frequently, as well as call times and durations:
The sensitive data was bought from a notoriously illegal private investigator firm called ELI.
At the beginning of the case, Hughes was shown this disclosure and was ‘deeply troubled and shocked.’
ELI (Express Locate International) was a private detective company, which has been linked in other litigation to phone hacking, and which sold illegally-acquired private and personal information to newspapers across Fleet Street.
In the middle of a leadership contest in January 2006, Trevor Kavanagh told Mr Hughes that they had obtained private and sensitive data, but did not reveal how.
Based on this, the journalist said the paper was going to publish a story that Hughes had engaged in homosexual activities.
Hughes ‘believed that with or without his agreement,’ The Sun would publish the story anyway, according to a statement read in open court.
He felt that ‘he had no choice but to cooperate and this resulted in a front page article on January 26 2006.’
The story ended-up misrepresenting Hughes’ sexual orientation.
[The Revd Hughes] tells me he has arranged for a locum vicar to take Divine Service and visit the sick whilst he is away.
“He’s young and keen and believes every word of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is the literal truth.”
I eye him levelly: “It’s not Farron, is it?”You may also enjoy these two posts from 2010:
Four senior Liberal Democrat politicians defeated in the general election, including former business secretary Vince Cable, have turned down the offer of a peerage from Nick Clegg in the dissolution honours list.
It is understood that David Laws, the former education minister, Simon Hughes, the former justice minister, and former Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander have also decided to reject a chance to sit in the House of lords.Norman Baker has also let it be known that he is not interested in a peerage.
The sad reality is that the political consensus needed for real reform remains the victim of an arms race between the two largest parties on who can sound toughest on law and order.
Michael Howard’s 1993 declaration that ‘prison works’, contrary to all the evidence in so many cases of course, became an ideology which was then enthusiastically embraced by Labour Home and Justice Secretaries including Jack Straw, David Blunkett and John Reid.
That misguided consensus has been directly responsible for a near doubling of the prison population: from about 44,000 in the early 1990s to the 84,656 people in prison at the end of last week.You can read the whole speech on Simon's own website.
He said: "There is no right given by the judgment for people to have their personal data deleted from the search engine results. There is no unfettered right. There is no right to be forgotten. Not in the law of the UK, not in directives, not in the judgments of the court."
Hughes said a "mischievous" business of online reputation management had emerged since the judgment, offering to assist people trying to request removal of information online.
On the practicalities, Hughes commented: "It looks to me as if it may be an unmanageable task. It will be a phenomenal task. It's not technically possible to remove all traces of data loaded on to the internet from other sources. You can't exercise the right to be forgotten. The information system could not be made to do it.Simon is right, of course, and I am pleased to hear him saying this. It's just a shame that Liberal Democrat MEPs took a different line before the recent elections.
For Mr Baker it means trying to assert himself with a Secretary of State famed for her work ethic, attention to detail – and occasional reluctance to delegate. He has amassed a wide-ranging brief that brings in crime reduction, tackling violence against women, reducing animal experiments and gun licensing.
After an initial wariness, the pair have built a mutual respect and Mr Baker has achieved a higher profile than his predecessor, Jeremy Browne, who found himself isolated.
Mr Hughes has only been at the MoJ less than five months and has spoken of his determination to boost diversity in the legal profession and cut the number of women in prison.
The outside observer might imagine there is precious little meeting of minds with Chris Grayling. But the Tory Secretary of State’s hawkish language belies a strong commitment to rehabilitation shared with his Lib Dem minister.
