Brown, Labour Fuming After Murdoch Backs Conservatives

Rebekah Brooks violated basic decency on former PM's son

(NEWSER) - Learning that your child has a disability is hard enough—but try getting a phone call saying his illness will be front-page news. That’s what happened to Gordon Brown when his family was still coming to terms with his son’s cystic fibrosis: Then-Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, now CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, called him to say his “baby’s diagnosis would be splashed across the Sun,” writes Dea Birkett in the Guardian . Birkett, who has grappled with her own child’s disability, labels the phone call “horrendous, invasive,” and “unforgivable.” More»

Sun , Sunday Times took bank, health records, says source

(NEWSER) - Add Gordon Brown to the list of those allegedly hacked by News Corp employees. The former British PM believes journalists from multiple Rupert Murdoch-owned papers illegally accessed his bank information and his phone messages, a source close to Brown tells CNN . That led to a story in the Sun about Brown’s ailing son; the Sunday Times, meanwhile, snagged bank details by tricking Brown’s accountants, the PM says. More»

But public suspects the closure is just a shell game

(NEWSER) - Facing a mounting public outcry over the News of the World scandal, David Cameron today announced a pair of investigations that will look into both the News of the World's activities (including allegations of police bribery) and the future of media regulation, the AP reports. Cameron said that politicians had grown too cozy with the press. “The truth is, we've all been in this together. Party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers that we turned a blind eye.” But he refused to apologize for hiring Andy Coulson . More»

And I hated Gordon Brown

(NEWSER) - Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey, has just hit stores, and it’s loaded with juicy revelations that have Britain talking. Among them:

• Blair says he used alcohol as “a prop,” with his daily intake “definitely at the outer limit” of what was acceptable. “By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a topper,” he protests, adding that his intake was “not excessively excessive. I had a limit.”
• Much of the headlines have been dominated by his always-rumored but until now denied feud with Gordon Brown . Blair says he knew Brown would be a “disastrous” prime minister, and blames him for the party’s recent losses

Conservative becomes youngest PM in 200 years

(AP) - Britain woke up to a new political era today with the first coalition government since World War II—an unlikely marriage between the Conservative Party and the left-leaning Liberal Democrats. With a handshake, smiles and waves, the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed his new coalition partner, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, outside the shiny black door at 10 Downing Street and set off on the business of running the country. More»