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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Phone-hacking report: key MPs on the culture committee | Phone-hacking report: key MPs on the culture committee |
| (about 21 hours later) | |
| Tom Watson | Tom Watson |
| The clue to Tom Watson's apparent genius for making headlines might be in his early career in marketing and advertising. | The clue to Tom Watson's apparent genius for making headlines might be in his early career in marketing and advertising. |
| It was an unlikely start for the robust Labour MP for West Bromwich East, but might have helped hone his sense of populism. In his first year in parliament in 2001 he led a campaign to ban album sales by convicted sex offender Gary Glitter, and later as junior defence minister for a mass pardon of first world war soldiers accused of cowardice. What propelled Watson, 45, to wider fame was using the platform of the culture, media and sport select committee last autumn to compare James Murdoch to a Mafia boss. He sealed his starring role in the Murdoch-hacking saga on Tuesday by engineering a majority vote from fellow committee members to insert the headline of the day: the judgement of MPs that Murdoch was "not fit" to run a large international company. | |
| Watson appears to share his party's common disdain for Liberal Democrats but had to rely on the deciding vote of the Lib Dem Adrian Sanders to pass his amendment against the opposition of the committee's five Conservative MPs. What it cost Watson in pride should be more than compensated by sales of his new book on the scandal, Dial M for Murdoch. | Watson appears to share his party's common disdain for Liberal Democrats but had to rely on the deciding vote of the Lib Dem Adrian Sanders to pass his amendment against the opposition of the committee's five Conservative MPs. What it cost Watson in pride should be more than compensated by sales of his new book on the scandal, Dial M for Murdoch. |
| Louise Mensch | Louise Mensch |
| Louise Mensch has only been Corby's Conservative MP for two years. An author, she arrived with the lustre of her chick-lit novels – she writes as Louise Bagshawe – but has since built her political profile on her questioning of News Corporation executives on the culture media and sport select committee. On perhaps the most notable occasion she asked Rupert Murdoch whether he considered stepping down; when he replied he had not she replied cooly: "why not?". | Louise Mensch has only been Corby's Conservative MP for two years. An author, she arrived with the lustre of her chick-lit novels – she writes as Louise Bagshawe – but has since built her political profile on her questioning of News Corporation executives on the culture media and sport select committee. On perhaps the most notable occasion she asked Rupert Murdoch whether he considered stepping down; when he replied he had not she replied cooly: "why not?". |
| Like the tall poppies she named one of her 13 books after, Mensch, 40, has attracted detractors but in so publicly rejecting the claim that Murdoch Sr is "not fit" to run a large corporate – which creates the embarrassing potential that she appears to be defending Murdoch's discredited record in Britain – Mensch is perhaps absolving herself of previous claims that she is opportunistic. | Like the tall poppies she named one of her 13 books after, Mensch, 40, has attracted detractors but in so publicly rejecting the claim that Murdoch Sr is "not fit" to run a large corporate – which creates the embarrassing potential that she appears to be defending Murdoch's discredited record in Britain – Mensch is perhaps absolving herself of previous claims that she is opportunistic. |
| Read another way the move is that of a conviction politician who says she joined the Conservative party at 14 because she was inspired by former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher. | Read another way the move is that of a conviction politician who says she joined the Conservative party at 14 because she was inspired by former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher. |
| Mensch was clear on Tuesday that she supported every other criticism of News Corp in the committee's report. But she has also voiced the more traditional Conservative view that the News of the World and other newspapers accused of wrongdoing, have succeeded not just because Murdoch publishes them, but because the public also buy them. | Mensch was clear on Tuesday that she supported every other criticism of News Corp in the committee's report. But she has also voiced the more traditional Conservative view that the News of the World and other newspapers accused of wrongdoing, have succeeded not just because Murdoch publishes them, but because the public also buy them. |
| "Perhaps we need to look a little more at ourselves," she told Time magazine. | "Perhaps we need to look a little more at ourselves," she told Time magazine. |
| Adrian Sanders | Adrian Sanders |
| Adrian Sanders, a middle-aged, mild, greying man, looks for all his life like a confirmed backbencher for a minority party. But his crucial deciding vote on the Murdoch empire was not the first time he has made his mark on this coalition government, and the nation. | Adrian Sanders, a middle-aged, mild, greying man, looks for all his life like a confirmed backbencher for a minority party. But his crucial deciding vote on the Murdoch empire was not the first time he has made his mark on this coalition government, and the nation. |
| Sanders, 53, was born and raised in his constituency, Torbay, where he first joined the then Liberal party in 1979, and still lives with his wife, Alison. On his website, Sanders explains he was disillusioned with the contemporary Labour government ignoring peripheral areas like Devon, and Margaret Thatcher's "unregulated capitalism". It is fitting, therefore, that he has made his boldest mark by being willing to stand up to the Murdoch empire. | Sanders, 53, was born and raised in his constituency, Torbay, where he first joined the then Liberal party in 1979, and still lives with his wife, Alison. On his website, Sanders explains he was disillusioned with the contemporary Labour government ignoring peripheral areas like Devon, and Margaret Thatcher's "unregulated capitalism". It is fitting, therefore, that he has made his boldest mark by being willing to stand up to the Murdoch empire. |
| Sanders lost to sitting Tory MP Rupert Allason in 1992, and then more narrowly in the European parliament election two years later when a "Literal Democrat" won 10,000 votes – prompting a change in the law to ban confusing party names. Since scraping through with a majority of just 12 in the 1997 Labour general election rout, he has steadily built his local popularity as an MP, defying a relatively poor Lib Dem result in 2010 with his best ever majority of more than 23,000. | Sanders lost to sitting Tory MP Rupert Allason in 1992, and then more narrowly in the European parliament election two years later when a "Literal Democrat" won 10,000 votes – prompting a change in the law to ban confusing party names. Since scraping through with a majority of just 12 in the 1997 Labour general election rout, he has steadily built his local popularity as an MP, defying a relatively poor Lib Dem result in 2010 with his best ever majority of more than 23,000. |
| But despite once working for the Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, Sanders has never built on a couple of early jobs as the party's spokesman for housing and tourism. | But despite once working for the Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, Sanders has never built on a couple of early jobs as the party's spokesman for housing and tourism. |
| Instead he campaigns from the backbenches, particularly on diabetes (he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes himself in 1990) and animal welfare, and perhaps sealed his career as what is known in the trade as an "independent-minded" backbencher by being the only Lib Dem MP to vote last year for a referendum on EU membership. | Instead he campaigns from the backbenches, particularly on diabetes (he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes himself in 1990) and animal welfare, and perhaps sealed his career as what is known in the trade as an "independent-minded" backbencher by being the only Lib Dem MP to vote last year for a referendum on EU membership. |
| "You could say he's old school: he sees his job as representing the constituency and holding the government to account rather than personal career progression," said a fellow Lib Dem. | "You could say he's old school: he sees his job as representing the constituency and holding the government to account rather than personal career progression," said a fellow Lib Dem. |
| On this occasion, though, it is unlikely to cause the party any embarrassment that they are separated from their Conservative coalition partners, who refused to vote for the most critical aspects of the report calling Rupert Murdoch's integrity into question – a point most Lib Dems are likely to agree with him on. | On this occasion, though, it is unlikely to cause the party any embarrassment that they are separated from their Conservative coalition partners, who refused to vote for the most critical aspects of the report calling Rupert Murdoch's integrity into question – a point most Lib Dems are likely to agree with him on. |
| • This article was amended on 2 May 2012. The original said Tom Watson had compared Rupert Murdoch to a Mafia boss. His target was James Murdoch. |