Culture Secretary John Whittingdale Caught in Prostitution Scandal

[LeftishBrit]

5. I can't help wondering if the blackmail is already happening...

Last edited Wed Apr 13, 2016, 11:19 AM - Edit history (3)

at the hands of the Murdoch empire. Who may not have much liked his ordering their representatives to testify in the phone hacking scandal.

It was alleged at the time that Whittingdale had tried to persuade members of his parliamentary committee to refrain from requiring Rebekah Brooks to testify, in case she got her revenge by means of nasty media reports on their personal lives.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielknowles/100097339/the-mps-who-will-take-on-the-murdochs/

He denied it. Who knows? The present allegations make it perhaps more likely that he was indeed worrying about such revenge.

If he knew himself to be particularly vulnerable to blackmail, he should have resigned at the time.

I have little sympathy for him; he is a nasty character who opposed the minimum wage claiming that it was an incentive for immigration, and voted against same-sex marriage (which if his own sexual behaviour is as alleged, is either specifically bigoted against gays, or utterly hypocritical, or both). But I do worry that this may entrench the power of the media barons, and that they may indeed be spreading these revelations precisely for this purpose.