Oh, Brother
by Richard Lutz
Call me out of date. But did it pass by most of us that The Prime Minister’s brother, Alexander Cameron QC, is head of the legal chambers that is representing Rebekah Brooks in the phone hacking trial in a fortnight’s time?
Nothing wrong with that. Brother Alexander is symbolic head of chambers. But not actually taking the Murdoch-linked sleaze case himself.
He makes it clear in a response to The Drum Magazine from June that he is a titular frontman of the group which is composed of self employed barristers. Here is the whole article: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/06/05/prime-minister-s-barrister-brother-heads-legal-chambers-representing-rebekah-brooks#3zycbKP0pMXRuqDj.99
But heads got to turn when you consider how David Cameron and Ms Brooks were tight pals in the Cotswold set; how Brooks’ bagman Andy Coulson was Downing Street press boss until charged with hacking; and, how Cameron was the actual instigator of the controversial Leveson Inquiry into Press Standards in order to take the heat out of the Murdoch scandal.
To the casual bystander, it is a case of ‘here we go again.’
The phone hacking trial will emit a sewer of stinking vomit come the evidence and the anger from victims who had their privacy robbed by the Murdoch tabloids.
Mrs Brooks, who was Murdoch’s chief buttonman in the UK, is pleading not guilty to charges of phone hacking, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and unlawful payment to officials.
The fact that the court case comes as the new press regulations are being hotly debated and contested just shows how crucial it is to get the outcome of the trial right with no subsequent questions arising from a verdict.
The Prime Minister’s brother is quite right to state he is literally the technical head of the barristers’ chambers and not the lawyer taking the Brooks’ case.
But still…..