Lord Duckhunter

Not at all, I've known the guy all my life and my 73 year old Dad went to school with his Dad. Over the years both his Dad( who was a journo) and my mate have told me a hell of a lot of stuff, way too much to post. Answer me this then. The editor of the NOTW goes in front of a selcet commettee and admitts paying the police, there is no song and dance about it, no scandal,no calls for any charges, why was that? Because it's common practise.

It's a bit more subtle than that. It's about building up relationships with officers over the years. His Dad was a journo, so he has a lot of contacts that way. A lot of the time young officers pass on bits they hear around the station. My mates quite good at getting tickets for shows and that, maybe he can get tickets for the young PC for a sell out show.................

My mate works for a press agency, his agency has paid the police, I geniunely thought that it was a given that everybody knew that. His agency (which has paid the police) do work for all the papers including the broadsheets, and have sold stories to the broadsheets where they've used dodgy methods to get the stories........ I clearly remember a time we were in the pub and he said he needed an early night because he had to get up early as someone was being arrested in the morning. Sure enough there it was on South Today the following night. It was a PC that had tipped him off.

I doubt if there's a journo, press agency or editor that hasn't paid the police at one time. Including Alister Campbell...........

It was common knowledge to parliament for years. If it was such a big deal why didn't the Govt of the day do something about it, back in 2003. Although, weren't NOTW a Labour supporting paper then? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13092045

He gets his photos in all papers, not just "gutter". He works for an agency, who I've no doubt paid the police. It's not as simple as good or bad press

The police tip the press off, my mates a photographer and he's been tipped off by the police hundreds of times.

This is the end game now. NOTW know that the British people can complain all they like and make out they dislike The Sun and NOTW, but the circulation figures speak for themselves. If the advertisers pull out then it's the end of the road.Brooks will lose her job as RM will ruthlessly try and distance himself from this.

Dont try and say Labour wouldd be any differant. Blair and Brown spent years sucking up to him. Unfortunatly, political debate in this country seems to involve, not winning the arguement, but winning over Trevor Kavanagh ect.

I think Ringo would go down well at Festivals. A little help from my friends, indeed.In 10 versions of his all star band, he's has some seriously great musicans. His first band was Joe Walsh Nils Lofgren Dr. John Billy Preston Rick Danko Levon Helm Jim Keltner Clarence Clemons Would have given my right arm to see that line up.

Labour have been sucking up to RM, since Kinnock lost the 92 election. They're as bad as the Torys when it comes to News International.

I can't believe the lack of ambition at the club and amongst our supporters. Surely we should be signing loads of players on high paying long term contracts, after all it worked before with Rasiak, Skacel,II and Saganowski. Talking of Saganowski, do you remember how we spent some long summer days urging the board to make his signing permanent, to show some ambition and sign him? What about Skacel, how many pages did his transfer take up, but luckily we got him in the end..................

I'ts always been in the British people's hands to ruin Murdoch. Nobody marches people at gun point to buy the Sun, NOTW or Times, Sky does not collect it's money under threat of being sent to jail. I've never understood how such rags as TOTW and The Sun are are best selling papers. Surely we should be ashamed as a nation that they are. This should be the tipping point, the moment that people refuse to buy these papers anymore, but it wont be. Thousends of chavs will pop up the shops Sunday morning for their fill of gossip and t1ts.

My old man knew a builder who took out a £17,000 mortgage in 1970. My old man always tells the story, that all his mates thought he was mad, all shook their head wondering how on earth he was going to pay it all back. 25 years later in 1995, £17,000 was peanuts in terms of mortgage repayments.

I read once that in the 70's it cost the same to go to football as visit the cinema. Now it costs £8 for cinema and god knows what for football.

The only Conspiracy about 9/11 that I believe is the one involving the plane that the "passengers" crashed. I'm convinced that the US Govt blew it out of the sky to prevent it crashing into 3 mile island or wherever, and they then invented this passenger revolt story. I base this theory on no fact whatsoever but I'm hoping the BBC will commission me to make a programme about it.

Mortgages were pretty tough to get for my Fathers generation. You had to have an account with the Building Society and had to go cap in hand to be interviewed by the Manager.People genuinely went without stuff to save a deposit, which was still high even in those days. There was also issues around remortgaging, you had to provide estimates and receipts to prove it was for house improvements. There was not the easy credit around that there has been the past 25 years. However there was an upside once you got on the ladder.House prices exploded, inflation and some massive % pay increases through the 70's meant that when my father came to pay off his mortgage, it was not a great deal of money in real terms.They also had many years of MIRAS,and theere used to be tax relief on endowments as well. There was also the extra money a lot of them got from their endowments. Also when he reached the age that he had some money to invest or save, along came Thatcher's privatisations. All in all he is now better off than I will be in 26 years time, when I reach his age. Therefore in purely ecomonic terms I would say that the BB's, did have the best times, provided they owned their own house, had an endowment mortgage and a company pension.

I saw Neil Diamond on a BBC 4 prgramme and was surprised how humble a bloke he appeared to be . I had heard that Billy Joel gave a good show. The best I've seen were Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and Johnny Cash, but Ringo was up there in terms of having a good night out. The worst was chuck Berry, did half an hour then ****ed off with no encore.

I would think that his agent is advising him. He's more than likely touting him round to see if he can get a "better" deal somewhere else.

John Lennon once said that although there were a few hip people in the 60's, most of the country was still stuck in the 1950's and full of squares. Blokes went to work with bowler hats on, and women stayed at home to look after the kids. Free love and the swinging sixties missed my Father as he was too busy trying to feed 3 children and save for a house. If you were normal, wealthy and well eductated then the baby boomers did have a great time growing up. However, if you were gay, a single mother, black or poor then things weren't exactly a bed of roses. A few good tunes hardly make uop for some of the **** you had to put up with.

The only decent boy band was The Monkees.

Roofing, that is real men's work. I think I would last about 3 hours nowadays before dropping dead. I did it for a few years about 22 years ago and glad I got out. Nowadays there seems to be a lot more H&S around it, but it wasn't always like that. Fell off a roof once, the feeling of slidding down the tiles, unable to stop myself flying off the edge, is one of the most frightening things I've ever felt.I was lucky, broken wrist and a load of bumps and brusies.

You try and tell a 23 year old that he's an idiot for not planning for 2058, it's not an easy thing to get through to them.

That's only applicable if people are already saving for a pension. How do we make people save in the first place? My oldest has quite a decent job at Sunseekers, but he cant see the point in saving towards his retirement. He has bought his own place and is pretty switched on, but does not save a penny towards his retirement. In 50 years time, it's his kids who will be paying for that.