It's getting brutal, as emails reveal that the Cameron cabinet secretary, Jeremy Hunt, assigned to preside over the question of the Murdochs' full take-over of BSkyB, was in constant contact with James Murdoch, to keep him up to date. Money quote:
News Corp executives were even given private briefings on Mr Hunt’s confidential discussions with regulators and other media organisations. At one point, News Corp's chief lobbyist emailed James Murdoch to say he had “managed to get some info” on what Jeremy Hunt would announce to Parliament the next day "although absolutely illegal!". The same lobbyist suggested an agreed "plan" between News Corp and the Government would lead to "game over for the opposition".
Hunt should obviously resign ASAP. And today, for good measure, the former editor of the Independent, Simon Kelner, recounts the day Rupert James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks came to see him two years ago. Money quote:
I sat on a sofa, Brooks perched on the arm of another sofa, and Murdoch walked and talked. He was excitable and angry. "You've impugned the reputation of my family," he said at one point. He called me "a fucking fuckwit" and became furious at my bemusement that he should find our campaign so upsetting, given that one of his newspapers famously claimed that it did indeed decide elections.
Brooks said very little, but, when her boss's rage blew itself out, chipped in with: "We thought you were our friend". Their use of language and the threatening nature of their approach came straight from the "Mafioso for Beginners" handbook.
The Dish 