Leveson – Advance Of The Rent-A-Quotes

And so it came to pass: after the initial breach made by the collected ranting and frothing of attention seeking Tory MP (well, until 2015, perhaps) Rob Wilson, along with the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, has come another wave of pundits ordered over the top in pursuit of discrediting the Leveson Inquiry, despite the tactic having failed thus far.

The Murdoch Sun declared “It’s A Huge Loversum” (geddit?!? Er, no, actually), while trowelling on the relationship between Carine Patry Hoskins and David Sherborne, which happened after it could have had any effect on proceedings. Just for good measure, Rupe’s downmarket troops suggest Ms Patry Hoskins took a shine to Hugh Grant. Perhaps. Sort of. Nudge-nudge.

And to show that the story has worked its way round the cheaper end of the Fourth Estate, the Express has pickup up on it, including a new rent-a-quote, Matthew Sinclair, chief non-job holder at the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA): “Either she was paid far too much for basic work or she played a much bigger role than has been acknowledged”. Thus the legal expertise of economics graduates.

The shifting from the news angle – inevitable, given that there is next to no news here, with the fees for public sector work laid down some years previously, as I pointed out yesterday – to comment continued in the Sun. “She got £218,606 for 16 months’ work. More than the Prime Minister”. Got free run of 10 Downing Street, Chequers and the rest, along with the limos, did she?

Rupe’s downmarket troops move right along from asserting that there was “a glaring conflict of interest” without being able to stand it up, to talk of Leveson being about “how to muzzle Britain’s press”, and conclude “Either Patry Hoskins was a key figure in compiling the report. Or the Leveson inquiry blew a scandalous sum of public money on an office junior”. How much does Sun editor Dominic Mohan get paid?

Does he get the £150,000 a year that Ms Patry Hoskins was paid for her work at the Leveson Inquiry? You jest. Dom trousers around £660,000, and, this being a private sector organisation, we don’t get to see how that “adds up”. With all the costs incurred by Leveson (link HERE in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet), we know how everything stacks up. It is completely transparent.

But that would not be sufficient for Daily Mail Comment, the authentic voice of the Vagina Monologue, which thunders “doesn’t this raise awkward questions about why anyone should be paid so much for such apparently undemanding work?” to which the answer is, only for those trying to retain the status quo for the press to carry on screwing over the public as they see fit – like Paul Dacre.

How much does Dacre earn? £1.8 million a year. What colour is the pot, kettle?