Tabloid Dinosaur Exhumed Shock

The defence of some accused of being complicit in phone hacking was that they knew nothing about it. All those stories being stood up by no visible evidence generated no fear, no surprise in some, even those who achieved senior editorial rank. They knew nothing.

Neil Wallis

For one of those who achieved high office within the press establishment, the admission of ineptitude surprised very few of his colleagues: Neil Wallis, who likes to be called the Wolfman, but is more often referred to as “The Rasping Fuckwit”, claimed not to know about all the illegal information gathering. He convinced a jury. He was acquitted.

Lewis Goodall

That’s despite the claim made by Private Eye magazine, and not denied by Wallis when I put it to him, that it was he who played Piers Morgan the message left by Paul McCartney on Heather Mills’ voicemail. Wallis is still around, and now is shamelessly engaged in excusing the uselessness of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

So when Lewis Goodall of BBC Newsnight told “Spent the day in Oxfordshire talking to carers They tell a tale of the mistakes of this crisis, how the differences between expensive care homes and more modest ones and good and bad companies help determine who lives and who dies for both residents and carers” (thread HERE), in he jumped.

Goodall contrasted “Cumnor Hill House in Oxford they've had no deaths and only five positive cases. Residents are locked down in their rooms. But it's well staffed. The cost is £1500 a week. £85000 a year. That compares with around £500 a week in some northern local authorities” with “Across the county, I talked to another carer. Her testimony is shocking. She has a different experience. Her care home is under resourced. Half their staff are off. They've had 15 deaths in her unit alone”. Wallis was not happy.

Spent the day in Oxfordshire? “Of course you did”. Which means he does not believe Goodall, and indeed is suggesting he is not being totally honest. His target shot back “Hi Neil! Below is the quite literal recorded proof. If you’d like to watch it and then repeat your defamatory accusation that I was lying (and worse continue to infer that the carers you probably just spent a few weeks clapping don’t really have problems) - be my guest”.

Sadly, Wallis was of less than perfect courage. “Hey Lewis, never occurred to me you’re so sensitive as to think I thought you’d made it up - I was referring to fact that despite care home tragedies thankfully falling you’re out there in typical [Newsnight] ’Gotcha’ style desperately scraping together another anti-govt story”. What a creep.

Peter Jukes reminded Goodall “Neil Wallis’ only real claim to fame is that he was the most incompetent deputy editor of the News of the World and didn’t notice his editor and heads of dept were all hacking phones. Best ignored, or pivot away to focus on the story. As you’ve done”. And Sandi Logan was yet more unimpressed.

“You're so full of it Neil; never hesitate to play the man instead of the ball, but when someone challenges you, default is ‘you're so sensitive’ bullshit. Care home deaths at an appallingly high level under Johnson b/c he & his third grade government completely dropped the ball”. Obvious to some, but maybe not to The Rasping Fuckwit.

Neil Wallis is at least consistent - as in consistently useless. No change there, then.

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