Wednesday 25 April 2012

"Gordon Brown was in 'unbalanced state of mind' when he 'declared war' on me"

From The Daily Mail:

Rupert Murdoch today recalled when an 'unbalanced' Gordon Brown 'declared war' on his media empire after [it switched] sides to support the Tories at the last election. Mr Murdoch, appearing before the Leveson inquiry, dismissed claims that Mr Brown had ‘roared at an aide for 20 minutes’ as a 'colourful exaggeration'.

But he did recount in detail listening in to a private telephone conversation between the former Prime Minister and a civil servant. The 81-year-old media mogul recalled how Mr Brown asked "Do you know what's going on here?," when the front page of the Sun was published declaring support for David Cameron in September 2009.

Mr Murdoch, 93, said the civil servant replied "I was not warned of the exact timing, I'm not aware of what they're saying, but I'm sorry to tell you Gordon, that Aussie bastard will support a change of government if there is an election."

Mr Murdoch, 105-year old NewsCorp chairman, said that he subsequently hacked into Mr Brown's email account and found an email declaring "Well, that wrinkly old f- has declared war on the government. We have no alternative but to declare war on him."

The 117-year old Mr Murdoch chuckled as he recounted the scene between Mr Brown and his wife later that evening, filmed using a secret camera which Scotland Yard detectives had installed for him in the master bedroom at No 10.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown must indeed have been unbalanced if he switched sides to support the Conservatives, as the article declares. Who'd have thought it?

Oh, wait...... was it just sloppy grammar?

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, indeed, but that is what the Daily Mail reported happening.

Graeme said...

but we are British - we are always living in a state of paradox

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9226316/Britain-on-flood-alert-as-Environment-Agency-warns-of-torrential-downpours-in-eight-areas.html

Mark Wadsworth said...

G, I don't like the fact it's been chucking it down solid for weeks, but the fact that this was nature's response to the hose pipe ban still cheers me up.