Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

[Comped 526]

32 minutes ago, Grim Up North said:

 

A near catastrophe where no one got hurt. What does that mean?

They claim a 2 hour car chase through Manhattan where 2 police cars were either damaged or nearly damaged. Yet no arrests, no police report, no record of this happening from any television station, nothing known to the public (or likely law enforcement, much less the media) until the day after the fact. I am very suspicious!

[Dead Wait 1,129]

33 minutes ago, Comped said:

They claim a 2 hour car chase through Manhattan where 2 police cars were either damaged or nearly damaged. Yet no arrests, no police report, no record of this happening from any television station, nothing known to the public (or likely law enforcement, much less the media) until the day after the fact. I am very suspicious!

Perhaps he went to the Fast X movie premiere and has things a little confused….

[Perhaps 1,423]

Now would be a splendid time to bring in a thread muting tool. Can’t be arsed to ignore the inevitable pages of speculation about this saga. 

[gcreptile 10,966]

I was wondering how wacky their stunts would get after the coronation. They have to bridge the gap until Charles' death somehow.

[Toast 16,132]

2 hours ago, Comped said:

They claim a 2 hour car chase through Manhattan where 2 police cars were either damaged or nearly damaged. Yet no arrests, no police report, no record of this happening from any television station, nothing known to the public (or likely law enforcement, much less the media) until the day after the fact. I am very suspicious!

 

And oh, what a coincidence just as Harry's court cases are ripening - the ones in which he is trying to get his security paid for wherever he is.

Since he resigned as a working Royal he's only protected when he's attending a Royal event, eg the coronations, funerals, jubilees etc. 

Elsewhere he has to pay for security himself.  As he should do.

 

I'll take Things That Never Happened for $500, please, Alex.

 

 

[The Old Crem 3,583]

Awarded damages by the Mirror. 

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

2 hours ago, The Old Crem said:

Awarded damages by the Mirror. 

 

 

Which is nowt on the damage done to The Mirror and - by implication - the rest of the crowd who still get labelled as Fleet Street. The industry's forked out hundreds of millions in mainly confidential settlements in the hope of avoiding this day. Seriously, Harry's gone up in my estimation for sticking this out and apart from him it's a victory for everyone unwittingly caught in the shitstorm, especially families who blundered into being intruded upon by the press much in the way Millie Dowler's family did. They didn't have the money or contacts to hold out for this judgement. 

 

When Piers Morgan finally decideds to comment could someone post a link, he will, because he can't go on being Piers Morgan unless he does.

[The Old Crem 3,583]

7 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

 

 

Which is nowt on the damage done to The Mirror and - by implication - the rest of the crowd who still get labelled as Fleet Street. The industry's forked out hundreds of millions in mainly confidential settlements in the hope of avoiding this day. Seriously, Harry's gone up in my estimation for sticking this out and apart from him it's a victory for everyone unwittingly caught in the shitstorm, especially families who blundered into being intruded upon by the press much in the way Millie Dowler's family did. They didn't have the money or contacts to hold out for this judgement. 

 

When Piers Morgan finally decideds to comment could someone post a link, he will, because he can't go on being Piers Morgan unless he does.

Considering the majority of British people want Harry tried for treason I doubt many people will care about this. Only people who still like Harry will care much about it. Because of how unpopular him and his wife are the press know it won’t have that much effect. 

[time 8,596]

7 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

Considering the majority of British people want Harry tried for treason I doubt many people will care about this. Only people who still like Harry will care much about it. Because of how unpopular him and his wife are the press know it won’t have that much effect. 

*citation needed

 

Is that you Piers?

[The Old Crem 3,583]

1 minute ago, time said:

*citation needed

 

Is that you Piers?

It hasn’t been asked in a poll but the answer would be yes for sure. Polls show just how unpopular he is and his wife is even more unpopular. 

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

7 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

Considering the majority of British people want Harry tried for treason I doubt many people will care about this. Only people who still like Harry will care much about it. Because of how unpopular him and his wife are the press know it won’t have that much effect. 

 

 

Not expecting this to have much effect on his popularity, I'm thinking how he's genuinely thrown a grenade into the way the press behave and caused an existential crisis, the other three litigants today didn't really achieve that, two cases thrown out for being out of time despite being quite deserving. The press are in a crisis anyway, sales tanking, hundreds of millions paid out in settlements to stop this day ever coming. The key thing here is that the whole set-up of private investigators being used as an unofficial arm of the press and - therefore - the execs not being responsible is shredded in this judgement and a measure of how that impacts on the press is there to be seen in the fact the Mirror (or their new owners) have just accepted this. They know how strong their appeal evidence would prove to be.

[time 8,596]

1 minute ago, The Old Crem said:

It hasn’t been asked in a poll but the answer would be yes for sure. Polls show just how unpopular he is and his wife is even more unpopular. 

"Unpopular" is not the same as "the majority of British people want Harry tried for treason".

[The Old Crem 3,583]

17 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

 

 

Not expecting this to have much effect on his popularity, I'm thinking how he's genuinely thrown a grenade into the way the press behave and caused an existential crisis, the other three litigants today didn't really achieve that, two cases thrown out for being out of time despite being quite deserving. The press are in a crisis anyway, sales tanking, hundreds of millions paid out in settlements to stop this day ever coming. The key thing here is that the whole set-up of private investigators being used as an unofficial arm of the press and - therefore - the execs not being responsible is shredded in this judgement and a measure of how that impacts on the press is there to be seen in the fact the Mirror (or their new owners) have just accepted this. They know how strong their appeal evidence would prove to be.

It’s been obvious for a few years practices have changed. There are way less stories about celebrities that Involve non public imfomation. Social media means there can fill a very high amount of articles just using what is in the public domain and rely on informants for the rest (Who can be paid for sending in social media stuff that might need a bit of research but is in the public domain on public accounts. )

 

And if they did use Phone hacking now they wouldn’t get much information. Voicemail usage has dropped a lot particualy non WhatsApp Vociemail’s. 

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

5 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

It’s been obvious for a few years practices have changed. There are way less stories about celebrities that Involve non public imfomation. Social media means there can fill a very high amount of articles just using what is in the public domain and rely on informants for the rest (Who can be paid for sending in social media stuff that might need a bit of research but is in the public domain on public accounts. )

 

 

Hell yeah, but other than  the judgement two things here are bad news for the press. Firstly, for as long as they're reduced to scraping social media they're not selling the public much that isn't easily available from another source. Secondly, anyone who thinks they have a case and hasn't already settled with a confidential agreement is doubtless considering their options now. Some of the private investigators were employed by more than one newspaper group. Whether anyone in the press has the stomach for more time in court is another question, might end up like the Catholic church everywhere but the UK with a damages fund, window of time for claimants and a fairly low standard of evidence. 

[TQR 14,386]

31 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

Considering the majority of British people want Harry tried for treason I doubt many people will care about this. Only people who still like Harry will care much about it. Because of how unpopular him and his wife are the press know it won’t have that much effect. 

 

You cannot speak for the whole country unless you have evidence to support your claim.

[YoungWillz 21,033]

Piers Morgan just gone off on one about this.

 

Haven't seen him this irate since he walked off the breakfast tv show.

 

Using the usual journalist patter of slagging Harry off about his appearance, before laying into him about truth telling.

 

Personally, I'm not invested. Anything that puts a bitter taste in Morgan's mouth however is most welcome.

[Toast 16,132]

I was surprised to see the outcome of this, but reading past the headlines it emerges that it was only a partial win for Harry.  More than half of his claims were dismissed.  It did seem clear from his testimony that he had little to no evidence beyond his own imagination and accordingly the judge has dismantled and binned most of Harry's claims.  The Mirror doesn't come out of it as badly as the headlines suggest too.

 

Summary

Quote

Duke of Sussex.
10. I have found the Duke’s case of voicemail interception and unlawful information gathering
proved in part only. I found that 15 out of the 33 articles that were tried were the product of
phone hacking of his mobile phone or the mobile phones of his associates, or the product of
other unlawful information gathering. I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest
extent, and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper.
However, it did happen on occasions from about the end of 2003 to April 2009 (which was
the date of the last article that I examined). There was a tendency for the Duke in his evidence
to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone
hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not the only
journalistic tool at the time, and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up
to careful analysis.

11. There were also a number of separate invoices, unconnected to published articles, which I
consider to be evidence of unlawful gathering of the Duke’s private information.

12. I have accordingly awarded the Duke damages in respect of each of the articles and invoices
where unlawful information gathering was proved. I have also awarded a further sum to
compensate the Duke fully for the distress that he suffered as a result of the unlawful activity
directed at him and those close to him. I recognise that Mirror Group was not responsible for
all the unlawful activity that was directed at the Duke, and that a good deal of the oppressive
behaviour of the Press towards the Duke over the years was not unlawful at all. Mirror Group
therefore only played a small part in everything that the Duke suffered and the award of
damages on this ground is therefore modest.

13. I have also awarded a sum for aggravated damages, to reflect the particular hurt and sense of
outrage that the Duke feels because two directors of Trinity Mirror plc, to whom the board
had delegated day-to-day responsibility for such matters, knew about the illegal activity that
was going at their newspapers and could and should have put a stop to it. Instead of doing so,
they turned a blind eye to what was going on, and positively concealed it. Had the illegal
conduct been stopped, the misuse of the Duke’s private information would have ended much
sooner.

14. The total sum that I have awarded the Duke in damages is £140,600.

 

 

It's well worth reading the full judgment.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Duke-of-Sussex-v-MGN-Judgment.pdf

[The Old Crem 3,583]

57 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

 

 

Hell yeah, but other than  the judgement two things here are bad news for the press. Firstly, for as long as they're reduced to scraping social media they're not selling the public much that isn't easily available from another source. Secondly, anyone who thinks they have a case and hasn't already settled with a confidential agreement is doubtless considering their options now. Some of the private investigators were employed by more than one newspaper group. Whether anyone in the press has the stomach for more time in court is another question, might end up like the Catholic church everywhere but the UK with a damages fund, window of time for claimants and a fairly low standard of evidence. 

It’s quite hard to bring new cases because of the limitation rules. Two of the four in this case failed on that rule. Nikki Sanderson for example started her case in 2020 so could only win if articles from 2014 or later were found to have been unlawful. 

[Bentrovato 1,087]

Has he tried getting a job. Wagner are recruiting. Have Sandline folded?

[The Old Crem 3,583]

27 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Piers Morgan just gone off on one about this.

 

Haven't seen him this irate since he walked off the breakfast tv show.

 

Using the usual journalist patter of slagging Harry off about his appearance, before laying into him about truth telling.

 

Personally, I'm not invested. Anything that puts a bitter taste in Morgan's mouth however is most welcome.

I don’t think Piers Lawyer would have approved his statement but it helps very frame it in a way that makes it a lot easier for it to be ignored because the pro Prince Harry side of political debate is not in a strong point. Labour for example won’t dare risk being seen as doing anything pro Prince Harry. 

[TQR 14,386]

3 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

Labour for example won’t dare risk being seen as doing anything pro Prince Harry. 

 

What would count as "pro Prince Harry" and who has said Labour won't do whatever that turns out to be?

[The Old Crem 3,583]

2 minutes ago, TQR said:

 

What would count as "pro Prince Harry" and who has said Labour won't do whatever that turns out to be?

At this stage anything about press reform. If there is one headline Keir Starmer won’t want is being accused of following orders from Harry and Meghan. Pretty much his entire strategy for the election is about winning pro monarchy red wall voters, 

[TQR 14,386]

18 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

At this stage anything about press reform. If there is one headline Keir Starmer won’t want is being accused of following orders from Harry and Meghan. Pretty much his entire strategy for the election is about winning pro monarchy red wall voters, 

That’d be really quite fucking mad though, wouldn’t it? I think people who do that are vastly overestimating their power, relevance etc. The type to accuse Bill Gates of doing corona vaccine chips, that kind of nutcase.

 

Also, “anything about press reform” is not “pro-Harry and Meghan”. Once again, people who might claim this (which, happily, I haven’t seen) must be so frighteningly hellbent on spewing bile in the direction of these two incredibly dull people, you have to question their judgement on pretty much everything else. Of course you can want a reformed press (I do) without giving a shimmering fuck about them two (I don’t).

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

Aye, good rant from Morgan and the bit about being pissed at both sides for failing to call him in court is the high point. Of course, it's always possible another case will be brought and he will be called - whether he's so bolshy with a barrister throwing the questions at him would be worth seeing.

[Toast 16,132]

2 hours ago, TQR said:

Also, “anything about press reform” is not “pro-Harry and Meghan”. Once again, people who might claim this (which, happily, I haven’t seen) must be so frighteningly hellbent on spewing bile in the direction of these two incredibly dull people, you have to question their judgement on pretty much everything else. Of course you can want a reformed press (I do) without giving a shimmering fuck about them two (I don’t).

 

Exactly, there are things far more seriously wrong with the press than tittle-tattle about celebs.