News of the World admits it

The News of the World has finally admitted what the whole world knew - that phone hacking was far more widespread within that organisation than had been uncovered by the first police investigation.

It is a sign of how threatened they are by the latest investigation that they have issued a public apology and set up a compensation fund in an attempt to buy off the celebrities and politicians who are suing them.

Former Labour minister John Prescott has called for News International's (NI) takeover of satellite broadcasting company BSkyB to be suspended while the case is ongoing; no doubt the prospect of the deal being endangered played a big part in NI's admission and the attempt to draw a line under the affair.

Hilariously, NI claims the responsibility for uncovering the latest evidence. On one level this is true - they did suddenly 'find' an email server which contained thousands of emails. Giving evidence in the perjury trial of Scottish socialist Tommy Sheridan, the NoW's former editor and ex-Cameron spin doctor, Andy Coulson, and the paper's former Scottish editor, Bob Bird, claimed that these emails had been lost when they had been transferred to Mumbai.

Such a scarcely believable claim should be subject to a perjury investigation but it appears that there has been collusion between NI and the police, both north and south of the border.

Ken Douglas

Rigged bonus

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico last April killed eleven workers, including nine Transocean employees, the company that owned the rig.

The subsequent oil spill was the worst in US history, gushing millions of gallons into the Gulf and causing an ecological disaster. In January this year, President Obama's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill released a report blaming the accident on BP, Halliburton and Transocean (see The Socialist, issue 653).

Is it therefore surprising that Transocean president Steven Newman has seen his salary recently increase by $200,000 to £1.1 million, receive a bonus of $374,000 and this on top of the $5.4 million he was paid for joining Transocean? No!

Rob Bishop

Cost analysis

A study by 200 experts calculates that nitrogen pollution from capitalist agriculture and industry is costing £280 billion a year (£650 per person) and shortening by six months the life of every person in Europe.

Rather than simply pressing for 'lifestyle changes' to address environmental problems, the major issue to tackle is food production, power generation and transport. These are areas of economic activity, which under capitalism, are driven by the need to maximise profit rather than to meet human needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

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News International:

The phone-hacking scandal: profits, power and corruption

Rebekah Brooks reveals Murdoch's reach into the heart of government

MPs find Murdoch "not fit" to run media empire