My thoughts on the arrest of Charlie and Rebekah Brooks
Whilst growing up, at home, when my family spoke of “hacking” we were talking about taking the horses out into the countryside. Now, sadly, this term has become more associated with Rupert Murdoch, News Corp and a bunch of bleating celebrities than with a leisurely pleasure ride.
When the former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, whom I’d argue has wrongly been made the sole “she-devil” of this seamlessly growing scandal, was arrested along with her husband this morning, I have to say I immediately thought how convenient the timing must have been for many in the public eye.
Today marks the start of The Cheltenham Festival 2012, an event that undoubtedly the horse trainer Charlie Brooks and his wife would have been attending. That their home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire happened to be raided on this particular morning, to me, seems like nothing other than an attempt to prevent further “horsegate” references and a bid to save further embarrassment for David Cameron and the Metropolitan Police.
Recent revelations that Scotland Yard had lent an ex-police horse, Raisa, to Mrs Brooks were not helpful to the Prime Minister, who had to concede he’d ridden the animal in the company of Mr Brooks, an old friend from their Eton schooldays. Puns a plenty followed and they were something that Cameron did not want to on “furlong.”
As such, the inevitable photographs that would have appeared this week of Mr & Mrs Brooks in their tweeds with racehorses would have just brought further salaciously horsey headlines and further embarrassment. I do indeed suspect this is the real reason for the arrest of the couple between 5am and 7am this morning.
The Brooks’s may be guilty. They may be innocent. Either way, the timing of their arrests just stinks on the part of Operation Weeting. Though I’ll not gain many plaudits for suggesting this, I say shame on the Metropolitan Police.
For more on The Cheltenham Festival, go to: http://www.cheltenham-festival.co.uk
For a profile on Mr & Mrs Charlie Brooks by The Daily Telegraph, go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9140263/Profile-Rebekah-and-Charlie-Brooks.html