Essential Research: 54-46 to Coalition

Essential Research’s rolling fortnightly average continues to swing between 54-46 and 55-45, this week’s move of the pendulum being in Labor’s favour. Labor is up a point on the primary vote to 35 per cent, with the Coalition down one to 47 per cent and the Greens down one to 9 per cent. Also featured are questions on the outlook for 2012 for the economy, the parties (good for Liberal, very poor for Labor and the Greens), political leaders (poor for Tony Abbott, very poor for Julia Gillard, about neutral for Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull) and respondents personally. Most interestingly, only 26 per cent expect Julia Gillard will still lead the ALP in 12 months’ time against 55 per cent who think she won’t. The respective figures for Tony Abbott are 41 per cent and 34 per cent. Thirty-two per cent expect a federal election in the coming year, against 42 per cent who don’t.

Also:

• Newspoll reports that supplementary questions in its December 2-4 poll had 14 per cent expecting their financial position to improve over the next year (up two from last year), 57 per cent expected it to stay the same (up six) and 28 per cent thought it would get worse (down seven). Coalition voters were solidly more pessimistic than Labor supporters.

• A Liberal Party preselection vote on Saturday for Craig Thomson’s central coast NSW seat of Dobell was won by Gary Whitaker, former Hornsby Shire councillor and managing director of a local educational services company. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Diary reports this as a defeat for Chris Hartcher, state government minister, Terrigal MP and local powerbroker, as his preferred candidate had been WorkCover public servant Karen McNamara. Also reportedly in the field was Matthew Lusted, managing director of a Central Coast construction company.

• Michelle Grattan of The Age reports Russell Broadbent, the Liberal member for the western Gippsland seat of McMillan, is likely to pay for his ideological moderation with a preselection challenge. However, Broadbent is thought likely to prevail, as the conservative forces being marshalled against him (“local Catholic members” apparently featuring prominently) will largely be ineligible to participate in the preselection because they have not been party members for two years. Any preselection vote is likely to take place in February and involve 300 local branch members.

• Brett Worthington of the Bendigo Advertiser reports Greg Westbrook, director of legal firm Petersen Westbrook Cameron, has nominated for Labor preselection in Bendigo, to be vacated at the next election by the retirement of Steve Gibbons. Lisa Chesters, a Kyneton-based official with United Voice (formerly the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union), is also rated a possible starter.

• There is mounting talk that Lara Giddings’ tenure as Tasmanian Premier is in jeopardy just a year after she replaced David Bartlett. Matt Smith of The Mercury has reported that David O’Byrne, who entered parliament at the March 2010 election, fancies himself as the apple isle’s answer to Kristina Keneally, and has secured backing from party room colleagues Michelle O’Byrne (his sister), Scott Bacon, Graeme Sturges, Brian Wightman, Craig Farrell and Brenton Best. This leaves only Michael Polley and Doug Parkinson in Giddings’ corner, while Bryan Green and Rebecca White remain on the fence. Bruce Montgomery, a former state political reporter for The Australian, writes in Crikey that public sector unions have been angered by Giddings’ pursuit of job cuts to balance the budget, and are hopeful of a more sympathetic hearing from O’Byrne, a former state secretary of the LHMWU. Kevin Harkins of Unions Tasmania, Chris Brown of the Health and Community Services Union and Tom Lynch of the Community and Public Sector Union are identified as critics of Giddings by The Mercury. However, O’Byrne has more recently denied any plans for a challenge.

• With former SA Treasurer Kevin Foley officially resigning from parliament, a by-election in his seat of Port Adelaide has been set for February 11. There is an expectation that Mike Rann’s resignation will follow shortly so that a by-election can be held for his seat of Ramsay on the same day.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

2,596 comments on “Essential Research: 54-46 to Coalition”

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  1. Thefinnigans TheFinnigans天地有道人无道
    @
    @BreakfastNews @LaTrioli Trioli, corruption in Indonesia? You gotta be joking. That shows how little you know about Indonesia.
    5 seconds ago

  2. [CTar1
    Posted Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 11:54 pm | Permalink

    re’ 2293 – She’s a piece of trash: gossip journalism of the worst type. NOTW special.]

    Agreed. She’s the Sophie Mirabella of reporting. Her old man, Frank Devine, was a reactionary old whinger but could be quite funny at times (both intentionally and unintentionally). But little Miranda is not exactly a chip off the old block. She’s a spiteful brat.

    The day after Black Saturday, while people are still counting the victims, the extent of the damage and if missing people have survived, she ran a column blaming it all on the Greens for forcing public pressure to stop burnoffs. Point-scoring opportunism that might even have troubled Abbott.

    It’s a great pity that apparently there is a market for this sort of venom and that she is hugely well paid for spitting it out.

  3. Up to their old tricks again…

    The OO writes this headline and intro:

    [Labor ready to put Nauru on table, says Chris Bowen

    * by: Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent
    * From: The Australian
    * December 22, 2011 12:00AM

    LABOR is prepared to accept sending asylum-seekers to Nauru as part of a deal with the Coalition to legislate its Malaysia Solution and reinstate offshore processing.

    Cabinet has given Immigration Minister Chris Bowen the authority to concede the Gillard government will adopt Nauru as part of its border protection regime in return for Coalition support for legislation to circumvent the High Court’s ruling that wiped out Labor’s plan to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia.]

    … without one single quote from Bowen.

    Did Bowen say it or didn’t he?

  5. Now you know why Australia retains its AAA rating from all agencies and why AUD is holding up so well at the parity mark:

    [FOREIGN developers have grabbed a 30 per cent share of Australia’s apartment market, a trend not repeated since the Japanese office and hotel development boom in the late 1980s.

    Overseas investors are behind 13,000 apartments in 37 projects in Australia. Based on the average number of apartments completed in 2011, that represents a market share of as much as 32 per cent, research by the property group CBRE finds………

    ‘Asian developers, predominantly from Singapore, are leading the pack, accounting for 92 per cent of all apartments being proposed or developed by foreign companies,” a CBRE executive director, Kevin Stanley, said.

    The second-biggest investor is Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium, which is building 2600 apartments in Melbourne’s billion-dollar Upper West Side project on Lonsdale Street. Malaysian, Chinese, Korean and Indian developers are huge investors too.]

    http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/asian-money-pours-into-city-apartments-20111221-1p4in.html

  7. Thanks to the Greens the Coalition and Abbott have won another round. Great work by the “pure party” they would rather see a Government lead by Abbott.
    The Greens will never form Government with a stubborn mindset that they hold, they will forever be a thorn in the side of Labor.

  8. [BB, is that your old mate Matt Wangklin?]

    No, my old mate is Fatt Wanklin. He makes up stories, bootstraps, exaggerates and puts a negative spin on anything Labor does.

    Matt Franklin, on the other hand, works for The Australian.

  9. The Finnigans #2348

    The corruption, I guess, can be understood.

    What I don’t understand is why they can still find people to crew the boats. They must be paying the crew what they think is enough but surely the ‘news’ will get through to potential crew that no one just heads south, cruises in to Flying Fish Cove, unloads and turns around and goes home. They must be going to run out of crew who will do this.

  10. Good morning all.
    Just heard the LOTO saying it was ‘great’ that Labor are taking up the Nauru option. However, any talks should now be between himself and the PM who should return from holidays….his arrogance knows no bounds. He said he wants Malaysia out of the equasion and TPV’s etc and that it is time Julia Guillard put aside her “stubborness” in the interest of Australia. If there is a God up there, why does he not strike the lying, arrogant mongrel down?

  14. Morning All

    Thanks to Ctar1 for posting Detention figures last night – it’s kind of scary that over 2000 people have been in detention for over 12 months, surely we can process them much more quickly. They are either legitimate refugees and should be released or should be sent home.

    Even in saying that – when you look at Bernard’s figures from yesterday – 3330 arrivals by boat this year and I’ll stick with the old argument that the numbers are tiny. Of course that’s not the issue though, it’s all about politics and the numbers argument is made redundant because the major political parties won’t make it

    So my question for this morning is a simple one, if Labor want to embrace Liberal asylum seeker policies – why not just do it in full??? That way the next boat is the Liberals fault not theirs – i.e. admit they got it “wrong” and go back to the pre Rudd policies – any boat that arrives after that would’ve arrived anyway – no matter who was in power.

    (noting Nauru would now face an almost immediate court challenge)

    Would be awful in some ways if it happens but hey, if the fight has been lost why not take the Homer Simpson approach – “can’t win, don’t try”???

  15. There is a lot of new nonsense around Nauru this morning. nauru is not the main game.

    The main reform we need is some sort of visa system that is linked to the level of danger/persecution in the AS’s home country.

    The idea of providing shelter or refuge during a storm is much closer to the philosophy of the issue.

    By comparison, Nauru vs Malaysia vs Manus or whatever, these are only to do with the mechanics of transfer. The real issue is separating out Asylum seekers from immigration issues.

    Personally, I would be happy to see Abbott give up Nauru if TPVs were re-introduced by the ALP

  16. Morning all.

    Lest people criticise economic management here, it could be a lot worse. Here is another story that typifies the extent to which, in my view, the world’s financial regualtors have been captured by their nation’s bansk,a dn no long er focus on what is in the general economy’s best interest. In this case, in Europe the ECB has loaned 600 billion euro to banks, to reduce their credit risk, while it still can’t find a comparable amount to loan governments to shore up the Euro itself.
    [Banks have gobbled up nearly 490 billion euros ($635 billion) in three-year, cut-price loans from the European Central Bank, easing immediate fears of a credit crunch but leaving unresolved how much will flow to needy eurozone economies.

    Following a string of failed attempts by eurozone leaders to thwart market attacks on the bloc’s weaker members, hopes of crisis relief before year’s end had been pinned on a massive uptake of the ECB’s ultra-long and ultra-cheap loans.

    The near half-trillion euro take-up of ECB funds represented the most the bank has ever pumped into the financial system and exceeded almost all forecasts. A total of 523 banks borrowed, with demand way above the 310 billion euros expected by traders.

    The funding should bolster banks’ finances, ease the threat of a credit crunch, and may tempt them to buy Italian and Spanish bonds, thereby easing the currency area’s sovereign debt crisis.

    But analysts said there was little prospect of the cash being hurled at the debt of eurozone weaklings and, while an interbank lending freeze may have been averted, the lack of trust between banks to lend to each other remains unresolved.]
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-22/banks-gorge-on-unlimited-euro-loans/3743126

    What is the point of democracy if politicians don’t set up government to benefit the people? At this point I think the entire European parliament needs a clean out, with Nick Clegg seeming to be representative of the breed.

  17. yes but what did mr bowen say
    I think one has to be up all night I beat abbott
    Probably camped outside the tv station, sohe could make the first statement’,,,,
    .

  19. Abbott has a lot invested in the current asylum seeker impasse.

    On the one hand he’d probably prefer to keep it on the boil, right through the the next election. It’s an ulcerating sore for the government, one that won’t heal while ever the tropical monsoon season keeps it damp and dark.

    On the other hand, if he can get Gillard to cave on Nauru, he can crow about it forever, or at least he’ll try. If the boats slow down significantly or stop he can claim that he alone, by exercising his iron will stopped them.

    If they don’t stop or slow down, even if Nauru is used, then he’ll find a way to assert that the government didn’t do it the way he said they should.

    Either course carries with it an implicit hankering for the good old days of Howardism, where boats were stopped and asylum seekers sought elsewhere. A large part of his political raison d’etre is that the electorate made a mistake in getting rid of Howard and by extension, him).

    Also, under pressure to be more positive, he’s held the negative line. If he can pull this one off, it’ll be enough justification for him to go on being Dr. No for many months before the subject comes up again in any serious way. I’m hoping it might be Abbott’s “Moscow” moment.

    PBers will remember the German generals wanted to pull back from the outskirts of Moscow in the first stage of Barbarossa, in effect to compromise militarily, but Hitler ordered them to hold the line. The Fuhrer used the unexpected success of his stubbornness to berate the generals for years, claiming to be a military genius, right up to the last days in the bunker.

    Right now there’s a lot of nervousness about Abbott’s “No” campaign. A win on asylum seekers, even something that can be spun as a win, will take some pressure off him from internal party criticism. It might even embolden him to stick to his guns on saying “no” to everything, which can only be a good thing for the government… no, really, I’m serious.

    The public seem to have accepted that Abbott is indeed Dr. No. At the moment, many of them believe that it’s a good thing he’s like that. But the acceptance is there. The trick for the government is to turn that acceptance into annoyance.

    The government will be hoping that, no matter why or how the boats are stopped, they disappear as an issue come the election. Abbott, seeking to capitalize on his “success” (if he has one) will try to keep the memory of boats fresh until the election.

    There are two ways to do this.

    He can bleat about boats for the next 20 months, never letting them go as an issue. Or he can continue to agitate for an early election, while the boats issue remains prominent in the minds of the public. In either case, come the election, whether it be in 20 months or 2, the boats issue is fresh in the minds of the punters.

    In short, a success on Nauru could re-energize Abbott and make him even more determined to remain basically a negative politician. A success on boats under his belt, brought forth through the purity and persistance of his “iron will”, against all the advice of his senior political “generals”, will only serve to convince him even more that he alone is right, and everyone else is wrong (he’s already convinced of it, but this would be proof!).

    Melagomaniacal nut jobs with large dollops of narcissism thrown in are like that. Every time someone urges caution Abbott will be able to say, “I was right on Nauru, and I’m right on {insert issue of the day here}.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Phillip Ruddock.

    Boats have a potential to use up a lot of Abbott’s available oxygen, fuelling his crowing to the public and his put downs to his colleagues.

    Bludgers need to remember that Abbott hates Gillard. His letters to her and her ministers the other day showed just how much she had gotten under his skin. They were full of petty, infantile complaints about the way she had treated him.

    For years he was routinely humiliated by her on breakfast TV. He has been her punching bag in Parliament ever since 2007. The TV tries to spin QT Abbott’s way, and largely succeeds, but Abbott knows he’d being propped up by the media into not looking like the complete idiot that he is. Much of Gillard’s punches will have hit home where they count: in his guts, where they hurt.

    There are a lot of old scores to settle. The narcissist megalomaniac needs to be taken seriously. He is nothing if he is a laughing stock and subject to chronic mockery.

    At the momnent much of that mockery is coming from Labor, with a few scribes starting to twig to it too. If treating abbott as a joke ever becomes endemic it’ll only make him more unhinged. We saw a preview of just how ridiculous he can be with the “Shit Happens” incident. Abbott never forgives, and never forgets. He’s vindictive, nasty and a bully. He seeks retribution, a full accounting for past slights, real and imagined. Giving him Nauru could be just the trigger the government needs to send him right off the dial.

    But the government has options, too. A nice way to start the ball rolling would be to send the next boatload of refugees to Nauru. No amendments to the Immigration Act would be required, according to Abbott. The “treaty” signed by Ruddock is still in place between Australia and Nauru, according to the High Court and the Solicitor-General. It was noted that it had no expiry date. Nauru worked (according to Abbott). So why not send the next boatload right now? Or at least attempt to.

    It would be taken to the High Court immediately, as the Malaysian Solution was. An injunction would be issued immediately and the whole matter would be thrashed out in short order.

    What I’m suggesting is: let’s see if Nauru really does work. Let’s see whether this Bali Ha’i in the Pacific really is the only place in the world that asylum seekers can be offshore processed. Parliament doesn’t need to be recalled for Bowen to issue a certificate. The agreement is still in place. The detention camp buildings are still erect. There is a sort of government there (although no-one knows just who’s in charge). Why shouldn’t the government call Abbott’s bluff? And the High Court’s, for that matter?

    If the attempt fails, with Nauru a convention signatory and all that, then all the wind is blown out of Abbott’s sails, straightaway. Then he would have to talk turkey. How humiliatingment.

    We’d probably get a similar result if Manus Island was used as the vehicle too. Trying to send people to New Guinea, that model of democracy and stable government, would be a sight to see. New Guinea and Nauru are two peas in the same pod lately, proper governance-wize.

    If the expatriation attempt succeeded, highly unlikely though that would be, then the issue begins to go away, messily and with some crow needing to be eaten, but away nevertheless.

    There’s a precedent for all this. Howard’s original quite Draconian asylum seeker laws were forced to be watered down by Beazley’s insistence on at least a modicum of decency being included in them. Little things like no “officer of the Commonwealth” being able to just up and shoot anyone who happened to be on a boat without judicial comebac were quietly excised. The legislation went from one page quarto to two pages.

    But who ended up owning Asylum Seekers as a result? Beazley? No way it was and is Howard’s issue forever after, unless you count the beating Beazley got from his own side right down to today for caving in. That’s ownership, of sorts. The only problem was that Beazley bought a lemon.

    And let us not forget: there’s always the bonus of Abbott’s hubris and preening before the public and his fellow Liberals to be had if he gets anything that looks like Nauru up as a working option. He’d become truly insufferable. Surely the public couldn’t help but notice, this time?

  21. BB your posts here are terrific. I nominate you the PB Person of the Year !!

    Abbott is stuck now. If the government cave on Nauru and he doesnt cave on Malaysia it makes him look intransigent and like he is the one playing politics

  22. morning bludgers

    BB

    Abbott must be conceding that Nauru can only go ahead if the migration act is amended. Otherwise, he would not be insisting that the only amendments agreed to relate to Nauru or PNG.

    Secondly, if the Immigration Dept have already given explicit advise that Nauru was a one trick pony and will not work again, why is Abbott not being brought to task by the Department over this?

  23. Mr Squiggle

    I think you have pointed out the elephant in the room mentioning TPVs.

    The issue with TPVs is of course the cruel uncertainty that goes along with them. Lives are sort of on hold often for far too long.

    If (and it is a very big if) some sort of system were in place to minimise the uncertainty with TPVs and allow people to have real lives I might have a bit of support.

  26. Victoria

    The Department can never bring an opposition to task. That is very explicitly the job of the Minister under our Westminster system. The Department can brief the Minister but never publicly take the opposition (or government) to task.

  27. and twitter

    [StGusface Gusface
    abbott is playing a silly buggers game he is setting this up as HIS solution bit of srs chess at the mo #fibs #mediafail #theirabc #meme
    17 hours ago Favorite Reply ]

  28. DTT

    I used the wrong word. Perhaps not to task, but reiterate to the general public, their advice that Nauru is not a deterrent any longer

  29. Victoria

    The Department cannot make ANY public statement without the Minister. Have a look at every government report – even an annual report. There is a Minister’s foreword. That is because it the Minister gives permission for release. Only the the mist routine of government information brochures go out without formal approval and these usually just restate legislation or rules.

  31. Janice2
    [However, any talks should now be between himself and the PM who should return from holidays….his arrogance knows no bounds. He said he wants Malaysia out of the equasion and TPV’s etc and that it is time Julia Guillard put aside her “stubborness” in the interest of Australia. If there is a God up there, why does he not strike the lying, arrogant mongrel down?]
    Arrogant bustard plus 1000. 😡

  32. gusface

    Serious chess? Abbott has been playing cheap political checkers since day dot. Point is, the public usually onlly deals in checkers, therefore he is winning at the moment.

  34. Regarding the possible adoption of Nauru for offshore processing, Faine just replayed Gillard saying earlier this year that the Pacific Solution was expensive, unsustainable and wrong as a matter of principal. But then he laid into Abbott over the requirement for a specific proposal before the coalition will talk. He asked why that is necessary, why put a hurdle in the way. He also had a go at Abbott over calling for himself and Gillard to do the negotiation. Why make it harder by insisting on talking to the one person who isn’t here, he said.

  36. Notice how Abbott shifts ground?
    I won’t talk unless Labor comes up with something.
    Bowen moves to meet him possibly over Nauru.
    I won’t talk with anyone except the PM.

    Please, Julia, don’t give in. Stay on holidays.
    Yet it is “being absent on holiday” at a time of “crisis” which can bring a leader down.
    And Abbott knows it.

  38. triton

    Has Bowen actually said Nauru is on the table? There was nothing yesterday by him stating that. He basically said he was prepared to negotiate in good faith

  39. Victoria asked,

    [Secondly, if the Immigration Dept have already given explicit advise that Nauru was a one trick pony and will not work again, why is Abbott not being brought to task by the Department over this?]

    Abbott has stated that Nauru will work without any amendments required many times, most recently in his letter to Swan of the 19th December:

    [“I make the final point that the Coalition’s policies of offshore processing in Nauru, TPVs, and turning boats around where it is safe to do so are all policies that can be implemented by the government immediately“]

    http://images.smh.com.au/file/2011/12/20/2849933/Corro.pdf?rand=1324338106916 (page 9)

    I say the government should call his bluff. They can dress it up as a temporary measure, etc. etc. until more formal arrangements are in place.

    But Abbott said “immediately”. So do it, Julia, immediately, and let’s see how far it gets in the High Court.

    Who cares whether the detention centre on Nauru is more chook shed than hostel?

    Who cares that Nauru, while being a signatory, has no legal infrastructure related to processing asylum seekers, giving them the right to work, to education in Nauruan schools, or that it doesn’t even have a half-decent hotel which would be required for the battalions of UNHCR people needing to stay there?

    Who cares whether Nauru doesn’t have a proper, non-corrupt government (hasn’t had for years), and is broke?

    Who cares that with the new minerals exploration in the area of Nauru the new “government” (of a couple of months duration) might not even need asylum seekers sent there anymore?

    The High Court’s whole reasoning was based around an existing valid “treaty” being in place (which it allegedly still is, as the Ruddock document had no expiry date and was never rescinded), the host country being a signatory to the Refugee Convention, full facilities – legal, security, social and domestic – being available, within reason, for people and the Australian and UN support staff sent there; in short, an ad hoc readiness to accept hundreds if not thousands of stateless people, sent there against their will, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Abbott’s word was “immediately”.

    Call his bluff, Julia, and then maybe we can get some common sense back into the argument.

    It would put the matter to rest once and for all.

  40. victoria, not that I know of. Faine is probably reacting to the speculation that he’s about to. Even if he does, this won’t go anywhere if Abbott and Morrison refuse to allow Malaysia. Their idea of sitting down and negotiating is the government adopting its policy and nothing the other way.

  41. Bushfire….I’m usually 110% in agreement with you, but on this occasion I think you have mis-calculated with your suggestion that the Govt immediately use Nauru…

    Abbott will just use their “GREAT BIG CAPITULATION” to insist that the whole ‘Pacific solution’ be re-introduced…including TPV’s/Towing back the boats.

    Govt. cannot be seen to embrace or even consider these disgusting options or they will be wiped out in 2013…imo!!

    My dear mum used to say….NEVER give in to bullies….

  42. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/labor-ready-to-re-open-nauru/story-fn59nqgy-1226228123931

    [Abbott: yes to Nauru, no to Malaysia
    BY: JAMES MASSOLA From: The Australian December 22, 2011 7:09AM

    Labor seems ready to compromise and reopen offshore processing on Nauru, but Tony Abbott is taking a hard line in response.]

    The Capital Circle summary, lots of links to various articles and diary note on various Ministerial activities today

  43. BB

    I agree

    Call Abbott’s bluff. Send the next couple of boat loads to Nauru (or some now on Xmas Island).

    Nauru can only hold a limited number anyway so it will fill quickly and not interrupt anything else.

    In any case thee are likely to be some AS who could not be sent to Malaysia even if the scheme gets up and this group could go to Nauru.

    Mind you I still have serious doubts about off shore processing in Nauru or Malyasia and wish we could find any better solution.

  45. The final solution is that Malaysia and the Pacific solution is legislated. However, the Government only implements thos parts it deems necessary. Then Oppo can implement it’s own solution unfettered if it were ever to win Government.

  46. Leroy
    [FORMER ALP national president Warren Mundine and Tony Abbott held a secret meeting in Sydney last week at which they sealed an alliance against proposed changes to the Constitution that would promote Aboriginal “advancement”.]

    What’s the weasel up to now??

  48. [FORMER ALP national president Warren Mundine and Tony Abbott held a secret meeting in Sydney last week at which they sealed an alliance against proposed changes to the Constitution that would promote Aboriginal “advancement”.]

    I think it was me who suggested a year or so ago that the coalition would renege on this, even though it’s their policy as well.

    Ken Wyatt has been representing the Liberals on the multi party committee to draft the wording. If the coalition flip-flop on it, I wonder what his reaction might be?

  50. Some of the #Leveson tweets:

    [carlmaximCarl Maxim
    I can’t believe Piers Morgan would hack anyone’s phone. Not without leaving a very long message all about himself. #Leveson
    20 Dec

    madasowtHel i am
    Will tighter restrictions endanger a free press? I doubt it, as they will be unable to remember what the restrictions are. #leveson
    6 minutes ago

    SgtAngua_CWVerity
    Sorry? We have to decide who’s telling the truth between Piers Morgan and HEATHER MILLS??? Good luck with THAT. #Leveson
    16 minutes ago

    TheMediaTweetsThe Media Blog
    What if all this Piers Morgan stuff puts him off ever coming back to the UK… then we’ll be sorry… oh, hang on. #Leveson
    5 hours ago]

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