Kudos to the Coffee House blog at The Spectator for nailing Ken Livingstone's hypocrisy over News International. Livingstone has been denouncing Boris Johnson’s "dire judgement" and said that Boris "had at least two meals with Rebekah Brooks, one dinner and one lunch with James Murdoch, and one dinner with Rupert Murdoch."
But Coffee House add:
According to his published diaries, Ken Livingstone had lunch with James Murdoch and others on 10th October 2006, two months after Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman had been arrested. The lunch engagement was so official and proper that it merited a mention in the Mayor’s report of 2006. Livingstone also dined frequently with Stefano Hatfield (who edited the Murdoch evening freesheet, The London Paper, at time) during the last mayoral election campaign.
Livingstone is also a regular attendee at Rupert Murdoch’s summer parties, where he rubs shoulders with Matthew Freud, a Murdoch by marriage. Livingstone’s relationship with Freud has been scrutinised
in the past. When Mayor, Livingstone paid Freud £350,000 for public relations work to encourage investment in London; this was in addition to the Mayor’s 70-person PR team. Johnson cancelled Freud’s contract on assuming office.