I saw on Guido Fawkes earlier about how the first tranche of what is said to be a £38 million legal bill has been paid by a gaggle of celebs to Associated Newspapers after they lost a case the celebs had brought alleging that their phones had been hacked. The celebrities in question, Prince Harry, musician Sir Elton John, Sir Elton’s partner David Furnish, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, mother of murder victim Stephen Lawrence, latterly a race campaigner, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, along with former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes had alleged that illegal means had been used to gain information about them which was then subsequently published in the Daily Mail.

However the court found that these allegations were, to use a British colloquial phrase, a steaming great pile of bollocks.

Even taking into account that this was a civil case with a lower standard of proof than a criminal case, the celebrities case looked pretty flimsy. Even the Judge in this case commented that the celebrities didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove their case.

It’s likely that any information that came to the Press about these celebrities didn’t come from illegal phone tapping or other SIGINT (signals intelligence) means but from people in the circles that these celebrities move in. In otherwise they were grassed up by their own friends, which in my view says a lot about the moral compass or lack of one that might be possessed by these friends or acquaintances.

This case was a great win for freedom of the press and a very bad day for those celebrities who want to curtail the actions of the Press for various reasons, some legitimate and some not entirely so. These foolish celebrities and the Halfwit Prince might have been better taking any offered settlement early in the day rather than going in all guns blazing for a full trial. Because Associated Newspapers could prove that their stories had not come from illegal SIGINT it pulled the rug out from underneath the claims of the celebrities. Because the claims of the celebrities could not be verified they lost the case and are now on the hook not just for their own legal expenses but those of Associated Newspapers.

This loss in my mind could not have happened to a more deserving bunch of people. The Halfwit Prince Harry, Sir Simon ‘The Straight Choice for Bermondsey’ Hughes, Baroness ‘Is it because I is Black’ Lawrence along with two no longer big name actresses, have got what they deserved here. The censorious celebrities have been humbled and Associated Press are, slowly, getting their legal costs back. It’s a win for Press freedom and a loss for those who don’t like such freedom.

Links and addenda.

Guido story

https://order-order.com/2026/08/21/9-54-million-in-costs-for-harrys-failed-campaign-against-daily-mail-publisher/

Full judgement in Prince Harry et al

https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/lawrence-and-others-v-associated-newspapers-limited/

Here Doreen Lawrence race-baits about the Sewell Report, a report by respected Black academic Dr (now Lord) Tony Sewell who found that there was no such thing as ‘institutional racism’ in Britain’s institutions.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/racism-review-doreen-lawrence-stephen-b1825796.html

As an aside I’m pretty disgusted by Doreen Lawrence’s choice to have a go at Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail as it was the Mail who decades ago fought the Lawrence family’s corner and without a doubt helped to bring Stephen Lawrence’s murderers to justice. This looks to me to be a disgraceful bit of ungratefulness on the part of Doreen Lawrence.

Wiki Biography of Lord Sewell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sewell

Simon Hughes is a former Liberal Democrat MP who was portrayed by his party on leaflets as ‘the straight choice for Bermondsey’, a south east London constituency during a 1983 by-election where Gay activist Peter Tatchell was the Labour candidate. Hughes won that election and made little comment about his own sexuality until 2006 when he was outed by The Sun newspaper after they’d found evidence that Hughes had phoned a Gay contact line. He has since identified as Bisexual according to Wikipedia.

Here’s something on ‘the straight choice for Bermondsey’ campaign, a campaign that some say was the dirtiest in post War British politics. Whatever else the Lib Dems are good at and I admit that they have some good people in some local governments, they do I’m afraid excel at dirty politics.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-homophobic-campaign-that-helped-win-bermondsey-6110677.html

Wiki bio of Hughes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Hughes