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I met with my local MP Paul Murphy ( labour ) this morning at his constituency office in Pontypool. The meeting was planned for 11:10 am and I got there a little early, as always. I hate being late. I arrived at this quant little cottage decorated in cream and red and thought "there's nice", what a lovely little house to live in.Anyway, I buzzed the door speakerbox and was allowed in. A nice friendly atmosphere inside greeted me and along with some of the staff. I was introduced to Mr Murphy and was invited into his office.
"What can I do for you"? said Mr Murphy, as he was reading an email I'd sent a while back requesting his help in getting my information to the Leveson Inquiry. He was shuffling through my paperwork as I explained to him about what I was trying to do 12 years ago and ended up hittings walls of silence almost everywhere I went. I explained I was trying to raise the alarm about voicemail interception in 1999 by trying to expose Vodafone and their shoddy security and then because of my campaign backfiring I then had to try and expose The Daily Mirror and The Sun newspapers.
I asked him if he remembered my phone call from early 2000. He said no and there would have been no way to even find out as his records didn't go back as far as then.
He didn't seem to knowledgeable about the phone hacking scandal so I had to explain what I had been trying to do in some considerable depth.
He explained to me that some systems would have to be in place so GCHQ etc could monitor terrorism etc. He said it's common knowledge now but couldn't believe that anyone could have done it way back then. He said that you would need special permission and Government consent to be able to access voicemail in 1999. In fact you need special permission to do it now, "even I'm not allowed to do it unless I get special permission" If he did it now, he said it would be illegal....read the article in full at Steve's blog.
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