this is going to be interesting in terms of his links with the culture secretary here and the bskyb bid. quite a lot of detail, but george osborne is interesting. he's seen as someone who doesn't come out in public unless he really needs to. >> that's right. george osborne is not only chancellor, but also the government strategist. he does have a finger in many of the pies of government, and his name and text messages have arisen during this inquiry to do with that bskyb bid, which is now proving to be a very controversial area for this inquiry. original originally george osborne wasn't intending to give evidence to this inquiry, but precisely because his name keeps cropping up, they've actually decided to call him. so this afternoon, he, too, will be giving testimony as to what went on when the murdoch entire was trying to bid for the satellite broadcaster, bskyb. >> key figure in the government, of course. naomi, thanks very much. after more than two decades of lawlessness and turmoil, somalia is close to forming a new government. african union troops have fought hard battles to drive

graham williams who's the head of corporate affairs at bskyb? >> i'm not aware of any such communication. >> any communications between mr. harrison and matthew anderson who is mr. murdoch's adviser? >> i'm not aware of any communication. >> i'm going to move on now to another topic, is that okay? >> we have a break, mr. osborne, just for a short time. just a few minutes, thank you. >> all rise. >> the leveson inquiry into the connection between the british press and politicians is taking a break. they've been questioning chancellor of the exchequer george osborne. earlier this morning former labour prime minister gordon brown answered questions. he said a conversation about the rupert murdoch newspapers switching support never took place as the murdochs said in earlier testimony. you can see today's entire inquiry online at c-span.org's video library: these leveson inquiries are meeting four days this week. tomorrow, former british prime minister conservative john major testify along with labour party leader ed milliband. wednesday deputy prime

what's the future of bskyb? if they do this, does it ill improve not only their ability to hold but the potential to buy in at some point down the road? no doubt it's going to be up today. >> i think it's terrific. it's great to see these companies take the bull by the horns. i've been pushing this for j&j, i'm been pushing it for proctor which is harder because they don't have anything i really want. >>> nice mix of u.s. stories, not just all about europe. when we come back, we'll go inside the s&p case-shiller numbers. finally got positive metrics on those. are home prices rising in your neck of the woods. david blitzer on the winners and losers. before we do, more "squawk on the street" live from post nine in just a moment. >>> more than 50% of ceos reported they canceled the delayed initiative because they didn't have what they needed. >>> back to this key housing data. the results show on average home prices increased 1.3% in april for march for both the 10 and 20-city composites. here david blitzer their m

i really i would remember bskyb that had come up. did not, and i remember remarking to my wife as i left the fact that it had not come up. i would be very clear it was raised, it was not my decision. mr. murdoch spent most of the time talking about his new newspaper that he was launching in the united states. it was a social conversation. my wife was there. it was a social conversation about american politics, the internet, how newspapers were changing. it was not specific about british politics and neither the bbc nor bskyb came up in the conversation. >> you do remember the conversation or least part of the conversation with james murdoch, the previous month on the 29th of november 2010. do you remember whether that was a meeting or a phone call? >> that was a meeting. >> do you know what other matters were discussed on that occasion? >> i seem to remember it was a conversation about the political situation. the government had been in office for some months then. we were having an argument about tuition fees. there is a whole range

is the culture gave a very full account of his actions and he demonstrated that when it came to the bskyb b.i.d., he followed independent advice of every part of the process. >> let's be clear what the prime minster is claiming. i made absolutely no intervention seeking to influence a decision that a memo to the prime minster is behind insignificant document. for the first time in political case that's the case. let me read exactly what this note said on the 19th november. i quote, it would be totally wrong for the government to get involved in a competition issue which has to be decided at arm's length. when he got responsibility for this, he behaved exactly that way. let me just make one point. by the way, the whole reason we are discussing this takeover is because the last government changed the law to allow a foreign company to own a british part like it. he asked me very specifically about the prime minster. let me be absolutely frank. what we are talking about here is the relationships that conservative politicians and frankly labour politicians had over the last 20 years with news

. >> next a hunt to make jeremy responsible for the bid for bskyb. it was put to the prime minister that it was a decision made with incomplete advice. >> it was not some incomplete, botched decision. anyone had told me he could not do the job, i would not have done -- given him the job. >> the prime minister insisted that he wanted to protect people like this, the family of the murder teenager, millie dowling. >> we want to know that, if an individual suffers press intrusion, has an inaccurate article written about them, had their lives turnaround in some way -- all of these things has happened. it really is worth our while to go to this regulator, however they are established, and they will get the newspaper and the media brought to bear. >> the lord justice must come up with a plan for the government. he is a man even the prime ministers stand up for. >> nick robinson with that report. in more news, the former texas tycoon alan stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in prison by u.s. central judge. mr. stanford was convicted of one of the bigges

another big area for david cameron is the handling of the bskyb bid by the murdoches. i think he'll promise that, in the future, those kind of decisions will be taken much more by the rule book. >> ok, naomi, thanks very much. this is the swearing-in at the leveson inquiry. >> the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> mr. cameron, your full name, please. >> david william donald cameron. >> thank you. you've kindly provided us with a statement dated the fourth of may of this year. it extends to 84 pages and possesses two exhibits, subject to one very minor matter to which we'll come in due course. is this the formal evidence you're tendering to our inquiry? >> it is. prime minister, as i've said to many other witnesses, i'm extremely grateful for the obvious work that you no doubt have put into your evidence and the material that you provided the inquiry at a time when there are obvious medical other calls on your time. >> thank you. >> mr. cameron, main may i start with two questions about your career before 2001, which, as we know, the day you entered

with editors and proprietors of news ganizations who were very hostile to the bskybid, quite understandably. rightly, they took the opportunity to say to me, we don't like you for its wide reasoning. they made it clear that this is process that has been dea with in its own sort of box, if you like, as it turned out, t sectors of the state over a period of time. nevertheless, i can't think of y other area where a commercial interest would be able to come to a senior politician and say, i don't think your government shoul ask her why because it harms th commercial interest. t the best antidote to that i that politicians, as i said earlier, they keep their distance and referred the issue where it impinges on formal business to the formal government system.k'+'+'+'+'+'+' >> to particular lunches james+! murdoch andk! rebekah wade, tha' is page 1317.k#+#k#+#k#k#+# then there isk# another one jus! james murdoch, 16th of july -- 2009. it may be difficult to rememb t did he discuss issues such

i don't think -- certainly i can't recall a conversation about bskyb.here was much of a conversation at all, in my recollection. >> the 21st of december, we heard from mr. clegg yesterday that there was a joint press conference at downing street, i think, mr. cameron, and it was leading the margins of that conference, you then took the remarks on a blog or something similar. >> that is absolutely my recollection. i remember walking down the stairs from the first floor of downing street, and we had just done this press conference, and someone telling me that you've got to see these remarks that have come out of that, what vince cable said, and it was quite an important moment, because these were, you know, these were important and significant remarks. >> we can focus on these highlights of what happened over the following few hours. we know from paragraph 161 of your statement, you had a meeting and this was after his meeting dr. clegg gave him, which would obviously be appropriate. the only thing to write is after that meeting. >> i think what happened,

the fact, if we take bskyb as an example the fact that sky has movie channels, historical geography -- geographical channels and all that. to what extent is that relevant -- >> that's right. >> the next issue is corporate governance, which you have touched on, but like i said we would return to it paragraph 82. public interest, public interest and the approach of the state to journalists. in paragraph 84 you revert to the public interest test. you effectively are asking the inquiry to provide greater coherence and plurality, but are there any substantive ideas which you wish to draw to our attention for consideration? >> i would say this. my overall view is that everyone seems to agree that the current oversight and relative framework in which the press operates is discredited. the ptc and so on. everybody agrees it needs to be reformed in that area. everyone agrees that the new system needs to be robustly independent the independent parliament, government, public, media as well, powers to investigate, powers to impose sanctions and so on. there's been a subsidiary question about whet

the rest of that money is what bskyb have pumped out. it means the football clubs in the uk will get another 30 million a year, which one expects will go straight into waejs and other issues as well. nokia down today, its their third cut in earnings outlooks in just about a year. they took 10,000 job losses, stock now down 7% in helsinki. it's the concentration on the bond markets we look at today as well. 1.5%, it has been noticeable so far as we ten to see rises in yields elsewhere. some people are wonder whether they're starting to price in a convergence strike. 4.5 billion euros to be auctioned today. the key is the 2 billion to 3 billion of the march 2015. that's the three-year. in spain, we're up fresh, euro highs right now on debt, 6.88%. and we'll keep our eyes on gilt as well. 1.5 billion. what's the the appetite for money at these yields. 1.5487, it will be interesting how the dollar trades. we have cpi today. if there's any hint, we may get qe. euro dollar at the moment, 125.76. we have been above the two-week low of 122.80. t

. >> you mentioned bskyb. you think the long term area, the bid for them trying to buy bskyb.home to come back and get their asset. >> that's right. assuming all the investigations show no serious wrongdoing, yes. you're distancing the current management and distancing the audit trails. >> that could have a significant impact on the uk media landscape. >> the regulator in the uk here isn't that silly. time heals all wouldn't. >> who end up owning the british titles? >> newspaper titles. >> they have them in a separate company. is somebody else coming into the snap up those titles will we see a sea change of ownership. >> absolutely. the assets will be held in vehicles. >> what about the "wall street journal"? >> that's different because that has more of a clear cut business strategy. probably quite dear to newscorp's spirit. so i would differentiate wall street from "times" and "the sun." the uk is selling their property assets. this was announced yesterday. >> what does it do "wall street journal" tv. >> the news hub. in guess the news hub to the competent it's successful hel

clegg, the bskyb bid, three job questions first of all. your news about news restlessness of news constantly pushed the challenge all practice way of generally admire that. competition, plurality, the need premise that a healthy in which you just the form that people have. >> thank you. the second journal issue, the setting aside the technical legal test under the enterprise act, which governs plurality and the did. did you have a personal view about, from a policy perspective and so on. quizzical at the beginning after it became clear there was murder, what the conservatives announced a few weeks after the th >> news corp., wouldn't? >> news corp., sorry, yes. >> and a third general question, the extent to which you and other senior liberal democrats were lobbied, and his general question of lies to coalition against the bid, and news corp. >> yes. throughout all this. made their views known to us on the. evidence -- versus the rest of liberal democrats to be open to that. favorable treatment in the first redible threat. s and claims and

may i move off bskyb to the fourth section of your evidence. this is the area of any lessons to be learned for politicians. first of all, would you agree with mr. milleiband's view that the event last year were liberating. >> by 8 think i'd put it in a slightly different way -- i think i would put it in a slightly different way. i think because of all the issues that it has raised in terms of press and police conduct and the relationship between politicians and the media, that some of the distance and better processes that are required are already being put in place. as i think we're justice leveson said, we need to do better than that. it is a start. >> before some politicians were operating under a self-imposed constraints. they were not prepared to speak out against news international. the chains have come off. now everybody feels that they can. i may be putting words in his mouth. if i have caught it accurately, would you agree with that? >> i would say the debate that needs to take place about how we regulate the press is properly being ha

it also has to do potentially with bskyb.ith andrew -- becky and i were very sceptical, oh, this is to buffer bskyb. now it seems like a lot of people wanted this, rupert murdoch is injured and weak and the people around him are seizing on the moment to do something they've wanted to do for a long time. >> you think it's injured and wounded? >> yeah. >> i think he's rich and happy. >> really? >> i think michelle is right in the context of the board discussion, he -- i don't want to say -- i think wounded may be going too far. >> a wee bit exaggerated. >> he doesn't have the same power necessarily that he had today and i think chase kerr rhee is asserting himself. >> granted the litigation goes with the publishing assets. but the overall risk is still across the board. you can't have fraudulent conveyance. again, we don't know the answers. we're reporting on the fly here. >> it's the first bit of exciting news out of so-called europe that i've seen. a stock actually going up in europe because they're doing something, not just

on then at the same time side, british broadcaster bskyb where they're in the process of deciding whether news corp. is fit and proper to own the minority stake it does. that could be in limbo. what will the executive game of musical chairs look like? the ceo is lauded by investors and rupert murdoch alike and carey has launched a lot of speeches about it this year and rupert murdoch wasn't sold on the idea. and rupert murdoch houses the newspapers but with sky, where will he end up and will he stay? >> fascinating. news corp. is an s&p traded stock. if you own mutual funds like an index fund, you probably own a little bit of the company. john carney owns mutual funds so he wrote mr. murdoch a dear rupert letter. >> that's right. i decided as shareholder, i wanted to give rupert murdoch advice what he should do to fix the company. i can't read the whole thing but i will read a little bit of it. dear rupert. my name is john. we met a few years ago, when my friend, steve dunleavy was retiring from the "new york post." i didn't get invited to the party but managed to get in while the door ke

you said you had a conversation with rebekah brooks about the bskyb bid. can you remember what she said and what you said in reply? >> i obviously don't have a number or anything, so i think she requested a conversation with me. i believe that -- early that day. i think the conversation took place later on the evening. i was quite surprised to be called by her because we did not have a particular kind of relationship like that. she was very annoyed about vince cable and what he'd done. i basically said we also believe that he should no longer have responsibility for this. would call for him to resign earlier on that day, because we thought it was just question of appropriateness, i think was the phrase that the shuttle business secretary used -- shadow business secretary used. it was a relatively short conversation. and i think i talked to her again at the news international party, maybe one other event. >> at that stage, we know she was and the editor of the sun. she was the ceo of news international. >> bashar. >> it may not be possible for you to stay,

others have described as well, closeness of bskyb. why did they seek the closenessf i think we have a insights about by some of the participants. we are a long ways away from itg just one other point. i don't think -- it is the biggest injustice, it needs to be put right by the inquiry, is in relation to many people -- t but i think it would behe a gre- thing if in the work that thef n inquiry does, if it can help tos improve that relationship. because we have a frayed democracy, frankly. >> thank you. now, moving on to what you sayy under question 11, which is page 06823. you are dealings with the issues of media impact on politicalhe y debate. o number of witnesses have spoken about thea conflation of news o comment, mr. ed miliband. personal, do you think that that is a significant problem. if so, what would you do about it? >> yes, this is perhaps one ofbt the trickier -- the code of thi first arose in questioning. the least, i hadn't realized ite was about the code until the question. but the code is very a radical e of this -- o

the fact that bskyb has movie channels and historic and geographical channels, and all of that.o what extent is that relevant with news? that is my position. >> sure. >> the next is a series of corporate governance, which we returned to paragraph 82, the question of public interest. journalism in the public interest. paragraph 84. are there any substances and ideas with which you wish to chart attention to consideration? >> my overall view is that everyone seems to agree that the current oversight and regulated frameworks in which the press operates is discredited. the pcc and so on. everyone agrees there needs to be reform in that area. everyone agrees that the new system needs to be robustly independent. independent parliament come up politicians, government, to have new powers that don't presently exist. powers to investigate and impose sanctions and so on. a subsidy were a question about whether the new regulatory environment were requires some form of underpinning or not. i think that you need -- one needs to come up with a coherent solution on all of that come in order to

cameron can i move on to a separate matter, the whole issue of the bskyb bid. >> yes. >> and we're nowaragraph 158, please, of your witness statement, page 04145. >> yeah. >> can i ask you please about your own personal attitude to the bid, were you in favor of it or not? >> my view about this and about all these sorts of things is in a free market enterprise economy you should allow mergers, takeovers, acquisitions to go ahead unless there is a lick interest in -- a public interest in them not going ahead. so i could quite understand why news corporation would want to make this acquisition, but there were important processes it had to go through; competition, plurality and the rest of it. so that was my view, it was very important that happened. >> from a policy perspective were you broadly on side? would that be a fair characterization? >> well, i wouldn't -- as i say, i don't think you should stand in the way of sensible corporate moves unless there's a public interest against it. from a political point of view as i think the chancellor said from a political -- not a policy pint of

-- why did the bskyb decision go down? well we put in motion in parliament. i'm certainly not recommending that as a way forward for these kinds of decisions. but that was motivated to an extent by a sense of where the public interest play. that is the first point i would like to make to you. and secondly, i believe it is possible for politicians -- of course, politicians have views, but i do believe it's possible -- and you have heard torturous testimony from people like teselle joel -- tessa jowell and others that urge more transparency -- to really try and run down and execute the function in a way that respects the quasi--judicial nature of their role. >> thank you. this relates to resetting the relationship between politicians and the press, and it may be that you've covered this already -- is that you urge more openness and transparency about dealings, and i think that probably covers what in practical terms you believe is appropriate in the domain. is that right? >> i think it does. i reinforce what i said at the outset, which is that i think that ther

ironically we believe last year's failed bid to acquire it's we raining bskyb stake has proved to be an unexpected fimg. >>> the point here is that when you looked at viacom stock, great to overlay what happened with viacom when they did the split, there was an initial bounce the news and then there was a real flat line and people were worried, they said this really means nothing, just a lot of financial engineering shuffling the decks but if you look at cbs and viacom independently you would argue there was some value. >> this was a $9 stock two years ago. rich greenfield, very well respected analyst came out with a note saying he's raising his price target on newscorp to 30 bucks a share. because of the split. he likes what he sees for the results. 30 bucks. >> there it is. about 7.5 bucks to go. so some money to be made if he's correct. >> of course we're watching what's happening in europe today. leaders gathering for yet another summit today. they pointed out this is the 20th significant summit. traders are reluctant to make any big moves ahead of the summit. david, good morning

they wanted not just a bskyb idea of course.in advertisers and they want to open up sporting events so that this guy could bid for them in a way. they were perfectly entitled to improve this agenda and that was the agenda they were putting publicly. i think what became a problem for us is every one of these the conservative party went but along with the policies when we were trying to defend what i believe was the public interest. >> so is this the gist of your evidence? it was done publicly but not privately? >> i think their agenda was very public and i don't think that they should be criticized for having a view about events. i think however does the duty of the political system to distinguish between what is the vested interest in what is the public interest. and i did so and i think we did so at a cost. >> was not part of your reason mr. brown for continuing to have dealings with mrs. brooks, that you correctly perceived her to be a powerful woman and this would have been against her interest in taking her on? >> i don't th

the fact, if we take bskyb as an example the fact that sky has movie channels, historical geography -ustly independent the independent parliament, government, public, media as well, powers to investigate, powers to impose sanctions and so on. there's been a subsidiary question about whether that new regulatory environment requires some statutory underpinning or not. i have some views on the. i think you need, i think one needs to come up with a coherent solution on all of that in order to ensure that the accountability when things go wrong, when all the privacies abuse, when power is abused by the press, is properly held to account. however, i think you need to counterbalance it out with reforms that actually enshrined protect and promote the freedom of the press and the ability of journalists to go after the truth without fear or impediment. and on that, my own view is i am intuitively quite attracted to some the ideas that i think are being presented by other witnesses in this inquiry. for instance, emulating the quasi-constitutional guarantee of the judiciary in an act of parliamen