Conservative MP Nadine Dorries wrote on her blog (Thurs 21st May 2009) about a rumour about the Barclay brothers' possible involvement, as owners of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, in the paper's publications about MPs' expenses.
According to a Guardian newspaper report legal people acting on behalf of the Barclay brothers took action to have it deleted.
The Independent newspaper also edited the same or similar information from their online version.
Culture of secrecy?
Legitimate freedom of speech?
Use and abuse of power?
As they say on Big Brother, you decide: the blog entry is easily viewable via caches on search engines like Google and at the Wikileaks.org website.
Update 28th May: It's now being said that Nadine's blog wasn't pulled due to legal action at all. Although another of Nadine's blog entries mentioning the 'wealth and power' of the Barclay brothers exerted via lawyers to 'shut her down', is still online:
"As well as waiting during the night on Friday to see if my career was in tatters, I also had to deal with the minor problem of the Barclay Brothers use of global lawyers and the removal of my blog site on behalf of the Telegraph Group. At 1am I felt as though I was in a very surreal place. This was just little me, and two of the richest men in the world who own a newspaper empire and can pretty much say what they want, when they want, to who they want, had, using their wealth and muscle, shut me down."'Why I did what I did' by Nadine Dorries http://blog.dorries.org/id-1395-2009_5_Why_I_Did_What_I_Did.aspx
Who knows if she's just toeing the party line, or what. It doesn't matter about her theory, which seemed to be relatively speculation on her part and surely not libellous, what matters is whether free speech is being used legitimately, and if so is it being stifled, no matter who is the source of the stifling.
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The Barclay twins purchased the Daily Telegraph in June 2004, the sale being completed shortly thereafter. The astrology of their acquisition is interesting.
And the previously written about Saturn station was closely conjunct Neptune in the charts of the Barclay brothers. Here's their chart (they were born within minutes of each other but as yet no birth time found on the web):
Note the position of the Sun-Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio at the top of the chart, and the square to the North Node in Aquarius.
And here's the chart for the completion of their purchase of the Telegraph:
In this chart Jupiter and Pluto are square one another.
These two squares interlock and form a symmetrical arrangement:
Transiting Pluto is halfway between the brothers' Sun-Jupiter and Node.
The brothers' Sun-Jupiter is halfway between transiting Jupiter and Pluto.
In astrological terms of 'midpoints' this is written as: Pluto = Sun/Node, Pluto = Jupiter/Node, Sun=Jupiter/Pluto, Jupiter = Jupiter/Pluto.
And in addition, the transiting Node is picking up the brothers' Sun-Jupiter.
What do these planets represent? Power. Acquisitiveness. Expansion. Takeover. Big money. Corporate assets.
In the UK the Barclay brothers have gained a reputation of reclusivity, and have also been accused of undermining democracy by their actions in Sark - they deny both accusations. Aside from their Scorpio planets, their Neptune being on the UK's 12th house cusp symbolises this sense that some people have of the brothers of something influential going on in the nation behind-the-scenes.
