Here is the draft text of the memo from Hunt to Cameron from November 2010:
James Murdoch is pretty furious at Vince's referral to Ofcom. He doesn't think he will get a fair hearing from Ofcom. I am privately concerned about this because News Corp are very litigious and we could end up in the wrong place in terms of media policy. Essentially what James Murdoch wants to do is to repeat what his father did with the move to Wapping and create the world's first multiplatform media operator available from paper to web to TV to iPhone to iPad. Isn't this what all media companies have to do ultimately? And if so we must be very careful that any attempt to block it is done on plurality grounds and not as a result of lobbying by competitors.The UK has the chance to lead the way on this as we did in the 80s with the Wapping move but if we block it our media sector will suffer for years. In the end I am sure sensible controls can be put into any merger to ensure there is plurality but I think it would be totally wrong to cave into the Mark Thompson/Channel 4/Guardian line that this represents a substantial change of control given that we all know Sky is controlled by News Corp now anyway.
What next? Ofcom will issue their report saying whether it needs to go to the Competition Commission by 31 December. It would be totally wrong for the government to get involved in a competition issue which has to be decided at arm's length. However I do think you, I, Vince and the DPM [deputy prime minister] should meet to discuss the policy issues that are thrown up as a result.
If http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2012/may/24/leveson-inquiry-adam-smith-frederic-michel#block-146 is the sort of stuff that qualifies as the insights of senior ministers in their memos to the prime minister, then (in the immortal words of The Boys From The Blackstuff) "I could do that. Gissa Job".
This also completely demolishes the idea that Cameron was forced into moving control over the Sky bid from Cable to Hunt because of Cable's perceived bias. This letter pre-dates that move, and quite clearly shows that Hunt had made his mind up before he even had the brief.
ian