Andy Coulson, ex-News of the World Editor and now David Cameron’s spin-doctor, has managed to steer mostly clear of the most recent revelations which have revealed a wider scale of phone-tapping at the News of the World than previously acknowledged. If Cameron makes it to No 10 Downing Street at the end of this week, odds are that Coulson will go there with his boss. Both men will be hoping that phone-tapping, and the sleazy private detectives who fixed it, will fade away.
But an elliptical hint of more revelations to come is buried in the back end of a story by Nick Davies in yesterday’s Guardian. The paragraph below didn’t make it into the print edition, but is on the web. Davies recalls that four private investigators were used by the paper while Coulson was deputy editor or editor and goes on:
“One of them was hired from his budget even though he had a track record of blackmail and the corruption of police officers. Coulson says he has no recollection of any of his journalists breaking any law.”
The opacity of that first sentence strongly suggests the presence of m’learned friends the lawyers or that something is sub judice for the time being. The “denial” in the second sentence of course is of something that hasn’t been alleged. More to come I’d guess.
Boom-boom postscript: those in charge of Coulson and his reporters have not yet lost their sense of humour about this. Les Hinton (head of News International in the Coulson years and now CEO of Dow Jones) to the London Press Club awards lunch last week: “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it today. I left a voicemail message on Steve’s mobile to say so. I can’t tell you how surprised Colin Myler was to see me here.” Steve is the Press Club chairman Steve Oram and Colin Myler is the current Editor of the News of the World.
Tags: Andy Coulson, David Cameron, Les Hinton, News of the World, phone-tapping
