After months of revelations about phone tapping at the News of the World while he was editor, Andy Coulson has resigned as Cameron's director of communications (aka spin doctor). What a coincidence that this is announced while Tony Blair is giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry.

It seems to have failed given it's top story on the BBC!

As Labour MP Tom Watson has said, Coulson has become the first person in history to resign from two jobs due to something he (supposedly) knew nothing about. This whole affair raises some serious questions about Cameron's judgement, considering he was publicly supporting Coulson as recently as Monday in a radio interview. That he would have allowed someone so seriously implicated in a phone-hacking scandal to be at the heart of government for so long beggars belief.

 

And I don't think this is the end of the affair by any means - the Guardian was reporting the other day that about 10 celebrities are about to launch lawsuits against NoW for hacking their phones. I really think this is going to end with Coulson in prison.

It surprises me that the Tory government thought they could maintain an air of respectability by hiring a former News of the World editor as communications chief. Just shows that you get what you pay for.

 

It's also the top story on the Guardian website, although there's no surprises there.

It seems to have failed given it's top story on the BBC!

 

It reminds me of last September, when William Hague released the "I'm not gay" statement on the same day as the Blair memoirs coming out, thinking it would be buried, only for it to backfire completely - and it was thought that was Coulson's idea! Clearly he's not as great a spin doctor as everyone claims.

For him to claim that he had "no idea" what was going on is at best disingenuous and at worst a downright lie... He must be the most incompetent editor in chief in the world if he didn't know this was going on to this scale.. There's a reporter languishing in jail right now, basically with it all being put on his head alone... To suggest that this is somehow all the work of a single "rogue reporter" is absolute nonsense....

 

For him to claim that he had "no idea" what was going on is at best disingenuous and at worst a downright lie... He must be the most incompetent editor in chief in the world if he didn't know this was going on to this scale.. There's a reporter languishing in jail right now, basically with it all being put on his head alone... To suggest that this is somehow all the work of a single "rogue reporter" is absolute nonsense....

The reporter has been out of jail for some time. Other than that, you're right. As editor, when presented with an exclusive, he must surely have asked for evidence and asked how it was obtained. If he didn't ask questions like that, what exactly did he do all day?

 

There's still the matter of the way the original investigation was carried out. It is alleged that there is a whole stack of evidence which the Met did not examine in detail. That evidence could well incriminate other reporters. And what happened to the officer in charge of the original investigation? He got a job at News Corp, owners of the News of the World.

It's pretty obvious Coulson at best knew his reporters were hacking into phones but simply turned a blind eye to it, and at worst, actively condoned it, instructed his reporters to do it and listened to the hacked materials himself. Eitherway, Cameron was incredibly naive to believe Coulson, and to believe that the story was going to die down.

 

Apparently, his resignation was brought about by Murdoch finally ending his personal (and financial) protection: News International have ended their big payouts to celebrities who were threatening to bring lawsuits, leading to new lawsuits by Paul Gascoigne, Sienna Miller and Steve Coogan - which will inevitably lead to Coulson being dragged back into the dock. This story ain't going anywhere.