Police to probe phone hack claims

Somebody has woken the slumbering detectives at Scotland Yard and the Judiciary is warned of further action likely to come before it. It seems a very odd thing, but we live in a cover-up culture now, with so many carpets in so many offices having so much rubbish under them.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has ordered a senior officer to "establish the facts". That's a start, I suppose. Andrew Neil, himself a former Murdoch minion, but now a reformed character says, "Those who have been on the receiving end of this criminal activity so far have not had recourse to justice. First of all, those of us that had our phones tapped and the police were aware of it - why were we not told? Why were they [the News of the World] not prosecuted? Why was a separate deal done in the court and then put away, and not made available to us? To the legal authorities [I would ask] why did you do this?"

Good questions. Why indeed? And concerning Andy Coulson, who Neil thinks has partial amnesia, it is very peculiar that, as editor of the News of the World, he did not ask any questions as to what his journalists were up to. Andrew Neil finds this quite bizarre.

Nick Robinson, the BBC Political Editor, thinks this. "I am sure that David Cameron is anything but "relaxed", as was claimed last night. Coulson has already broken rule one for any spin doctor - "Never become the story". He's good enough at his job to know that this story will soon become one about David Cameron's judgement." Precisely! Which is why the Conservative Party is seemingly acting now like a souffle cooked by an amateur!

Posted in: phone hacking