A damning verdict and where next

Making the headlines this morning is the verdict of the Commons culture committee on the News of the World's phone tapping which the Guardian says

News International could face a judicial inquiry after a highly critical parliamentary report today accuses senior executives at its top-selling newspaper of concealing the truth about the extent of illegal phone hacking by its journalists.

NoW executives are accused of having "collective amnesia" and of"deliberate obfuscation" whilst Scotland yard should have

have broadened its original investigation in 2006, and not just focused on Clive Goodman, the NoW's royal reporter.

The committee claimed that some of the celebrities involved might well have had their silence bought and whilst New International is adamant that the select committee had been hijacked by MP's with a political agenda,there is no doubt that the News of the World's activities have gone a lot further than simply Clive Goodman.

Surely then the spotlight will once again fall on Andy Coulson who jumped ship when this story first broke to join the Tories.

FT hacks Coulson

Alex Barker has a little fun over the FT's Westminster Blog

“Hi Andy it’s Sue. The Guardian have called again. I told him you had no comment. But he says he’s going to stand outside CCHQ and call every hour until you say something. Just thought you should know.”

“Andy it’s me. DON’T forget the milk on your way home. And remember it’s no Blackberry night tonight. Luv ya Peachy.”

“Rupert here. You’d better call.”

“Hello Andy it’s Paul Livers calling from C-Rap PR. Hope you’re sitting down ’cause we’ve got a Grrreat story for your Bizarre column….”

“Andy, look, I’ve seen the photos of Dave and, alright, they’re not the most flattering. But I don’t see what you think I could have done. I’m not bloody watching over the shoulder of every picture editor in this place. And the idea that I’m going to order them to use only pictures of his left hand side…look, give just give us a call. I’m around this evening.”

“Andy, it’s Peter here. The Telegraph are damn well at it again. They’re obsessed with this one blasted claim I made four years ago, really very boring, the wife insisted on getting the damn thing. I can’t believe it will make a story, it’s dashed dull and the fees office didn’t even give me the money for it. But, just in case, it might be worth me talking you through it.”

Run and run and run and run

I haven't had chance as yet to blog about Nick Davies scoop in the Guardian this morning.

According to former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil,this is going to run and run and writes that

If, as the Guardian claims, between 2,000 and 3,000 people were targeted and had their privacy breached in various ways, then some of the names already mentioned could get together to mount a multi-million pound class action against the Murdoch company. Just starting that process would almost certainly unseal the documents. Then more than the cat would be out of the bag ... and the potential damages unlimited.

The Spectator's James Forsyth meanwhile looks at David Cameron as he is stuck in a pincer movement between two extremes of journalism

David Cameron finds himself caught up in a war between two media tribes following the revelations about the phone hacking at the News of the World during Andy Coulson’s editorship. On the one side, there’s The Guardian—whose scoop it was—and the BBC; for the BBC this episode is a chance to both make an ideological point against tabloid journalism and the Murdoch press as well as gain some revenge for the fun that The Sun and The Times had with the BBC’s expenses. On the other is News International with other newspapers that have used similar methods looking nervously on from the sidelines.

Cameron under attack

Andy Coulson has gone to work for the Tory party to court the fleet street editors back into the Conservative fold.

The papers this morning show what a mammoth job he has in front of him,none more so than his former charge the News of the World.

It carries an interview with Tory Mp,Graham Brady,who:

In an exclusive article for the News of the World, says he was told to "shut up" about education if he wanted to keep his job as Shadow Europe Minister.
He ACCUSES the Tory leadership of picking a fight with "millions of ordinary working families."
And he BRANDS Mr Cameron's education policies "badly thought out" and inconsistent. Brady was reprimanded after opposing Mr Cameron's declared plans to block any new grammar schools at all.

But many of the papers are on the Cameron attack this morning.The Indy has a front page which asks

Mr & Mrs Greener: But are the Camerons what they seem?

The Telegraph leads with the story that

David Cameron's competence and credibility as a potential prime minister have been severely damaged by his party's bitter infighting over grammar schools.
The Conservative leader is seen as less capable and a weaker leader than Gordon Brown, an ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph shows today. He is also behind on "hard" issues such as the economy, tax and the fight against terrorism.

And a lead article which says

Tomorrow David Cameron will return to Westminster from his family holiday in Crete, to face the dismal political fall-out from several weeks of botched policy presentations and party rebellion. Already he has sought to regain his equilibrium by dismissing the row over grammars as a political cappuccino of "froth and nonsense" whipped up by a mischievous media.
As an explanation, that simply will not do. The origin of the grammar schools policy debacle was a speech made by the shadow education spokesman, David Willetts, and read in full by Mr Cameron himself.

And the Mail on Sunday isnt happy either,Stephen Glover writing

After the grammar school furore, what DOES Mr Cameron believe in?

What worries me far more is that neither David Cameron nor the Tory education spokesman David Willetts, whose speech last week set the controversy raging, has any firm proposal, or indeed any proposals at all, about how to improve a defective State education system.
Without much conviction, both men have adopted Tony Blair's much vaunted City academies, saying that they point the way for the future, and are likely to offer talented children from unprivileged backgrounds a much sure route to a good education than the 164 remaining grammar schools do.

Watch this space

Tories have a new spin Doctor

The news that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is to join the Tories as their media spin doctor has attracted a fair amount of comment this morning.

Andy,you may recall,fell on his sword following the recent phone tapping scandal.The Tories seem at the moment to be in desperate need of some media coordination.

The lying low strategy whilst Blair continues his world tour has backfired with avengence as the party implodes over Grammar schools.

Have a read of Lance Price is this morning's Telegraph


"The grammar schools debacle, which has become more embarrassing by the day, is only the latest evidence of a lack of any serious tactical thinking. Cameron and his closest allies have been flying by the seat of their well-tailored pants and it is beginning to show. Coulson's appointment hasn't come a day too soon. "

The battle is now on with Michael Ellam who will move to Downing street on Brown's succession.

There is some speculation that this may herald a move by the Murdoch papers back to the Tory party.

Will it work?Read this by Michael White on Media Guardian.

According to Guido

he suspects this will signal a much needed change in the tone of Tory propaganda. Trying, as Osborne recently did, to frame Gordon Brown as a leftie won't work. The approach to Gordon has to chime in with the truth that people instinctively sense. He is an unpleasant, difficult to work with, psychologically flawed, malevolent, grudge-bearing control freak. These aspects of his character are even more of a negative than his tax and spend, big government, micro-managing policies.