Author: |Posted: 4:31 pm on 16/07/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
The Media Select Committee has just announced Andy Coulson will be questioned in a separate session on Tuesday, probably just after Rebekah Wade.
Mr Coulson’s friends say they are feeling pretty relaxed that the committee has no hard paper evidence to pin on him and won’t get far if he sticks to his line that he knew nothing about dodgy practices.
But a lot of eyes in Westminster will be on this and the whole prospect has cheered up some gloomy Labour MPs no end.
Author: |Posted: 10:21 am on 16/07/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
News International has confirmed to the Media Select Committee that it is sending a cast of three to answer questions next Tuesday – former Sun editor Rebekah Wade, the current News of the World editor Colin Myler and a senior News International lawyer.
Les Hinton, who some on the committee think misled them in his last evidence, has emailed from the US to say he doesn’t work for News International any more and has nothing to add.
The committee doesn’t agree and intends to press him to come.
They’re also determined to get Andy Coulson along too. This sounds like a committee with the bit between its teeth.
Parliament rises on Tuesday but the committee can decide to work on for longer into the summer and may well do so.
Author: |Posted: 8:30 pm on 09/07/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
Assistant Commissioner John Yates micturated on some of The Guardian’s allegations this evening. Cameron HQ thinks its man Andy Coulson is through the worst of it and they’ve won the battle. So is that it?
Author: |Posted: 2:25 pm on 09/07/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
A statement could come soon from the Met Police.
The Home Secretary has just confirmed in an interview that he’s spoken to the Met Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson, who’s assured him the police are looking at the 2006 investigation again in the light of the new allegations in The Guardian (not, presumably, that “new” to the police as they appear to have come from their own files).
When Alan Johnson’s junior minister David Hanson answered questions in the Commons on the saga, many MPs couldn’t conceal their glee that newspapers might be brought low by all this, just as MPs were brought low by the expenses saga.
Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs lined up to demand inquiries, investigations and Andy Coulson’s dismissal.
Ann Clwyd even said she didn’t feel safe wandering the corridors of Westminster knowing that Andy Coulson might be round the corner.
The Tories’ Chris Grayling had a painful outing saying the story “raised questions” and that a “measured response” was necessary. Still no word from Andy Coulson on the new allegations and whether he knew phone hacking was happening on his watch.
Author: |Posted: 10:44 am on 09/07/09
Category: Snowblog
“I’ve always assumed my phone was tapped”, John Prescott told me last night on Channel 4 News. I guess I hadn’t. But now that I read the Guardian revelations about the goings on inside News International, I suppose I should.
Any rational assessment recognises that email is unsafe. It is clearly hackable by anyone from friends, relatives and work colleagues to more malign forces – from the corporate to the criminal and even the state.
But somehow when it comes to the little thing that burps and rings at inopportune moments in my pocket, I don’t give a thought to the idea that someone somewhere is listening to my doings. read more
