There will be frenzied planning in David Cameron’s office today after it emerged a newspaper his press secretary Andy Coulson ran tapped the phones of everyone and his wife.
The problem for Cameron is that he can’t stand on the moral high-ground demanding the departure of Damian McBride – you remember Smeargate of course – and now keep Coulson under his wing.
McBride’s case was different – his misdemeanours were committed while he was working for the Prime Minister, while Coulson’s situation occurred in a previous career at the News of The World. Plus the former editor claims he knew nothing of it.
The editors of the papers I’ve worked at had a very good idea of all the big stories being cooked up.
In terms of Coulson’s position it’s irrelevant whether he knew or not, because muck sticks and if Cameron doesn’t jettison his press secretary it’ll stick to him too.
So the planning they’ll be doing now, I suspect, is how to minimise the impact of his departure.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Coulson will have to go
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4 comments:
Totally agree. Coulson will become the story. Cameron did not help this morning by saying he gave Coulson a 2nd chance.
Oh dear. Coulsen's position at the NoTW was more analogous to Gordon Brown's position in Smeargate. He was either incompetent or complicit. If Coulsen has to go then Brown has to go. Any analogy to McBride is severely flawed.
You could be right that he will be pushed out but I'd be willing to bet that won't be down to anything so dirty as 'evidence'...
Seriously if Coulsen goes, Brown should go. Mind you obviously Brown should go, everyone in the entire country apart from Brown himself realises this.
Also. The equivalent character to McBride in this scenario spent 4 months in jail. Who thinks McBride will suffer a similar fate?
Also. The NotW were not making stories up, they were investigating _real_ news (just in an illegal way, akin to the Telegraph's recent revalations about MP's expenses).
Unlike McBride who was basically making up the worst possible stuff he could come up with to damage his masters opponents.
So all in all, this 'analogy' between Coulsen and McBride is pretty pants really isn't it. In fact there is no similarity at all, apart from the fact they are both PR guys.
Does _anyone_ really believe Brown did not know exactly what McBride was up to?
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