The Coulson phone tapping scandal: it’s early days by Garbo
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One of the most compelling questions at the moment surrounding the Coulson phone tapping scandal is whether this story is going to play out as big and damaging news or merely end up as tomorrow evenings fish and chip wrapping. I think it is too early to say at the moment, but one thing is for sure, it has the potential to be very damaging indeed for the Tories and Cameron needs to be on top it very fast.
What is clear is that if Coulson was in any way part of phone tapping while he was at the News of the World, then he has to go. Simple. Forget all this talk about him not being a Tory employee at the time – David Cameron simply cannot have the man who would be Director of Communications for the government of Great Britain someone who authorised a phone tapping exercise.
Of course, there is a massive IF around all this. At the moment we do not know if Coulson is in any way involved or not. In the same way Brown could not be held responsible for some dodgy emails, Coulson cannot be held entirely responsible for the actions of some rouge journalists, if this is the case. There is a distinct whiff about all this though, it has to be said, and some serious questions need answering.
Why has the NotW been settling out of court for up to £1m, as has been alleged, if there has been no wrong doing? Coulson was not there the whole time this was going on, but the very implication of this is that he was there for some of the time. If he did not know what was going on, why not? What happened to the reporters under Coulson’s watch who were caught out – did Coulson sack them?
If there is any danger of this story running, Cameron would be better to act swiftly. It is a gamble however; Coulson has had a titanic effect on the Tory’s fortunes since he has arrived – comparable to Alastair Campbell proportions. Losing him would be a huge blow and a great scalp for the Labour party.
As to whether the story doing any serious long term damage other than Cameron losing a master of spin and all that entails, I suspect not. If it is clear there is no wrong doing on Coulson’s part then the story will go and the damage will be very limited. If there is wrong doing, but Cameron acts swiftly, then the damage will perhaps be felt in the next poll or two at worst. If Coulson stays for any length of time and a smoking gun is found then the Tory reputation will be dented quite significantly.
However, as we have seen with the Labour party, there is not one event or story that floors a party. Rather it is a sustainable drip, drip of bad news that does the damage. This event alone will not cause that. However, it is not inconceivable that keeping a discredited Coulson in place would provide a sustainable line of attack for the government; or conversely, having no Coulson there to bat way the bad news, like he has in past, could also spell bad news.
There is also the sense here that this is a very deliberate attack by the Labour party to dig up bad news in an attempt to offset the dirty tactics seen by the Tories of late. Until we hear more of the facts, it really is hard to know what allegations are being made, which of them are new and therefore what impact they will have.
At least one thing is in the Tory’s favour – this is a fight that will have News International firmly in the Blue corner. Rupert Murdoch rarely loses a fight and they will be keen to keep this story out of the news agenda as much as they can.
Categories: All WW, Politics Decoded
Coulsen’s position while at the NotW was more analagous to Brown than McBride. If the Labour tame press manage to force Coulsen out then Brown should be forced out as well… (Fat chance).
Zorro – I think it depends on what the situation is. I fail to see why Brown should have gone for McBride’s actions. You cannot expect Brown to know the content of every email that left every member of his team. In the same way, if Coulson was genuinely unaware of these payments being made for people to tap calls/listen to voicemails, then I fail to see what wrong doing he has done also.
One big question mark though is: if hundreds of thousands of pounds was being spent on the private investigators to tap calls, how did Coulson not know about it?
I am referring my judgement until we know more, but there are some very serious allegations made here. Far more serious than the McBride situation for example – after all, the McBride affair was simple a private email whose contents were never going to reach the light of day had it not been for a leak… or someone tapping into an email account! The phone tap affair actually happened, it wasn’t just private talk between two goons.
But if, as Labour ministers are everywhere saying, as editor Coulson “must” have known about the phone tapping, then as Prime Minister Brown “must” have know about McBride’s slander attempts. So if Coulson has to go, so should Brown.
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The Brown and Coulson situations aren’t comparable.
If Brown didn’t know about the emails, then he wasn’t aware of a stupid but very minor action being planned by a couple of comms people, who are (or at least should be) somewhere toward the bottom of his list of priorities.
If Coulson didn’t know about the phone tapping, then he wasn’t aware of where hundreds of thousands of pounds of the budget he handled was being spent, or of illegal activities being carried out by many (if not most) of the people who he’s supposedly employed to manage.
john b´s last blog ..Tax proposal
I am not bothered about what Labour ministers are saying, what I am saying is that if Coulson knew, then he should go, if not then I see no reason why he should.
There are some serious question that need to be answered by Coulson. I do not think there are any questions that need to be answered by Brown on the McBride case. There was absolutely no evidence Brown was involved in smeargate whatsoever. He sacked McBride, who was clearly involved, and rightly so.
Any reason my comment on this got deleted? It was perfectly on-topic, inoffensive and factual…
john b´s last blog ..Tax proposal
Hi John
Not deleted – caught by the moderation setup. Now approved. I’m not actually sure what the reason was. The only thing that we are really tight on are links in comments.
On a further note, Wordpress (or perhaps one of the plugins) seems to sometimes send out email notifications immediately before a comment has been approved. I sometimes go to reply to others’ comments before they have actually appeared.
Sorry for the delay.
Matt
I haven’t followed all the nuances of this, but the media – having just chewed over politicians – are unlikely to get much quarter.
Lab strategists are, as the Tories would be in a reversed situation, trying to make mud stick to Coulson.
Imho if Coulson’s position is not completely down the line with his previous statements, then he is out.
I was startled by how outspoken people like Andrew Neil were – “if true it is the most serious media scandal of modern times” – and I think he is right.
Are problems wrt the investigation process more serious? I think the secret settlements and non-investigation of allegations that victims didn’t even know about are incredible, and the likes of John Prescott have my sympathy.
The implicatinos for privacy law are huge. I’m not sure how if we will have “special categories” of people with extra privacy protection as was proposed (not sure if implemented) with the idea of keeping “children of prominent people” out of the National Child Database.
John B – I think you are spot on. There is no reason why Brown would have known about what McBride was doing. Whereas Coulson really should have known. However, Cameron being forced into sacking him for being a crap Newspaper editor is not good enough grounds at all!
The insinuation, of course, is that Coulson must have known because he was not a crap editor. As I have said, I am reserving my judgement on this, but it doesn’t look good…
Matt – I agree, this potentially a very big scandal. When you compare with McBride who sent a private email that was never mean to see the light of day to an illegal phone tapping operation of politicians, ministers, celebrities and so on – up to 3000 people, this is on a different scale. Not only that, but it looks like there may have been a cover up by the NotW, the police and Courts of Justice. This could be a massive scandal indeed.
I haven’t seen the detail – is it basically like the Royal Phone Tapping where it came down to exploiting poor security on people’s mobiles, or is it real hacking?
Interesting comparison with the Gary McKinnon case where the Pentagon are going balls out to lock him up for decades for effectively walking through a security hole they had left in their hedge.
Where do the comparisons lie?
Sorry if I sounded a bit pompous above. I think I was confused by the fact that the comment first appeared in my browser as ‘awaiting moderation’, then didn’t appear at all…
Clearly Cameron isn’t *obliged* to sack Coulson for being a crap newspaper editor in the same way he would be obliged to sack him for being a crook – but assuming he won the role on the basis of being a good newspaper editor, I think Cameron would be well within his (legal and moral) rights to do so.
john b´s last blog ..Tax proposal
Heh. John, your latest comment got marked for moderation, too.
Is there a Whitelist plugin somewhere?
Garbo – So, what, there is no reason Brown should know what HIS spin doctors are doing? Come on!
IF Coulson knew, he has to go. But can that be proven? The insinuation that he MUST have known is bollocks. If they can’t prove it, they should STFU.
Chris´s last blog ..Speaker comes through for Cub Scouts
Why are people assuming Labour fed the Guardian the story? Of course they benefit but why this assumption? Maybe the Guardian’s just doing a good job?
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Matt – I am unclear exactly what methods were used, though it appears a whole range were – including phone tapping and hacking voice mail.
I haven’t actually considered the Gary McKinnon in relation to this until you mentioned it… worth a thought for sure. I am not sure that leaving a door open is grounds enough for an unwelcome guest walking through it though.
TD – I do not think it is reasonable to expect Brown to know the content of every email that leaves from the accounts of all his staff – that would be crazy! When he found out the content he sacked McBride.
In the same way, I do not expect Cameron to know everything that Coulson has ever done in his life and if it turns out that Coulson has lied and was party to phone tapping then Cameron should sack him.
I suspect that we will not get to the bottom of this though, because it is in the intertests of those who control the news not to make this news. Which is a shame, because regardless of Coulson’s role in this, it is clear that there is more to this story than a one off royal investigator who got banged up for getting caught.
This story is far bigger than a potential Tory scandal, the Coulson element is just a small part in a far bigger story – and I agree that it is feasible that Coulson is clean in all this. However, the NotW and a number of their reporters should face some questions. Tapping phones is just not on. They should be given the chance to clear their name or be banged to rights.