Rebekah brooks

Saturday

James Forsyth

Who knows where this will all end for politics, the press and the police

Rarely has that old adage that week is a long time in politics seemed more appropriate. Seven days ago, few of us would have predicted that we would be in the middle of a crisis that could dramatically effect how politics is run, the press are regulated and the standing of the police.  This morning is probably one of those days when, to borrow his joke from yesterday, David Cameron wants to shut down all the newspapers. The Mail and The Telegraph lay into him for his call to end self-regulation of the press. Indeed, their editorials on the matter speak to a broader anger in both papers that despite

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Miliband is running out of attacks — but he’ll use what he’s got

It’s a strange thing, amid all venom and spite over the phone hacking scandal, how the three main parties are actually converging on the same responses. A judge-led inquiry? That’s now party policy for them all. The end of the PCC? Likewise. In his press conference earlier, Cameron even came close to saying that Rebekah Brooks should have lost her job. For once, there are trace quantities of Agreeing With Ed in the air at Westminster. This is both a boon and a bitterness for Ed Miliband. A boon, because he can at least claim that Labour led the debate, and Cameron followed. A bitterness, because the politics of the

Peter Hoskin

A newspaper has died, and the recriminations are only just beginning

The blood of the News of the World is sprayed right across the front pages this morning. And yet there’s still more bleeding to be done, it seems. The Guardian has been reporting since last night that Andy Coulson is to be arrested today, over suspicions about his knowledge of phone hacking and police bribery at the paper he once edited. The Mail quotes “supporters of Mr Coulson” as saying that, “he could make damaging claims about Mrs Brooks, who edited the News of the World before him, which in turn could result in her being questioned.” Which rather captures the sense that this story could still intensify, even after

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Cameron’s Coulson problems may be getting bigger

The Guardian’s story that News International believes that Rebekah Brooks was on holiday when Milly Dowler’s phone was allegedly hacked will place further pressure on Andy Coulson, who was her deputy editor at the time. This is the second piece of trouble for Coulson in the past 24 hours following last night’s revelations. Some in News International are unapologetic about how Coulson is being treated. They say that if Coulson had not gone into Downing Street then the whole phone hacking saga would not have got a second wind and there wouldn’t be all this trouble. Indeed, they allege that Coulson had assured a senior figure at News International that

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Andy Coulson thrown back into the story

On the Ten o’clock News tonight Robert Peston reported that News International have allegedly handed emails to the police that show Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World authorised payments to the police. If this was true, it would be illegal. But it should be stressed that Peston could not reach Coulson for comment on the story. There are two immediate implications of this latest development in the story. First, the fact that this development has come out now shows that News International is keen to move the spotlight away from Rebekah Brooks. But given the Independent’s front page tomorrow this tactic is unlikely to succeed Second,