Skipper

I cannot but believe Simon Jenkins today when he says:

It is implausible for the former editor Andy Coulson to plead that he did not know what was going on.

Andrew Neil has judged that the News of the World newsroom was awash with information gleaned from phone hacking and a number of scoops had been run on the basis of them. If the whole thing cost as much as £1m then it defies belief that the editor would not know all about it.

If Coulson had worked from Brown- and given the mercenary nature of many journalists this scenario would not be inconceivable- you can imagine the excoriating sarcasm the sharp - tongued old Etonian would marshall in rubbishing such an idea. The punch line, of course, would be 'If he didn't know about it, then he was grossly incompetent not to know about it. Cameron will be lucky to avoid having to sack someone he has come to rely on; at least Brown sacked McBride once his misdeeds became evident.