Skipper

Those who thought this was a 'warmed up' case with little merit must be rethinking right now as the Coulson case generates yet more momentum. New evidence is now coming forward in the form of witnesses claiming Coulson knew most things about illegal phone hacking, rather than the 'nada' he told the Select committee. Former deputy editor Paul Mullan, is explicit regarding the regular contact he had with Steve Whittamore, a Hamphshire private investigator who specialised in phone hacking:

"I would speak to Steve nearly every day when I was deputy features editor, and we'd chat about what he'd done and if his bill was too big. Getting information from confidential records, we did that regularly, time and time again. I always hid behind the journalist's fundamental get-out clause that, if it's in the public interest, you can do what you like. Some of what Steve did was legal, like using the electoral register, but if he went a step further, I would not have given a second thought to whether that was illegal, because that's part of your job,"

Parliament also, far from dismissing this as a non story have referred it to the Standards and Privileges committee(which, unlike other such committes can force witnesses to appear before it) and the Home Affairs Committee. Moreover there are signs that support for Coulson within the Conservative Party is far from solid, as Nicholas Watt, writes today:

There appears to be scant support for Coulson on the Tory benches. Other than ministers who dutifully trot out the standard Downing Street defence – that no new cast-iron evidence linking Coulson to the phone hacking has emerged – hardly any Tories have rallied to his defence.

I stand by my prediction that sooner or later the PM's director of communications- who should never have been appointed in the first place, is 'toast'.