Skipper

Finally the logic of his situation seems to have occurred to Andy Coulson, as well as the rest of the non Murdoch, seeing -the world -as -it -is community. It always seemed to me no editor could possibly not know how his big stories - costing quite a wedge of cash- were coming from. Moreover, evidence that the hacking operation involved hundreds of people makes it clear this was something that was common knowledge within the NOW st-up.

It was disingenuous in the extreme for Coulson and Cameron to act as if he had been somehow unfairly hounded from office. I wouldn't be surprised either if some major revelation is somewhere in the pipeline which proves culpability. Whatever, the future could see Coulson ending up in court facing the same questions as his former imprisoned colleagues. Cameron's judgment has rightly come under scrutiny and I wonder how he'll cope on his own now. According to one view he found it hard to sleep when he and Coulson disagreed over something major. As for a replacement I see various names are being mooted but my eyebrows raised skywards when I saw the name of Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes, being tipped. If a blogger is being considered, I'm sure Iain Dale would be a much better bet.

Finally, on 6th September last year I led with a headline: 'Sooner or Later Coulson is Toast'. A couple of rightwing commenters dismissed this 'reheated' story as trivial and nowhere near 'explosive' as I had described it when only The Guardian seemed to think it worth column inches. Paul Linfod, excellent fellow blogger, came to my support at the time and has also been vindicated. Well, I tend to avoid triumphalism in all aspects of my life -not that I get much opportunity to indulge such a sentiment at the best of times. But on this occasion may I say to them quietly and very sincerely: 'I did try to tell you'.