Skipper

Well, we all knew the truth but we couldn't prove it, until now. The 2007 letter from Clive Goodman to News of the World executives appealing against his dismissal makes it clear: he hacked phones with the approval of senior executives; the person who p[aid Glen Mulcaire is named- though redacted for the time being; he was promised his job back after serving his time as long as he kept his mouth shut. No more incrimninating piece of evidence could have been unearthed as a result of the select committee's digging, for which this investigation is a triumph.

Brian Cathcart, professor of journalism at Kingston University picks out the bones of the latest revelation, predicting James Murdoch cannot survive it and pointing out:

As for James Murdoch, he is haunted now by 10 words he uttered to MPs, which he will now have to defend: "No, I was not aware of that at the time. He was telling Watson he was unaware of the famous "for Neville" email at the time he authorised a half-million-plus payment to Gordon Taylor in 2008 to withdraw his legal case about hacking and remain silent. That email offered – on any normal reading – firm evidence that Goodman had not been the only News of the World reporter involved in illegal hacking.

Almost certainly, some of these once limo transported executives will be contemplating terms in the slammer, both for their law-breaking, and, as is so often the case, for their subsequent incompetent cover- ups.