David Cameron’s press conference this morning about the News of the World, other newspapers, News International, and the police had some perfectly good points in it. But his announcement of a judge-led inquiry was too late – Chris Grayling on Question Time last night floundered badly on this, and didn’t need to.
Similarly, for some reason, he hadn’t any real answer to the Andy Coulson question. Which David Cameron didn’t this morning either.
I’m getting the impression that David Cameron didn’t ask The Question of Andy Coulson in 2007. Which is a terrible thing to say – but I think he didn’t ask because he didn’t want to know the answer. Either that or he took a gamble that there would be no further investigation, and no-one would care much anyway – which is also pretty bad.
In the same way as The Question about his tax status seems to have never been asked of Lord Ashcroft, this is simply not good enough.
The Conservatives’ pitch to the electorate in 2010 (and before) was that we are different. We are straight-forward, we’re straight-talking, and we’ll do the right thing.
That pitch is looking shaky this morning.
apologies, this is written on a blackberry so no links!
New blogpost: What does Andy Coulson say about David Cameron? http://bit.ly/oBYgXv #fb
“@PlatformTen: New blogpost: What does Andy Coulson say about David Cameron? http://t.co/eXIV1dq "
I think this is a key moment not just for David Cameron, but also for Ed Miliband.
It’s been obvious all along that this was going to blow up at some stage, so there have always been questions around the judgement of employing Coulson. Frankly it smacks of a desire for power above all else.
Worse is the easy ride given to BSkyB by Jeremy Hunt with the tacit nod from No10.
I agree this could be toxic for the conservatives.
But if they get away with it intact along with News International, Miliband is basically toast. News International will mercilessly take him down. Which of course is exactly why Cameron wanted to get into bed with them.