by Chris Bodenner
Charlie Cook sums up the scandal‘s implications for Downing Street:
The revelations will serve a serious blow to Prime Minister David Cameron, who will find it hard to avoid being personally tainted by the scandal. Cameron’s reputation
took a hit back in February of this year, when his former press secretary, Andy Coulson, who is a former editor of the paper, was forced to resign over continuing allegations that hacking occurred during his time at the helm. (He strenuously denies this.) Cameron refused to agree to a public investigation into the matter, despite considerable pressure, a move that may come back to bite him.
The Labour party has frequently taunted the government over its close ties to News International, whose newspapers overwhelmingly endorsed the Conservatives at the election in June of last year. The challenge for David Cameron now will be to distance himself from the suspicion that his close relationship with editor Rebekah Brooks pushed him into giving the paper a soft ride. There is no doubt, especially now that public opinion has turned against the paper, thus inuring him from the wrath of the Murdoch empire, that the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, will try and tie the prime minister’s fate to that of the News of the World.
Coulson is likely to be arrested today. William Underhill has more on the Brooks-Cameron connection:
[T]he prime minister has exposed himself to charges of mixing politics with personal friendship through his ties to senior figures in the Murdoch empire. In particular, attention has focused on Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News
International, who is a neighbor of the Camerons in the Oxfordshire countryside and is said to go riding with the prime minister. Fueling the criticism, it’s known that Cameron attended a dinner party at Christmas hosted by Brooks, where guests included James Murdoch. At the time, News Corp. was proposing the politically contentious takeover of British Sky Broadcasting. Accurate or not, the perception of a too-close relationship will dent the prime minister’s image as an assured political operator.
The Economist calls for a full judicial inquiry:
Within News International anyone implicated directly in any aspect of this saga—not just the apparent phone hacking at the News of the World but the obfuscations since—should immediately stand down, pending a proper police investigation. Then there needs to be a judicial inquiry, with the power to call witnesses, including police officers, under oath. That should cover all newspapers, not just Mr Murdoch’s, and ferret out other dodgy activities, such as obtaining private medical records and credit-card transactions. If the result of such an inquiry is a bloodbath in Fleet Street and Scotland Yard, so be it. Mr Cameron’s refusal to push ahead with this forcefully is incredibly cowardly and shortsighted.
(Top photo: Andy Coulson, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Director of Communications, leaves his home in London on September 10, 2010. British police are likely to question Prime Minister David Cameron’s media chief following a claim he knew about illegal phone hacking at a tabloid newspaper he edited, a senior officer said earlier this week. By Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images; Bottom photo: News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks leaves the office of The News of The World on July 7, 2011 in London, England. By Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
The Dish 