Dead Man Walks

No, it's not a News of the World headline, just the announcement that Andy Coulson, for so long a Dead Man Walking in his job as David Cameron's Director of Communications, has finally gone.  With the incessant drip feed of revelations in the voicemail hacking scandal involving the NotW, Coulson had become part of the story, and that made his role simply untenable.  He stands by his previous words on the subject - in essence that he knew nothing of what was going on - and, while that surely casts doubt on his competence as an editor, we must take his words at face value.



The political story now is best summed up by a question: what's worse than having a fool as Prime Minister?  The answer is, a loyal fool, and that's what David Cameron has shown himself to be.  How on earth could he have imagined that it was a smart move to take Coulson with him when he became PM, with all of the NotW shennanigans going on?  Everyone with a brain in their head knew that it couldn't work out, and for Cameron to then issue a kind of vote of confidence earlier this week - saying that he'd given Coulson 'a second chance' - showed that his judgement in this matter was deeply flawed.  That then begs the question, if he can get it so wrong on this one, how can we ever trust his judgement again?

I freely own up to schadenfreude in this matter - I love seeing Cameron squirm, and it's even better when it is his own foot that he has shot!  More of the same please to help this lousy and untrustworthy coalition fall apart.

On a separate note, has anyone's life been enhanced by the press suggestion that Alan Johnson's wife might have played away with his police protection officer?  Johnson wanted to keep his personal issues private, and he wasn't allowed to do that.  I'm all for journalists being able to pursue a story, but this simply wasn't one that was worth pursuing.  Shame on those involved.