Jaw-dropping sentence in Paul Stephenson’s resignation note:
Secondly, once Mr Wallis’s name did become associated with Operation Weeting, I did not want to compromise the Prime Minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson.
He goes on:
I am aware of the many political exchanges in relation to Mr Coulson’s previous employment – I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the Prime Minister, or by association the Home Secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard.
This puts Cameron’s decision to pick Andy Coulson and bring him to the centre of Government back at the very heart of the story.
All this on the same day as the Mail on Sunday implied that Cameron’s decision to choose Andy Coulson over Guto Harry was taken on the instructions of Rebekah Brooks.
and so it continues, is anyone in politics clean?
I think most people in most parties are clean.
But undoubtedly the perceived need to keep the media ‘onside’ can be corrupting. Just as with the media, the desire to win at any price can quietly and slowly stretch the boundaries of people’s behaviour.
Some politicians seem more relaxed about this than others (Osborne). But the perceived need to win over News International at any price appears to have made others blinkered to properly considering what Coulson and the News of the World had been getting up to (Cameron).