Alastair Campbell opens his Diary
You may remember Ruth Turner, the Blair aide woken at dawn as ‘Yates of the Yard’ pursued allegations from the SNP about so-called cash for honours. How very different from YotY’s handling of phone-hacking. The News of the World hack Paul McMullan told me he was asked three times to visit the police to be interviewed under caution. Three times he refused. So the police ‘eliminated me from their inquiries’. Speaking to London Assembly members, YotY said the police could not be expected to chase every piece of gossip, rumour and innuendo — er, what was ‘cash for honours’? The police have launched a new investigation into new evidence which didn’t emerge (allegedly) during the previous thorough (allegedly) investigations by them and News Corporation. But surely there has to be a separate investigation into YotY’s investigation, and the cosy links between cops and hacks.
Max Clifford was one of my interviewees for a One Show film on the growing stench around phone-hacking. Though Clifford has settled with the News of the World, he was clear that people more senior than the news editor would have known what went on, and that illegal activities were unlikely to be confined to one paper. The film crew was amazed to discover that Max and I hadn’t met before, and keen to know my impressions. I found him wily, but my main feeling was that his teeth are whiter and smoother than Simon Cowell’s, which I thought to be impossible.
It is more than a year since I appeared at the Chilcot inquiry, which has now finished taking evidence and will begin to write its report. With previous Iraq-related inquiries, despite negative coverage along the way, I made a point of not commenting on other people’s evidence.
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