Enter Gordon Brown, with dynamite

The clunking fist is descending on Rupert Murdoch. After rumours all afternoon about Gordon Brown giving a statement on phone hacking to the Commons, the Guardian has come up with specifics: News International, they allege, used private investigators to target our Prime Minister’s phone, his bank account and his family’s medical records. You should be able to watch it all go down in the Commons, very soon.

As Guido has said, there is more than a hint of cold, cold revenge about this. For all his overtures to the Murdoch press, Brown never wound his way into their affections as Tony Blair did. The Sun’s decision to shift over to the Tories, in 2010, sparked Brownite anger at the time. That anger still rankles.

But these are serious allegations nonetheless, and they will ratchet up the political pressure on Murdoch. Indeed, it’s being reported that the Sunday Times — i.e.