Scandal

PMQs today was a taste for David Cameron of what he will have to face over the coming weeks as the scandal surrounding the News of the World continues to grow. Ed Miliband asked him whether he agreed that Rebekah Brooks — a friend of Cameron’s —should resign and then mocked him when he wouldn’t answer. The Labour leader than pushed him on whether News International should be stopped from taking over BSkyB and derided him when he said the matter was out of his hands. Finally, he slammed him for his decision to bring Andy Coulson — who had resigned as editor of the News of the World because

The political plates on phone hacking are shifting rapidly. The story has now ‘gone mainstream’ following the accusations about how the phones of Milly Dowler and the parents of the Soham victims may have been hacked.  Politicians are racing to catch up. Ed Miliband is rapidly moving into a more robust position. The Labour leadership doesn’t want to appear vindictive, to turn this into Labour v. Murdoch. But they are now prepared to openly question the future of Rebekah Brooks and Ed Miliband’s language this evening about how ‘it is up to senior executives at the News of the World and News International to start taking responsibility for criminal activities

Roy Greenslade’s report in the Evening Standard that The Sunday Times will hand over to Essex Police the tape of Chris Huhne talking to his estranged wife Vicky Pryce that got the speeding points story motoring in the first place has revived speculation in Westminster about the future of the Energy and Climate Change Secretary. The Sunday Times’ report says that the tape contains Pryce telling Huhne that, ‘It’s one of the things that worried me when I took them; when you made me take the points in the first instance.’ Huhne, of course, has always denied that anyone ever took points on his behalf. It should be stressed that

The news that the votes which ended up with Russia and Qatar winning the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups might not have been model, clean elections is about as surprising as the news that the faeces discovered in the woods are believed to be of ursine origin. In the Independent today, Dominic Lawson cuts through the seemingly continuous media coverage of the matter to the question of whether it actually matters: “More to the point, given that there are no objective economic benefits to the nations holding such competitions (whatever the kudos to local political dignitaries such as Boris Johnson) shouldn’t we as taxpayers feel grateful

The Chris Huhne story has moved along a fair bit today. It is now being openly reported that it was Huhne’s estranged wife Vicky Pryce who allegedly took the points, though Huhne repeated his denial of the whole story earlier today. The BBC is also saying. that Pryce was that evening at an LSE dinner. (The fact that the BBC is now actively reporting this story shows just how much it has moved into the mainstream.) If, and it is a fairly big if, Essex Police have retained a copy of the picture taken by the speed camera then this case should be resolved fairly easily. The time and the

The vultures appear to be circling closer and closer to Chris Huhne — does he have enough strength to shoo them away? After all, he was already diminished by last weekend’s claims about his delinquent motoring practices. Today, he is diminished further still. Both the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times (£) have published extracts from a taped conversation between the Energy Secretary and an unnamed someone who is alleged to have taken the fall for his speeding tickets. “There is no evidence for this story,” says Huhne in one extract, “unless you give it some legs by saying something.” Another crucial exchange appears to be this one: “When

David Laws has just apologised to the House of Commons in a short statement listened to in sombre silence. Laws stressed that he was glad that the commissioner and the committee had accepted that his motivation had been to protect his privacy not to enrich himself. Indeed, Laws pointed out — somewhat boldly — that there had been ‘no adverse effect’ for the taxpayer from his arrangements as he could have claimed more. The report and the punishment are harsher on Laws than many expected. But given that the coalition needs him and, as David has noted, that Laws’ own explanation for why he broke the rules has been accepted,