1) Where’s Jo Moore these days? Remember the good ol’ “good day to bury bad news” and 9/11? The problem for the Tories is that the news hasn’t been buried – by Blair’s return appearance at the Iraq inquiry or by Alan Johnson’s resignation as shadow chancellor – and is leading all the bulletins, even on the BBC, which basically ignored the story for as long as it could.
2) That Coulson couldn’t spin his own departure in a suitable manner speaks volumes about his skills (or lack thereof) as a top-level spinner.
3) That Cameron decided to back his director of communications so publicly – on Monday morning’s Today programme – less than 72 hours before Coulson handed in his resignation speaks volumes about the Prime Minister’s political judgement (or lack thereof) and so, too, of course, does his decision to hire Coulson in the first place.
4) It’s been a bad 24 hours for the Chancellor, George Osborne. He’ll have to raise his departmental game as he’s now facing Ed Balls across the despatch box – Labour’s most formidable economist (just ask Samuel Brittan of the FT!) and a brilliant political strategist, too. Plus, Boy George is the man who convinced Cameron to hire Coulson in order to (re-)build relations with the Murdoch empire and the right-wing press. Bad move.
5) Vince Cable’s “war” against the Murdoch empire may have backfired but hats off to the Guardian’s Nick Davies and the Labour MPs Tom Watson and Chris Bryant for leading the charge against the News of the World and the pathetic efforts by the Murdoch and Coulson apologists to shut this story down.
6) The Press Complaints Commission, the CPS and Scotland Yard should all hang their heads in shame and I’m sure they’ll have to, at some stage in the near future. This story ain’t going away.
7) On the issue of resignations, isn’t it fascinating, in this era of leaks, gossip, 24-hour news channels, blogs and tweets, that both Labour and the Tories were able to keep their respective resignations (of Johnson and Coulson) under wraps and leak-proof? Johnson told Ed Mili that he was quitting on Monday; Coulson told Cameron he was standing down on Wednesday.
8) My then colleague James Macintyre predicted that Coulson would be gone within six months . . . four months ago. Semi-prophetic.
9) The political obituaries of Coulson seem to be glossing over his “bullying” of colleagues while editor of the News of the World. If you need a reminder, check out my NS column from September 2010 for the details.
10) Who succeeds Coulson as the Tories’ – and the government’s – spinner-in-chief? Will Cameron go for a Murdoch empire appointee? Ironically, Ed Miliband did (in the form of the ex-Times hack Tom Baldwin). Is the ex-Sun political editor George Pascoe-Watson the natural replacement? Or will it be the more thoughtful and Cameroonian ex-speechwriter and former Indie deputy editor Ian Birrell? Will the Lib Dems get a say in the appointment? Just kidding . . .
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