A disaster for Cameron, and it's all of his own making...

The fall-out from phone-hacking is not just a short-term catastrophe for the Prime Minister. It will stretch on for years.
With multiple police inquiries into wrong-doing at the News of the World, then criminal trials, investigations into alleged police corruption, and finally public inquiries, there is a considerable danger that what is left of David Cameron’s first term in office is going to be completely overshadowed by this scandal.
Cameron tried to divert attention yesterday, shamefully opening the way to the kind of French-style statutory regulation that could shackle the free press (most of which has not been engaging in the despicable behaviour practised by the News of the World). But he won’t be able to wriggle free that easily.


In the years ahead, he and his advisers face the prospect of being called to give evidence as witnesses in the various trials. What discussions did Cameron have about phone hacking with Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who quit as his communications director in January and was arrested yesterday?


Did Cameron’s links to those at the top of News International, Rupert Murdoch’s company that owns the News of the World, and his other British papers, shape government policy — particularly in relation to the mogul’s on-going and highly controversial attempt to buy the whole of BSkyB?
Cameron can’t say he wasn’t warned. On many occasions he was advised not to risk taking Coulson with him into the heart of government, and told he was getting dangerously close to News International. He didn’t listen.

Cameron’s senior staff also received warnings that the Royal Family were deeply perturbed. I have been told that no lesser a person than Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was appalled by the decision to appoint Coulson, and that his grave concerns found their way to Cameron’s team, who ignored them.
Prince William, heir to the throne, allegedly had his phone hacked by the News of the World.
For Cameron, these are dark waters. There are stark parallels with the fate of his predecessor Tony Blair, who had so sycophantically courted the Murdoch empire.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2012719/A-disaster-Cameron-making-.html#ixzz1RXvhAjDD