The Company He Keeps

[poliphilo]

The News of the World is horrible. I wouldn't expect anyone involved with it to have any principles to speak of. So I was surprised when David Cameron employed its former editor- Andy Coulson-  as his media advisor. It's not that I suspect David Cameron of having principles, it's simply that it looked so bad. If you want to smell sweet (and Cameron clearly does) you don't surround yourself with polecats. Did he really think no-one would notice?

Coulson was editor at a time when his paper was caught up in a phone-bugging scandal which resulted in a couple of low-level operatives doing time. That wound has burst open again and the Prime Minister's office is having to go on and on about what a sweet person Andy Coulson is and how he didn't know a thing. We've seen this defence before- and it prompts questions about the competency of the person who hides behind  it.  

So is Coulson a sleazy crook who allowed underlings to carry the can for him, or a dewy-eyed innocent who didn't know what his staff were up to? Whichever way the judgement goes there's going to be a hell of a lot of spinning to be done.

Comments

[calizen.livejournal.com]

Or, as they say here, "He who lies down with dogs arises with fleas."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And- to extend the metaphor-

Bigger fleas have smaller fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em
And smaller fleas and smaller fleas
And so ad infinitum.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Either way, he doesn't come out smelling of roses. A sleaze-bag or an incompetent... Hmmm...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

David Cameron is a personable young man, but I suspect he is completely amoral.