David Cameron's judgment in hiring Andy Coulson condemned in poll

66% of ComRes respondents thought PM should not have hired Coulson knowing he had resigned as NoW editor over scandal

Two out of three people believe the prime minister showed poor judgment in employing Andy Coulson as his Downing Street director of communications.

In an opinion poll carried out by ComRes for the Independent newspaper, 66% said they thought David Cameron should not have hired Coulson knowing he had resigned as editor of the News of the World over the phone-hacking scandal.

Coulson quit his role in the government 10 days ago after repeated inquiries into his knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World, saying the affair limited his ability to devote himself to his job.

Nine out of 10 of those polled believe it is wrong for journalists to hack into the private telephone voicemail messages of celebrities and politicians.

The poll also showed that 67% thought the allegations of telephone hacking meant the newspaper industry should no longer regulate itself.

ComRes polled 1,002 adults over the weekend between the 28-30 January.

Last night, giving the Hugh Cudlipp memorial lecture in London, the editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, warned that Britain's newspapers risked political "retribution" in the form of statutory regulation following the phone hacking scandal. He accused Rupert Murdoch's News International publishers of the NoW of failing to pursue a policy of "own up rather than cover up", and he criticised the bulk of the industry for failing to "take the issue seriously" because their titles may also have been implicated in the illegal practice.

In a trenchant lecture, he described "the phone hacking scandal" as a "watershed - not just for News International but also for tabloid journalism" arguing that a 2006 report by the Information Commissioner suggested that 305 journalists from a range of titles used the services of a private investigator.

Other newspapers, "aside from the lead taken by the Gu! ardian, which was followed by the FT, BBC and Independent," Barber said, "took a pass on the News of the World phone hacking story - almost certainly because they too were involved in similar practices". It amounted to, he said, a "conspiracy of silence [that] ruled Fleet Street".

The result of a "failure to clean house at all news organisations" would be that the "mainstream media in Britain" would be "at risk of retribution in the form of statutory regulation," not least because many MPs are "itching to retaliate" in the wake of the expenses scandal.

It emerged that police have been asked to investigate suspicions that rail union leader Bob Crow's mobile phone was hacked into. Lawyers for the general secretary of the rail, maritime and transport union have written to the Metropolitan police asking them to look into suspicions that journalists had access to private information about Crow's movements over the past decade.

Crow said: "RMT has had suspicions that journalists may have had access to private information about my movements and my union's activities that date back to the year 2000 and we are now asking for the police, as part of their renewed investigation, to disclose to us any evidence or information that they may have uncovered in respect of the News of the World."

A string of politicians and celebrities have claimed their phones were hacked into, but this is the first time a union leader has raised suspicions.

It is understood that Crow became worried that information about his movements had been accessed without his knowledge.

The union leader has been involved in a number of high-profile transport disputes in recent years, including strikes on London Underground.


guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds



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