Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister's Director of Communications at No 10, has, at long last, fallen on his sword.

It had to happen.

The News of the World phone hacking story was never going to go away. And it is not over yet.

Coulson expects us to believe he was blissfully unaware of what was happening in his own newsroom at the NoTW.

The phone hacking was, apparently, the work of a “rogue journalist”.

And when Coulson was pressed for answers in the Commons Culture Select Committee he conveniently couldn’t remember things – such as “royal exclusives” plastered over the front page.

I have long believed that witnesses before Select Committees should be required to take an oath to tell the truth.

You know the kind of thing. They do it on Capitol Hill as a matter of course; witnesses dramatically holding one arm aloft. The stars and stripes alongside.

Taking an oath in this way concentrates the mind and seems to help some witnesses remember things they might otherwise forget.

There is far too much slippery evasion.

As Coulson leaves Number 10 with the Prime Minister’s good wishes for the future, I am left wondering what the firebrand former MSP, Tommy Sheridan, makes of it all.

At his trial in Glasgow last month, Sheridan quizzed Coulson, reminding him at one stage that he was under oath.

Sheridan, found guilty of perjury, is due to be sentenced on 26 January. 

Sometimes life can be very unfair.

Attachments:

362i.pdf	[Culture Select Committee 1]	799 Kb
362ii.pdf	[Culture Select Committee 2]	6739 Kb