Let's Hope He Got A Good One

A pay-off, I mean. Clive Goodman has been sacked by the the News of the World, while in prison, no less, for hacking into the phones of Royalty. Now, it is hard to defend what Clive did, but the reasons for it are obvious - under pressure to produce stories he did anything he could. It's a shame the stories were so mediocre, but there we are, and hardly worth losing your life over. But it says so much about the way that News International, particularly, operates. They will be able to sack him without compensation because he has been convicted of an offence - so perhaps he did not get a pay-off after all. Either way, this is hardly the way to reward a man who has worked for you for more than 15 years. Still, you're only ever as good as your last story.

Ding Dong Ming Mong!

Wonderful cock-up over the weekend. "We don't need PR to support you," the Minger tells Brown. Which is a bit unfortunate really, different as it is to what has been said before. Might as well just bend over, really, Ming, and join the other 50 per cent of your party who take it up the arse. Ming's merry men could not organise an Oaten in a public lavatory, could they? Particularly foolish as they look trying to deny it all today. Mind you, Ming is getting old and probably just forgot to mention it. But the point is that he has nailed himself to the Labour mast when there is a large part of his party who think that a) the Tories are likely to have the most MPs after the next election and b) the Lib Dems should join up with Cameron's "liberal" Conservatives and not grey Gordon's antediluvian army. Can we see a split coming, with the Orange Bookers and fellow travellers going with the Tories and the sandal-wearers heading to support Labour? That would be fun.

Lies, Damn Lies And The Sun Gagged.

Sun gagged? I did. It is true that crack open journalism and you will find a basic kernel of untruth but the Sun has outshone even itself this morning with a disingenuous pile of old crap written by its political editor. "Sun Gagged" screams the headline, about the injunction against the BBC's "cash for questions" story and the alleged killer email. Of course, the implication of the Sun story is that the Sun has that email and has been targetted by Lord Goldsmith, the AG himself, because of its fearless and highly professional journalism. Bollocks. The injunction applies to all publications and if the Sun has the email or would ever publish it am Recess Monkey's uncle and believe Margaret Thatcher is dead.