So said Chief Commissioner of Met Police yesterday, after it was discovered he had hired Andy Coulson's deputy editor, Wolfman Wallis, as his personal Comms adviser. Wallis is currently on bail suspected of ordering phone-hacking.
I always thought having integrity, like being a gentleman, was a quality which was for others to judge on. It is not an attribute which can be wholly self-declared.
Sir Paul Stephenson was very much on the defensive, being grilled by the pesky Met Police Authority (his employers) having avoided declaring this monumental conflict of interest to the MPA, the Mayor, Home Sec, Parliament, PM and wider media.
While the relations between press, police and MPs became laid bare, arrests made, execs sacked, a five billion dollar deal floundered and even a major title folded, Sir Paul sat on this embarrassment like an anxious teenager with an STD.
Wallis's appointement makes Andy Hayman's chumminess with NI bosses look quite mild, just a few days on. Hayman's performance was jaw-dropping and hilarious in equal measure, his misplaced casualness borne from his intellectual inferiority.
There is still one last Committee day before recess and Sir Paul will face withering criticism, his familiar Lancashire robustness will not do here. And only two weeks ago he was said publicly he wished his officers working on Operation Wheeting were out there solving real crimes.
Also on Tuesday but just down the Committee corridor will be Rebecca Brooks and a couple of geezers called Murdoch also giving evidence on their part in this farrago. They were the first Select Committee witnesses to be receive a summons for about 50 years and looks like their testimony will be under oath. Just to avoid any doubt, that means telling the truth.
The theatres of London will not be able to compete with these extraordinary afternoon matinees.
No comments:
Post a Comment