Andy Coulson: Now it's David Cameron's boat which is rocking
IF David Cameron's spin doctors are successful, their leader will be seen by the public as the white knight riding in to save the country from the disaster created by New Labour.
In the same way Tony Blair was successful with his "you can trust us, we're different" approach, Cameron's mob too hope get elected on the back of a "at least we're not Labour" ticket.
Part of that, in recent months, has been about showing that the Tories aren't as sleezy as Labour. The McBride affair, for example, was used as a way to suggest Labour wasn't interested in real political discussion, it just wanted to smear the opponents instead.
Even just last weekend, the Cameron-hugging Mail on Sunday was claiming Andrew Lansley, the shadow health minister, had fallen into a Labour internet trap with an interview he gave about how much he'd pay doctors.
The gist was that the reporter who interviewed Lansley is dating a Labour Party activist who runs a pro-Labour PR consultancy, and totally misses the fact that Lansley actually uttered the words which triggered the story.
The beauty of such an approach for the Tories is that it doesn't involve taking too many decisions - as Labour implodes, they take the moral highground.
That approach, tonight, is in jeopardy after The Guardian reported that Ruper Murdoch paid £1million to keep victims of the News of the World's phone-tap scandal (remember the tapping of Royal phones?) quiet.
The Guardian claims dozens of phones were tapped for the paper, whose editor at the time was Andy Coulson. He stood down in the wake of the Royal phone tap scandal, and has since ended up as director of communications for the Conservatives.
Cameron's mob have always said they were convinced that Coulson didn't know what was going on, and will be hoping that is enough to deflect the Labour MPs who now want Coulson out of politics too.
But these are the same Tories who insisted Gordon Brown must have known about the McBride email scandal when it broke - and refused to believe that Brown didn't.
If Cameron wants to keep riding on the anti-sleaze horse, he needs to think carefully about keeping a man linked to the phone-tap scandal so close. It will return to haunt him again and again.
And you can't on one hand go around promising to clean up public life and on other hand keep employing the man who was in charge of a paper which used phone-tapping to break stories.
There's no doubting Coulson's presence in the Tories has led to much better press - Coulson does, after all, know how to play the system to present Cameron in a good light, just as Alastair Campbell did with Labour in the 1990s.
But, to quote Campbell, you can't carry on when you become the story. Campbell went when he become the story around the David Kelly inquiry, and now Coulson is in the spotlight, he'll struggle to get back out of it. And that can only be bad news for Cameron's cruise towards number 10.
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David Higgerson - David Higgerson has covered local and national politics for much of his career as a journalist. This blog aims to look at Westminister from the outside in, at a time when it appears very few are looking out from the inside.
Enjoy your blog David. Liverpool born and bred I must speak about Nadine Dorries.
Can't keep quiet any longer.Knew Dorries nee Bargery family way back.Know Dorries has told many porky pies since 2005.
Sad, as I liked her Mum very much and Dorries is an embarrassment to her Mum I would think. I recall she was not named in sleaze emails: that is to say, the emails were not published, she named HERSELF !!she went all out to gain publicity ( the others stayed dignified )
Read in Bedford news the media swooped on her Mums home Easter. Dorries must have arranged this. Little bird told me her Mum was shocked to say the least. ( it's a small world Dorries forgets that )Also read in interview she had affair with Tim Montgomerie (read this on internet ) seems this MP who I hoped would do Lpool proud is a loose Cannon. Looming unemployment of 3 million and Dorries quotes wearing shoes costing 2 arm's and 2 leg's ! Wonder what struggling pensioners think of that.
She should be working for the people instead of droaning on about high heel shoes.
Her Blog! anyone read how nasty she can be. The late Lord Mayor ( Bedford ) she said had BO. Looked back at archives she is obsessed with her image. Seems she intends to keep on with the sleaze emails saga and get the Very Top Man ( Brown )
Yes McBride did wrong but is SHE having a field day and making a name for herself, and she is not whiter than white ( Tim Montgomerie so much younger ) When is she going to be an MP ? Now I have read: paying her daughter a huge salary yet recently said her daughter would join the unemployed.
Want's privacy for her family but is never out of the newspapers or TV and it's not to help people.Thought she was very clever stopping Brown in his tracks in HP and demanding an apology. Claimed all along until recently she was BORN on a Council Estate, changed that around when visiting Lpool recently. Almost sent a letter to the Editor myself to tell him she was NOT born on a Council Estate. Her chickens will come home to roost. Cameron really needs to put a lid on her mouth before someone comes forward and speaks a few home truths.
Very sorry this woman ended up as an MP when so many others could do so much better.
Wonder if folk have really taken notice at some of the things she says, and worries that a person like her is in Politics.
Someone said recently they could live for a few weeks on what she pays for those "talked about high heels" shows a certain level of intelligence being 'proud' of what she pays for shoes etc: at a time when we all have to tighten our seat belt's.