The week in politics: Economy and phone-hacking just won’t go away
Politicians and journalists spent the last full week of January 2011 wringing their hands – but for very different reasons.
For the politicians, the problem was the economy, stupid. It’s never good news when GDP starts contracting, which is why the coalition found itself on the back foot all week. There’s only so many times you can watch George Osborne blaming the weather before hoping he’ll turn into a snowman. This is another winter of discontent – but it’s the consumers who are fed up.
Those miserable figures hung over the week like a cloud. Mervyn King proved a lonely defender of the government’s approach in his Newcastle speech. Inevitably Ed Miliband seized on them in prime minister’s questions, scoring a narrow win over David Cameron. The PM is nothing if not an optimist, though, and by the end of the week was chirruping merrily about how marvellous the country is at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The world of hacks has been convulsed for very different reasons. What on earth will the public make of the brand new phone-hacking allegations which continued to surface throughout this week? Cameron must have thought this was one which would go away once his director of communications, Andy Coulson, quit at the end of last week. How wrong he was.
The News of the World widened its review into phone-hacking on Tuesday; Scotland Yard reopened the case on Wednesday; howls of concern from offended politicians drowned out promises from the Met that the investigation would be “robust” and “full” on Thursday. This is the story which just won’t go away.
Elsewhere, the expenses scandal (remember that) netted another victim when Lord Taylor was found guilty of false accounting. In the Lords, the impasse over the AV referendum ground on for another week, leaving the government more and more desperate. And home secretary Theresa May won the ire of civil liberties campaigners with her review of counter-terrorism legislation. Control orders ended up being watered down, as expected – but the changes appeared very limited indeed.
