Coulson, Collusion and the Met

The fact that Andy Coulson is a bit of a shit with a shady background doesn't really come as a surprise to me; he edited a tabloid and has become the Tory answer to Alastair Campbell - he was never going to be a proper gent, now, was he? That's not to say I approve of the invasive techniques used by his paper when he was editor, of course - in fact, the opposite is true.

But what does bother me is the accusation that the police colluded in restricting the investigations into phone hacking by the News of the World:

The New York Times goes on to quote unnamed sources from the Met suggesting that its inquiry into the phone hacking was hampered by a desire to avoid upsetting Britain's biggest selling newspaper: "Several investigators said in interviews that Scotland Yard was reluctant to conduct a wider inquiry in part because of its close relationship with the News of the World."

Sweet Jesus, how can that be right on any level? The whole point of the justice system is that it is neutral, and as a result the police should be neutral as well. Yet the fact that the News of the World sells well and has a "close relationship" with the Met seems to mean that crimes committed by that paper are to be swept under the carpet as much as possible - in other words, the crime of one of the Met's friend is less of a problem and not worth investigating as closely as the crime of someone else.

This stinks; it stinks to high heaven. The Met, whose reputation has been tarnished beyond repair by the deaths of Jean-Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson, is further dragged into the sewer by these allegations. The police sometimes seem to wonder why people don't trust and respect them any more. Stories like this one are the answer.