Little by little

Rather than producing a single devastating revelation which would deliver “a smoking gun”, the Leveson inquiry is turning out a series of pinpricks, none of which may be individually fatal but which cumulatively are doing serious damage to the government’s reputation.

Here are just a few of those pricks (in no particular order):

• the failure to carry out developed vetting of Andy Coulson
• the Chancellor’s Dorneywood sleepover with Rebekah Brooks, her husband and Andy Coulson
• the Prime Minister’s failure to ask Coulson about phone-hacking
• Coulson’s successful objection to being asked to sign a confidentiality statement as part of his terms of appointment
• the Prime Minister’s LOL texting
• the Christmas discussions about the BSkyB bid between the Prime Minister and Rebekah Brooks/James Murdoch
• the communications between Jeremy Hunt’s special adviser and NewsCorp officials

It seems certain that the process will continue, when Cameron, Hunt et al are called to give evidence.  Is it venality or incompetence?  It doesn’t really matter;  the Tory toffs are slowly being buried in the brown stuff.