A section of the letter Rebekah Wade (as she then was) sent to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture, Media and Sport in 2009. I particularly like the bit where she states her belief that the Guardian coverage “has substantially and likely deliberately misled the British public”.

Mrs Brooks, by the way, is (or, should I say was?) David Cameron’s riding-out companion.

Just about the only truly memorable phrase uttered by Edward Heath, the Tory Prime Minister in the 1970s, was his description of Tiny Rowland, the boss of Lonhro (who also, for a time, owned the Observer) as “the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism”. (Rowland famously replied that he would not want to be its acceptable face, which was quite a good riposte.) But Tiny has long since passed to his reward. The Digger and his spawn are proving worthy inheritors of his title.

As I write, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt is wriggling on an exquisitely sharp hook. He has to find a way of stopping the Digger’s take-over of BSkyB without triggering a very expensive lawsuit from News Corporation. It may be simpler than he thinks. Apart altogether from the question of whether anyone involved with the Digger is a “fit and proper” person to run a broadcasting company, there is the fact that his decision to approve the BSkYB takeover was apparently based entirely on “assurances” received from News Corp about what would happen to Sky News. Given what we now know about the way News International has concealed information from the police, misled Parliament and possible obstructed the course of justice, Hunt could easily — and plausibly — maintain that no assurances from such a source can be taken seriously.

Here’s Statement #1, dated September 2009.

“Concerns about News of the World hacking are codswallop that looks like a politically-motivated put-up job by the Labour party.”

Statement #2, dated July 2011.

“It is unbelievable that victims of some of the most odious crimes in recent years might have had their suffering prolonged and intensified by such blatant intrusion into their lives. If true, it suggests that there was no limit to the callousness of the journalists and provate investigators involved. And if some police officers were indeed paid as part of this process, there is only one word for this: corruption”.

So who made these statements?

Yes, you guessed it: Boris ‘Bollinger’ Johnson, currently Mayor of London.

Given that News Corp is a US company, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) applies to it– and to its executives and Directors.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money or anything of value to any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official in his or her official capacity, induce the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.