Yesterday afternoon I was planning to add Con Coughlin's response to the allegations made by Andrew Gilligan to the posting immediately below this one, Gilligan launches attack on Couglin. For a variety of reasons, including a technical glitch and the fact that I was otherwise engaged from very early today until this moment, I was unable to do so.
So let me make it clear that Coughlin responded at the first possible opportunity yesterday to the Gilligan criticism, and the fact that it is 24 hours late in being posted is entirely my fault. Anyway, here are his frank comments on the matter.
Coughlin disputes both the allegations made against him by Gilligan, and does so strenuously. For example, he says he was not the author or the source for the belly dancer story. His involvement, as far as it went, was purely managerial, and occurred after publication when there had been a complaint. Nor, he says, does he think the intelligence service were the original source.
It should also be said that Gilligan's negative view of Coughlin is matched by, and perhaps superseded by, Coughlin's negative view of Gilligan.
Coughlin has made it clear that his low opinion of Gilligan stems from their days as colleagues at the Sunday Telegraph, when Gilligan worked for Coughlin, who was then foreign editor.
He claims that Gilligan sent himself on assignments without informing him and, as one would expect, he took exception to the practice.
Coughlin evidently formed the opinion that Gilligan was "an unreliable maverick", and Gilligan left the paper soon afterwards to join the BBC's Today programme.
The rest, as they say, is history.
