Tom Watson, the Labour MP who led the charge in parliament against the News of the World over its phone hacking activities, has shown a measure of sympathy for its former editor, Andy Coulson.
Last month, Coulson was found guilty of conspiracy to intercept mobile phone voicemails and was sentenced to an 18-month prison term.
In an interview in the latest issue of the New Statesman, Watson was asked by the interviewer, George Eaton, how felt on the day Coulson was jailed.
"On a personal level, I felt sorry for him," Watson replied. "It's over for him; you've got to take responsibility for your actions."
Eaton was surprised by his reply, but I think many people who critical of hacking genuinely shared that emotion.
Watson added that the fundamental issue, about Rupert Murdoch's domination of the media, was still in need of a solution. "Murdoch owns too much of Britain's media," he said. "He wants more, and you can only stop that concentration of power with rules to limit media ownership."
Watson, incidentally, was speaking to Eaton below a framed copy of the final edition of the News of the World, the one headlined "Thank You & Goodbye".
It was, wrote Eaton, a present given to him by Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, for "an outstanding contribution to trade unionism".
