Martha Kearney's week

By Martha Kearney
Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

Andy Coulson is well-liked by Tory MPs but he still faces dangers

If you had popped into The World At One office on Thursday morning, you would have found me trying to hack into Sarah Montague's phone.

Others on the team were trying to get into the voice mail on Carolyn Quinn's mobile.

We had had enough of current affairs radio and decided to get rich quick by selling celebrity secrets. Our hopes were high for lurid headlines: "Today Totty's Secret Vice" or "PM Girl's Night of Shame".

Sorry, there was nothing so exciting or illegal going on.

In the wake of The Guardian story, we were just trying to see how easy it is to hack into a mobile. (Sarah and Carolyn knew all about it and of course, lead totally blameless lives. Or so they say.)

A contact of mine on a tabloid had told me the basics of "phone slamming" as it is known. You need the phone number of the celeb.

Then using two mobiles at the same time, you call that number so one call will immediately divert to voicemail.

You can access that by putting in the default code or the secret one, which the slammer has often guessed because it is a birthday or special number.

We all failed at this in the WATO office so clearly a life of crime isn't for us. Back to the banking regulation white paper.

'Widespread technique'

The same contact told me that phone slamming was widespread not just at the News of the World but right across Fleet Street. His view was the editors definitely knew in broad terms what was going on even if they steered clear of the gory details.

Another journalist who worked at the News of the World at the same time as Andy Coulson also told us that he must have known about the phone hacking as he was in charge of the budget out of which the private detective was paid.

But the Conservative communications chief is absolutely adamant that he knew nothing about the hacking and resigned as editor of the News of the World because "it had happened on my watch".

But he does have questions to face.

When I spoke to the chairman of the Media Committee John Whittingdale on Thursday, he told me that Andy Coulson would be called as a witness.

Also set to be called is Les Hinton, the senior executive at News International who assured the committee the case of Clive Goodman - the Royal Editor who went to jail after the police investigation - was an isolated one, "one bad apple".

If the Guardian revelations are right, there's a whole barrel of them.

In 2006, The Information Commissioner found an extensive illegal trade in confidential personal information and evidence of a widespread and organised undercover market in confidential personal information contravening the Data Protection Act and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

He concluded at least 305 journalists had been involved in the illegal trade in confidential personal information.

He also established the illegal activities had not been limited to one newspaper or newspaper group but were happening across a large number of titles and newspaper groups.

Dangers for Coulson

So where does this leave Andy Coulson?

Labour MPs have certainly been trying to make political capital out of this. Many Conservatives have been very supportive as he is well regarded in the tea rooms. But there is a danger.

I was told by one senior backbencher that there are enough people angry with David Cameron in the wake of the expenses affair to make trouble for his close ally.

One view is that people within the Cameron inner circle were protected but others were forced to apologise and pay money back for PR reasons.

There is also the old Westminster adage that once a spin doctor becomes the story, his usefulness has gone.

Could Andy Coulson have to fall on his sword a second time? I imagine David Cameron would be extremely reluctant to let him go.

And unlike other recent stories, the newspapers themselves are unlikely to pursue this too fiercely. After all who knows what secrets are lurking in many newsrooms?

If only I knew how to hack into hacks' voice mails!