Calling Cads

“HAS CHARLES BEEN BUGGED?”

It’s the big question on the front page of the Mail. And we cannot give a definitive answer either way.

If this were the Express, there would a phone poll for readers to say “yes” or “no”. But the Mail has no such devices and just leaves the question hanging, something to discuss at the Women’s Institute meeting and bowls club. Or to put in a letter to the editor of the golf club.

But we need some substance, and the paper obliges by telling us that three men have been arrested; and not just any three but three journalists, one a senior hack at the News of The World.

He’s called Clive Goodman. He’s the NOTW’s royal editor. And it is alleged that he has listened to “dozens” of messages left by senior courtiers at Buckingham Palace.

Sources tell the paper that the Crown Prosecution Service says charges against the men are “extremely likely”. A police spokesman says there could be “grave consequences” for the alleged eavesdroppers.

It’s all just too awful. And though the Mail is above such things, we cannot help but wonder what has been overheard.

And such a matter is not without form. The Mail recalls the Squidgygate scandal, when an amateur radio enthusiast apparently intercepted a phone call between Princess Diana and James Gilbey. (Gilbey was heard calling Diana “Squidgy” a number of times.)

And there was the Camillagate incident, the unsavoury overheard conversation between Charles and his then mistress is which the heir to the throne expressed a desire to be reincarnated as his lover’s tampon.

Perhaps in time we will learn what Charles and Camilla talk about over the phone now they are married. And if Charles ever got his wish…

Posted: 9th, August 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink