So the BBC is camped outside News International while debate “rages” about whether alleged mobile phone hacking tars journalism (or the NotW, at least) with a foul brush.

Get real. Whatever the outcome of this one, journalists listen in to conversations they shouldn’t all the time. Whether eavesdropping rudely, being passed notes illicitly, tuning into police radio frequencies or scavenging through dustbins, journalists do dodgy things to get information. This is my first-hand experience.

The point is whether the NotW did anything illegal. The news coverage is now turning to this point, but only after a day of bluster about ethics. If you want to write about ethics, don’t shine the light on journalism, you won’t be telling the public anything it doesn’t already know.

My interest is in what happens if the police tear Wapping Towers apart looking for phone hack evidence and find all manner of dirt on big stories that are being stored for a rainy day.

So in case they do come out, here are two that may be lurking in a cupboard:
- Picture of minor celebrity in a compromising position with a domestic dog. Circa 1995/6 I believe
- A big trail of evidence implicating a former football manager in (alleged) international crime

You read it here first. Kind of, in a veiled and very obscure way. I do have the law to consider.