MET. Sword of Damocles hangs over The Guardian

GIVE SOME 'BOBBY'S JOBS' TO THE BOYS IN BLUE!

LAST night the Metropolitan police stopped its legal bid to get the Guardian to give up confidential sources for their reports into the phone hacking scandal by the News of the World. This follows an intervention by the Crown Prosecution Service and widespread anger about what appeared to be a vindictive approach by the Scotland Yard. The MET had claimed that one of the Guardian reporters, Amelia Hill, might have incited a source to break the Official Secrets Act.

But the statement put out by the MET announcing its climbdown left open the chance that they could apply again. It looks like this attempt by the MET to have a go at the Guardian journalists had stirred up a hornets nest and one police source said: 'Obviously, the last thing we want to do is to get into a big fight with the media.'

However, if the police can come back again at a later stage then this means that the Guardian will still be in a position were it has the 'Sword of Damocles' hanging over it. We've always said that perhaps the Guardian should follow News International's example and hand out a few 'Bobbies Jobs' to the boys in blue and employ some retired coppers as crap columnists. That should humour them up a bit.