Quintin Jardine's blog

Sometimes I have to read a news story two or three times before I believe it. Sometimes I have to check the masthead of the paper to make sure it isn’t a Daily Mash spoof.

Today has given me one of those moments. You have the Commissioner of the Met staying for free in a luxury health club while recuperating from an injury, with the force’s public affairs department trying to justify it. (Hold on, I must read it again.) No, I didn’t have a CRAFT moment, that’s what it says. And more: the same story reveals that Sir Paul Stephenson was offered hospitality by News International on 15 occasions and accepted 14 times.

As my dear old granny probably wouldn’t have said, that simply buggers belief. I expect the heavy hand of Mayor Boris Johnson to fall on Sir Paul’s shoulder any time now, as he booms the fateful words, ‘You’re nicked!’