I wasn't, of course, but he thought I was, having received an e-mail purporting to come from me, from someone who had hacked into my private Hotmail account.

This was hugely annoying, because everyone on my contact list had received the same e-mail as the editor. I found the whole episode extremely embarrassing.

In reporting this illegal act to my server, I discovered that it is not that difficult to hack into people's private e-mail accounts, and it actually happens quite often. A few days later, I discovered just how damaging it can be to those involved in politics.

Just as I was settling down for a few days' fishing and a couple of rounds of golf over Easter, my phone started to ring constantly.

The reason was because of the latest political scandal involving an old pal of mine, Damian McBride, who has just lost his job working for the Prime Minister.

He was forced to resign after private e-mails were made public.

I am not in any way defending the contents of those e-mails, but it is worth pointing out that no one in the media seems at all concerned that hacking into people's computers to gain private information is still illegal in this country.

For those who are not familiar with the murky world of Westminster, the person who gave the e-mails a public viewing was a Tory blogger called Paul Stains who writes under the name of Guido Fawkes.

When questioned on the radio about where he obtained the e-mails, he refused to answer. You bet he did, otherwise he may have had PC Plod knocking on his door.

Another fact that 'Strathy' readers may not know is that the full contents of the offending e-mails were being hawked around the papers for large sums of money, with 'The Sunday Times' and 'The News of the World' eventually leaking them.

Now just in case you think that political 'dirty tricks' are the prerogative of the Labour Party, 'Strathy' readers may be interested to know who runs the Tory Party spin machine.

His name is Andy Coulson, the former 'News of the World' man who was forced to quit his job there. And why? Well, just the little matter of paying £100,000 for someone to tap the mobile phones of the royal family.

So next time you hear a Tory spokesperson talk about Labour dirty tricks, just think about the sort of people they employ.

Apart from the utter hypocrisy of the Tories, what was just as sickening about the e-mail scandal was the way the Westminster media attacked Damian McBride, despite the fact that they had spent the previous ten years relying on him for their stories.

Damian had never intended for his private e-mail to become public, and the gossip contained in them was well known to every Westminster hack.

As I write this, the Prime Minister has written an apology to the Tory MPs involved in the scandal, and rightly so, just as Damian rightly apologised a few days earlier.

That will probably be the end of this latest Westminster scandal. It shouldn't be, though.

What about the illegal hacking into computers that started it all off? Somehow I think the media who just love 'leaked' e-mails won't be calling for a Scotland Yard investigation.

I, however, am still considering if I should bring the police into the hacking of my own computer.

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