BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Danny Baker hasn’t been at all shy in voicing his opinions about the News of the World phone-hacking controversy on Twitter. The former Times sports columnist, whose handle on the microblogging service is @prodnose, began tweeting about the emerging allegations against the newspaper on Monday and hasn’t ceased since, opining that the journalists involved in the scandal should “rot in hell”.

Baker’s ire was further fuelled last night by what he saw as incompetence on the part of the BBC’s Newsnight programme, which interviewed former NotW features executive Paul McMullan about the allegations, leading Baker to comment that the programme was “bogged down in patronizing history lessons”, typical of the “tame and toothless BBC”.

This morning’s press coverage of the story has provoked further stinging comment from the DJ:

* "Seriously, we're not too far away from these creeps [journalists] committing the crimes themselves so they can be first on the scene."

* “How much contempt must you have for the public to lead your newspaper today with two members of the royal family in a canoe?”

* "D'ya think Rebekah Brookes (sic) went into work on public transport today?”

Baker also revealed his feelings about Fleet Street by tweeting a piquant quote from fellow iconoclast Hunter S Thompson: "A cruel, shallow money trench runs through the heart of journalism, a long plastic hallway where thieves & pimps run free."

And with Baker’s last tweet on the subject appearing a mere 22 minutes before the time of writing, he shows no sign of letting up yet…

Keep pace with Danny Baker on Twitter