A strange world whereby you can hate the NoW and the hypocrisy of politicians

My views on the NoW, the Sun, and all the illegal act committed by the media are well known to people here. More than that I've been saying for years that Rupert Murdoch shouldn't be allowed to take over Sky TV. More than that I've made it clear that Murdoch shouldn't be allowed to own any UK media.

And that he should pay tax to boot!

However I watched the parliamentary debate into this sorry hacking affair with disquiet.

There were some valid points made. Indeed the contributions of Nicolas Soames, a Tory stalwart, made some really good points in a non-political manner. I was surprisingly pleased with the measured way in which the Attorney General Dominic Grieve dealt with the matter in a cool, knowledgeable, and non-political way. My only criticism of him is that he was perhaps too willing to allow interruptions.

It needs to be said that there needs to be a full inquiry into this matter, and the wider media. This inquiry needs to be wide-ranging, open, and under oath. Murdoch shouldn't be able to buy Sky TV.

In all these things I agree with what the politicians said.

But....

Two things struck me.

The first it is a bit hypocritical for labour to try to make political capital out of it when all these crimes took place under their watch. That they had a report detailing all the illegal hacking by Murdoch's minions, and other outlets, and did nothing. That they dropped inquiries into News Corp in order to suck up to him in order to get his support.

More than that though to have MP after MP standing up pontificating about criminal activity or morality when over half of them were caught fiddling is bile inducing. To have Kieth Vaz standing up condemning anyone when he himself is steeped in allegations of corruption and is linked to criminal elements (a corrupt policemen currently in jail, and a criminal struck off lawyer, for a start), and to have Hazel Blears, a woman who is very lucky not to be in jail for her expenses is nauseating.

Blears was worst though as she kept making the same vacuous interruptions which were answered only to say the same shallow point again.

I want all those who broke the law punished. I want Murdoch stopped. However I'm sickened by self-serving, mostly corrupt, in some cases deserving of prison, politicians taking the moral high ground.

Some journalists acted illegally and deserve punishment. No one is saying that well over half of them acted in a criminal manner. But more than half of our politicians did.

We need to remember that.


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