Hacking Scandal: A Political Godsend?

[Kladdkaka]

Anyone think that the hacking scandal is actually a political godsend? I mean, it's difficult and embarassing for the politicians caught up in but they are all getting the opportunity to show their righteous anger and show how much they are 'with the people'. Plus, while the public are so focused on this, they're not noticing that their library has just shut down and their school has one less teacher.

There is a danger it could turn into one. We need the press to lift a few rocks and see what wriggles out from underneath occasionally. The expenses scandal last year being one example. If this current fuss means politicians start gunning for privacy laws or - as that idiot Neil Kinnock was trying to propose this morning - some sort of a 'balanced' unbiased press , then we the public could find we end up in the complete dark. I don't think it's a diversion tactic from public spending cuts.

The police involvement is more worrying. I don't think anyone seriously expects much from either politicians or journalists. But the police should have far higher standards.

I think the media is talking about it a lot more than the general public are.

It's become an obsession with the media: they're all talking about/backstabbing/hanging out to dry cronies/ex cronies/arch enemies - settling old scores. Roosters coming home to roost and all of that. So dull! Politicians lie, cheat and are corrupt - hello! Not news! What a load of hypocritical tosh being talked as though this is scandalous and an outrage never seen before. Have people really got that short term a memory or do they just live in bubbles where the world is rosy and our governments are benevolent and just? The leftwing are having a field day because for a moment the heat's off them and the state the left the country in and they're shamelessly and opportunistically capitalising upon wherever they can to score political points. Meanwhile the Eurozone's going tits up and we're probably going to follow them. How stupid do they think we are to think that if they give us a bit of scandal, have a massive bunfight amongst themselves, we'll forget about the cuts, the job losses, the rising taxes, the massive mess we're in and just get hooked into the lastest plot twist. It's like a big old soap opera to sedate the masses. Not even very interesting.

I think the story is huge because it gets to the heart of who is in charge of our democracy and whether our elected representatives are in fact almost puppets, too scared to challenge alleged threats and phone hacking against them. It doesn't get any bigger or more important than that. However, whether they will really get to the heart of it and solve it, I am not so sure. I think the pie in the face incident indicates that they may not and that some of this may be theatre.

Agree with ManicMiner, this is a bigger deal for the press than for the public, who have a general 'well, we all knew they were in it together' attitude. That's not to say they don't care. But if I was a junior minister in Agriculture, or similar, looking for a good day to bury bad news I'd have had my pick in the last couple of weeks.