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It is scarcely possible to overstate the gravity of the charges against Murdoch’s organisation over the criminal offence of phone hacking.   There is undoubtedly a great deal more to be exposed, but we already know that phone hacking was rife at News International (N.I.) on an almost epidemic scale, that top N.I. executives repeatedly lied about it for 4 years in trying to cover it up, that hundreds and perhaps thousands of public figures had their phones hacked into including perhaps Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor (which wouold raise issues of national security), that Scotland Yard was leaned on to minimise any investigation, and that the integrity and honesty of several leading N.I. executives has been irretrievably breached.   Fobbing off a few famous faces with a hundred grand, plus a hypocritical and wholly unconvincing apology, is not going to end this scandal.   Rather it opens the way for a root-and-branch public inquiry into all the many questions that remain unanswered and the menacing role that this episode shows Murdoch has long wielded over the power structure of Britain.

Several issues clearly remain to be explored.   Just how widespread was the awareness of phone-hacking among the top brass at N.I. (the assumption is that everyone knew)?   Who was ultimately responsible for the cover-up – Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch or Rupert Murdoch himself?   Why did the police sideline the earlier investigations – was this because of an over-cosy relationship between senior police officers and senior executives at N.I.?    Why did the police adopt a different (and bizarre) interpretation of the criminal offence of phone hacking from the DPP?   Why did the police insist they had told the big 4 phone companies to inform the victims that they were being hacked into, when the phone companies all deny this?

But the crunch issue is this.   This is the biggest betrayal of trust by a public institution since perhaps the last War.   It reveals an insidious and dangerous relationship between the media (since other newspapers may well be involved), the police and the political establishment which poisons the transparency and integrity that are essential for the operation of democracy.   At root it raises the question of whether there is excessive power in the hands of one organisation and how, if that power has been grossly abused as it clearly has, that organisation can continue to function without major restructuring both of its management, coverage and regulatory conduct.   And after the climactic remark last week of James Murdoch that “It shows that what we were able to do is really put this problem into a box”, it shows both that he wholly lacks the judgement and morality to lead a major public organisation and that N.I. cannot be trusted with the huge increase in power that the BSkyB takeover would allot to them, and that that deal should now immediately be suspended.