Miliband Captures The Public Mood As The Tabloid Press Sinks To A New Low

http://www.labourlist.org/pmqs-verdict-ed-finds-his-voice

Ed Miliband performed brilliantly in today's PMQs, in what was undoubtedly his best outing so far as Leader of the Opposition.

The Labour leader left David Cameron with nowhere to hide as the Prime Minister desperately tried to defend the increasingly precarious position of his friend Rebekah Brooks.

Tabloid reporting has always been sensational and nothing more than gossip at best. But the revelations that employees of The News of the World hacked into the mobile phone of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, takes things to a different level.

The deleting of frantic messages left by Milly's anxious family and friends - therefore giving them false hope that she was accessing her voicemails and still alive when in fact she had already been brutally murdered - is nothing short of nauseating and dispicable.

And now of course, it is alleged that the phones of the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the victims of Soham murderer Ian Huntley - as well as those belonging to relatives of people who died in the 7/7 outrage - were also tampered with.

This is an affair which has all right-minded people totally united in their utter revulsion at the unfolding of events.  The Prime Minister is of course right that a police enquiry should be allowed to take its course, but any public investigation into these deplorable events must not be allowed to drag on for years. The British people demand swift action against The News of the World and for those responsible to take the rap for what has happened.

I am reminded of the appalling aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, when greedy photographers took pictures of her as she lay dying in that car in Paris.

Of course no media organisations in this country dared to publish those snaps but it is clear that there are many journalists - if you can actually call them that - still prepared to sink to the lowest depths imaginable just to get a story.

To intercept the private conversations of celebrities, politicians and members of the Royal Family is bad enough. Actor Hugh Grant - interviewed today about his experiences at the hands of the tabloid press - quite rightly said that being famous does not mean you totally forego the right to a private life.

But to play on the emotions of bereaved and distraught relatives of victims of murder and terrorism is not just immoral. There is no doubt in my mind that any enquiry must explore the possibility of bringing the most serious criminal charges against those considered to have broken the law over this affair.

And above all, Rebekah Brooks definitely cannot stay in her job.

No matter how appalled Ms Brooks claims to be at the unfolding of events, as Editor of the News of the World as the time of Milly Dowler's disapperance in 2002, the buck clearly stops with her.

If David Cameron is as disgusted at The News of the World's actions as he says he is, then he must put aside his personal friendship with Rebekah Brooks and take the lead in calling for her to go.