The ‘phone tapping scandal has been a pretty awful period for a lot of people. Murdoch, Hayman, Brooks and Stephenson have occupied our screens in the last couple of weeks.

I take little interest really – it’s the stuff of tabloids. At the heart of it though – the fact that there appears to be routine and widespread tapping of peoples ‘phones (often people who are grieving or in a bad place) is just appalling. It beggars belief – and shows how far the newspapers were prepared to go to get a story.

That’s not actually my beef today. We have seen a procession of MP’s come out (including Ed Miliband) who ‘demand’ heads on spikes. Their ‘Holier than Thou’ approach is just irritating – Miliband was on the radio last week telling how he had demanded Rebekah Brooks resignation two weeks ago when the story first broke. He ‘demanded’ it? Is he her boss? But more importantly does he have such a place on that moral high ground that he can do such things.

As with most of these stories I suspect that lots of people knew little bits of the story. We will probably never know who knew what.

What was evident from the TV coverage was that Rebekah Brooks was very well connected. She seemed to be on pretty good terms with Blair, Brown and Cameron. I guess that was the pond she swam in. They presumably thought that she was good for them – they needed to keep her on their side?

But as soon as the tide of public opinion starts to turn it is amazing how quickly they can distance themselves. And ‘demand’ resignations – indignantly!

That, in my view, is as shameful as the story itself. Politics – the national sport of fools?