Why The Phone Hacking Nonsense Is Worse than Most Of Us Think.

The UK has so many laws on its books, that it does make good reading. This is because with more than 1,200 years of history behind us, we've had a few stragglers on the books and not enough spare time to go through them and say "do you know what, I don't think we need to continue outlawing Christmas Pudding on Christmas". However it does lead to some fun reading. Just found out that you have the Plague, and want to grab a taxi to go to the hospital? Well think again, Mr Sneezy. It's incredibly illegal to hail a cab in London with the illness. I know, right! Ever recorded something off the telly and watched it more than once? Well, for that second recorded viewing of Countryfile or My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, you need to obtain (and I quote) "explicit written permission" from both the broadcaster and from the production company.

However, daft laws aside, there are some laws that are so old, that they're considered "habits and customs" (known as Common Law), and the one on my mind after this week, is burglary. Luckily, it's not happened to me, but it has happened to people I know. Sure, the insurance normally covers the financial impact of this crime, but the one lingering factor is the all-pervading feeling of intrusion. Anyone who's been a victim will know the feeling. This is your home, your castle, and someone has climbed in and helped themselves. It's a feeling that your personal space has been violated that makes this crime far worse than the financial impact and the utter frustration of all the running around to organise it. However, I can't appreciate this feeling, and I hope I'm not forced to. It's therefore hard, until it happens to someone you know personally, to fully appreciate these effects, and until it does happen to someone you know, you'd be forgiven for not quite getting what all the fuss is about.

An interesting set of events, and similar as well to the main point I want to discuss this week. The phone-hacking scandal. I use the word "scandal" carefully, because that's the only way I can really sum it up. Quite simply, a few Journalists have sullied their industry's reputation by illegally listening to voicemails on people's phones to get what can only really be described as gossip. Now, this all started to become public a few months ago when a few celebrities pursued News Corporation after finding out this had happened to them. This was bad news, however the public mood seemed somewhat indifferent, almost on the level of saying "*sigh* silly people" to the Journalists. This struck me as a bit odd; why did people really not care about this? Was it because the victims happened to be well paid and constantly appearing on glossy covers surrounded by the letters "OMG"?

This changed very quickly when we all found out that it wasn't just a socialite having their party plans snooped on, but it was also the families of soldiers who had died on duty, it was Milly Dowler, it was the parents of the Soham Schoolgirls, it was 7/7 victims. Turns out, when you start hacking ordinary members of the public, especially people in very sensitive circumstances, people take a dim view to it. However, my utter disapproval came to a new level the other day when it turns out that the father of a close friend of mine is "very likely" to have had their phone hacked as well. Therefore I can tell you that the feeling of intrusion and of having your personal space invaded is not too dissimilar to being burgled. This is the biggest factor of the whole saga; that people feel they cannot be honest and hold private conversations without the risk of eavesdroppers from the glossies or the tabloids snooping, for no reason other than their job or their private circumstances.

Hopefully, these shenanigans haven't extended further than News Corporation. However, now is a good time for the whole Journalism industry to do something amazing: take all of your stories about the new pair of pants that some z-list "sleb" has worn, or that article about the minuscule bulge over the top of a pair of jeans of some socialite that's accompanied with the headline "FAT FAT FATTY" and throw them away. Stop writing about Jordan's new boyfriend du jour, or about some b-movie actor's 9pm trip to Burger King, and start focusing on what's important again, like real crimes.

That way, people in the public eye for reasons out of their control (or wish) don't have to worry about intrusion, News International shareholders don't face £5bn being wiped off the company, and the Government don't have to waste time dealing with this sort of nonsense and can get down to important tasks, like repealing the law against being in charge of a cow while drunk.

But not the taxi cab plague one. I think we can keep that one. Safety first, and all that...

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