London - European Capital City of Committees and Investigations

The latest saga in the political party's 'Dash for Cash' shows just how sleazy 'party policy making' and the topping up of a party's funding
kitty can appear.

Last year we saw, in all it's gory detail, mindless Sarah Ferguson - 
'dash for cash' - promising suitable Tom, Dicks and interested parties access to her 'Very Important Ex-husband.' The same description of 'mindless' could also be attached to the 'Now' Ex-Tory co-treasurer Peter Cruddas who, in his latest 'sales' video, displayed nothing more than a crude attempt in extracting - what could be easily seen as petty cash to some - and, yet fortunes to others, donations from the weighty pockets of prospective donors. For what? To dine and/or get close to the man at the top of the political spectrum, with the aim of surreptitiously maneuvering certain policies that could, unintentionally, swing in their favour and therefore, be rather beneficial to the kindly donor's business interests. All vague, but stealthy gambling.

None of this is new. In politics, they have all done it, so moral high-
road protestations aside, it is all a rose by any other name. Payoffs, donations, the 'people' catch on. From MP's to Prime Ministers, how else do they keep their parties afloat. Ask Mandelson and Blair.

So, yet another 'inquiry' will ensue. There has been 'private inquiries,' on-going 'public inquiries, ' we all know about 'independent inquiries' and now, David Cameron has promised, this will be a 'proper inquiry.'

The fact of the matter remains, it's not what you do, it's how you go about it. The word today is 'Swagger,' and while Peter Cruddas is not shy of a few million himself, he doesn't have - by a long shot - Peter Mandelson's arrogant, smooth and elongated tricky tongue. Neither has he the required swagger.

Blame it on the current economic climate or the 'Angry Young Man' principle, but 2012 has by no means started off in a positive note.

Over the Christmas and New Year period every time one switched on the television, yet another body was found dead. There has been no age or even sex discrimination at all. Whether random attacks with goalless motives or a carefully planned agenda, it leaves one at pains to see the UK changing so
much with a comprehension that it is in dire need of a monumental shakeup.

According to statistics the murder rate in England and Wales rose by 5% last year to 636 but overall crime remained stable or even fell despite the August riots, according to Home Office figures. Quarterly crime figures reveal a worrying rise in robbery including a 10% rise in robberies at knifepoint. Do these figures show a sign of desperation or, an easy way out.

However, 2012 has seen a murdered couple who were found dead in their home in Birmingham by their son, a policeman. Postmortem examinations revealed that both died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, each sustaining a number of blows. Betty Yates, a 77 year old retired school teacher, was attacked with her own walking stick and stabbed to death in her cottage. Investigations are still ongoing looking into the cause of a fire that killed four children from the same family ranging in age from 19, 4 and 2 years of age following a party to celebrate their mother's 37th birthday. A 51-year-old man who has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after his oil tanker crashed into a bungalow and burst into flames. The tanker driver fled the scene shortly after. And these are but a few.

Have we all become so benign to taking a life? Has our remote controlled lives taught us this?

One could be excused for presuming that Rupert Murdoch and his highly skilled media and publicity team would so dearly love this whole affair of hacking and blagging to just - go away. Just as some of the celebrities wished to have happen after being harrassed and followed by the now defunct NoW squad. But, that isn't going to happen any time soon. However, with the ongoing Leveson inquiry unearthing daily media mischief, one raises the question, 'will anyone connected to the News of the World scandal ever get a fair trial?'

And, while we pontificate on that very poignant point, could this be called some form of retribution in itself? With the tabloids taking daily 'justice' into their own hands by maliciously brandishing their own form of decisive punishment, by way of using scurrilous newspaper headlines to devulge possible truths behind the lies, causing grief and embarrassment to all those concerned. The tables indeed have been turned.

Now Scotland Yard has informed us that a 41 year old man has been arrested in connection with phone hacking and perverting the course of justice and is being held at South London police station.

The man was arrested in London at 07:00 GMT on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages.

The Met Police's Operation Weeting is investigating the hacking of the mobile phone voicemails of public figures by the NoW newspaper, which closed its doors when the hacking scandal reached new lows over evidence that Milly Dowler, the murdered school girl, had her mobile phone messages intercepted.

Operation Weeting is meticulously working its way through about 300 million emails from News International. Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson are among those who have already been arrested as part of the inquiry. The scandal has led Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Assistant Commissioner John Yates to resign, and the NoW to close down after 168 years.

With the Leveson inquiry underway the public now have the chance to view the media and it's process of material or 'dirt' gathering and put it under the very same microscope that the media have used on so many, for so long. Public and private figures have gathered to give evidence in relation to their own personal torture at the hands of the press where they have been hacked, stalked and slandered. Now the lense and spectacle of judgement has done a 180 degree about face. The ones being judged now, are those very same 'judges' - The Tabloid Tormentors - "judge not lest ye be judged"

Personalities have long been victims of the 'trial by media' sensation who scurrilously go to any lengths possible to get their sordid scoop and when it is not possible to give 'the story' that 'final touch' - that Coup de Grace - they surmise and conjuer up even more lurid and salacious details to fill those empty gaps. All for the purposes of selling newspapers and to satisfy an ever growing hungry public.

Movie star Hugh Grant, "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, the family of murdered school girl Milly Dowler and the father of the missing four year old Madeleine McCann are among those due to testify over the next week at the U.K. inquiry into media ethics and standards — a judicial body that could recommend sweeping changes to the way we Britons get our news.

"The nationally televised inquiry will give many of those in the public eye an unprecedented chance to challenge those who write about them," said Cary Cooper, a professor at northern England's Lancaster University and the author of "Public Faces, Private Lives."

"This is the first time the celebrities have been able to strike back," Cooper said. "I think it will have an impact, and the media might - for a while at least - pull away." Victims' lawyer David Sherborne told the inquiry multiple tales of shattered privacy, broken lives and even suicides stemming from hounding media intrusion.

Kate McCann, mother of missing todler Madeleine, felt 'mentally raped' after the News of the World published a private diary she had been keeping for when her daughter returned to her and which disappeared from the family's holiday apartment while still in Portugal. The diary was seized by the Portuguese police who were investigating the disappearance of Madeleine at the time in 2007, but in September 2008 the (NOTW) published the journal under the headline: "Kate's Diary: In Her Own Words."

David Sherborne, the lawyer representing the McCanns along with 50 other victims of alleged press intrusion, will highlight how the experiences for all concerned left them feeling totally violated. The inquiry will not only show the outrageous actions of the tabloids but will shine giant lightbulbs on police corruption in the face of a sensational scoop for the media prowlers. Mr Sherborne said, “How did the News of the World get this from the police? We may never know now.” “The publication of this material with a picture on the front page suggesting Kate McCann had provided this herself left her feeling mentally raped, her husband says, and is it any wonder?”

On the third day of the public inquiry, Mr Sherborne made a searing attack on the tabloid press in Britain. He told the inquiry that phone hacking at the News of the World was more like an “industrial revolution” than the “cottage industry” that had been suggested previously by Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry. But he said the hearings were about more than just the illegal interception of voicemails. He said his clients would paint a vivid picture of the “despicable” actions of some tabloid journalists, which led to a breakdown in the trust between the press and the public.

Milly Dowler's parents will also reveal the 'despicable' actions of the (NOTW) with the Surrey Police being ordered to release documents which could reveal whether corrupt officers sold investigative information about their murdered daughter to the News of the World. The ruling comes as the murdered schoolgirl’s parents prepare to give evidence to the Leveson inquiry about how the paper hacked their daughter’s phone when she went missing, hampering the investigation and intruding on the family's grief and torment.

Rupert Murdoch, the founder, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, the parent company of the now defunct (NOTW) which closed it's doors after news of the hacking scandal had reached new lows when details of the Milly Dowlers tory broke, met with the Dowler family striking a payout deal for agony caused to the tune of £3 million pound. One million of which will go to six British  charities that Milly Dowler herself would have supported had she lived. Either by way of police co-operation or private investigators hired by the News of the World to look into the missing teenager's death and forwarding to them any salacious evidence that they could come up with so that the paper could print it first.

A ruling in the High Court on Friday by Mr Justice Vos, who is due to hear a number of civil claims from alleged hacking victims, means the force will now have to hand over any information about it’s dealings with the News of the World during the 2002 Dowler investigation. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is already investigating allegations that an officer working for Surrey Police passed information to the newspaper, but this latest ruling will increase pressure on the force. Regardless of what comes out of this inquiry, whether the man at the helm knew or didn't know, the buck always stops at the top and one can undoubtedly say, "something certainly smells in Cairo" - As far as scandals go, it all wreaks of corruption and payouts which bears the question; 'what has indeed happened to true investigative journalism, or has everyone stooped to the level of the paparazzi who hounded Princess Diana to her death.' One could assume they should have learnt!