Life and Vincent: 03/07/2011

Today we should be remembering the victims of the July 7th 2005 London bombings. Instead, the day has been hijacked, not just by the premiere of the new Harry Potter film, but by the scandal of News International.

The 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park.

For years it has been known that The News of the World Sunday newspaper hacked into the phone messages of celebrities and politicians. With the conviction of the wrong'uns the police said there was no evidence of any further illegal activities.

Then, this week, with wide opposition to News International's imminent takeover of BSkyB and subsequent dominance in the UK news market, bit by bit outrageous infractions became known.

Worst was the information that the phone of 14-year-old Milly Dowler, who disappeared in 2002, was hacked by these leeches, and messages deleted to allow room for others to be left and read. The fact of the messages being deleted led Milly's parents to hope that she was alive and had deleted them herself. In fact, her body was found six months later.

Milly Dowler

A couple of months after Milly's disappearance, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who were just 10, were murdered by the caretaker at their school. It seems that their parents phones may also have been hacked.

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman

Ian Huntley

It appears that relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and families of 7/7 victims, have also been hacked.

There is nothing this band of vultures wouldn't have done. They even paid police officers for information, which is illegal, and one hopes the guilty parties will be properly dealt with (not like those who killed the innocent Jean Charles de Jimenez on a tube train two weeks after the bombings, who got off scot free).

This Sunday the paper will appear with no adverts. Its revenue will go to good causes (what revenue you might ask) and now it has been announced that, after 168 years, the paper will close.

Of course, the people who were in charge during the scandalous years are long gone - Andy Coulson became Prime Minister David Cameron's right-hand man till the pressure to dismiss him bacame too strong. His predecessor as editor, Rebekah Brooks, is now Chief Executive at News International. She will not be dismissed.

Rebekah Brooks

And the man no one can dismiss (except the Grim Reaper) blows hot air and pretends he cares, and is shocked. But he won't fire the woman who was at the helm when most of this was going on.

Rupert Murdoch