Muck-Raking Again

Possibly as a result of the ongoing cash for peerages and ongoing Home Office travails, I think that the blogosphere didn't do enough analysis on the conviction of Clive Goodman. Clive Goodman was News of the World royal editor and he and a "co-conspirator", Glenn Mulcaire were sentenced to prison for crimes related to intercepting phone messages.

As well as the royal household, the investigation found that targets for tapping included David Blunkett while he was home secretary, David Miliband, Sol Campbell and Rebekah Wade.

There's something pretty rotten in a system where people will go to these lengths to get material and to bug the Home Secretary deserved a stiffer sentence in my opinion. I have a few points to make. Firstly, I hope that both these criminals' media careers are over. They ought to be shunned and if I hear that they are employed in any capacity by a newspaper, I will make a song and a dance over it.

Secondly, it was only greed and some good fortune that led to the criminals' capture after they revealed information that only a very limited number of people knew.

Thirdly, do you agree with what the Information Commissioner said?

"The current very low penalties under the Data Protection Act for "blagging" offences which do not involve telecoms interception are not a sufficient deterrent to stop the widespread illegal trade in personal information."

And finally has this legal decision opened the way to prosecution of other cases as previously blogged? Or will these other cases be dropped in the public interest?