YOU can’t get away from the ongoing saga of News International and the hacking scandal. Every day brings more revelations.

Whatever happened to the good old days of going through the dustbins of celebrities or political targets and peeling gems of information from the remnants of discarded meals?

“Hi, boss. She bought a Roger Rabbit on her Visa card and likes anchovies on her pizza … no, not a Rampant Rabbit. A Roger Rabbit. It’s a soft toy. What do you mean, poetic licence?”

Ah well, some things never change.

The two things that continue to puzzle me about the whole despicable affair are:

Why Rupert Murdoch chose to walk around and be photographed with a rictus grin on his face when the edges of his empire began to crumble at the shock and horror of the Milly Dowler revelations?

And why (at the time of writing) Rebekah Brooks hasn’t been sacked or resigned?

I turned to Twitter, that new bastion of free speech, to see if its contributors could add anything that made sense.

One commentator wrote: “This is Rupert Murdoch’s Wizard of Oz moment. The curtain’s been drawn back and there’s just a little old man sat behind it.”

Which would explain the rictus grin.

Another added: “Rebekah Brooks hasn’t been the same since she left Simply Red.”