Phone hacking scandal: Is there anybody left to trust?

Trust in the media has plummeted since the News of the World phone hacking scandal came to light, but it's not just the press that is the subject of the public's disdain. Links between News International employees, police chiefs and politicians have rocked this country's foundations of trust to the core and left everyone wondering, just how high up does this thing go?

Over the past two days the scandal escalated further when Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned and Assistant Met Commissioner John Yates followed suit the next day. Stephenson came in for criticism for hiring former News of the World executive Neil Wallis as an adviser — you know, the same thing Prime Minister David Cameron did with Andy Coulson.

Speaking of whom, Cameron has been intriguingly quiet on the issue of phone hacking. So much so that last Monday when MPs in the Commons were debating the subject he was away giving another speech on the Big Society.

He's in a lose-lose situation, mind. If he comes out strongly against News International not only will he look like a hypocrite having courted them so thoroughly in his bid to become Prime Minister but he will also risk losing the media giant's support come next election. That will mean even more of an uphill struggle for the man who so desperately wants to secure a majority vote.

And if he comes out in support of the Murdoch club, well that's just unthinkable. It would be political suicide in this climate. When the Met Police Commissioner quits his job because of his association with the News of the World you know that's not a brand you want your PM to be backing.

So, what has he done? Well, he's gone to hide in Africa for a start. At this very moment he's probably in a dark room with his eyes closed, counting to one hundred and hoping it all goes away while Boris Johnson picks up the pieces. Unfortunately for Cameron he could count to one billion and he'd still be disappointed.

So that's the police and the government tarnished. How about the media? I should point out that not all news outlets should be labelled as untrustworthy. While the likes of The Daily Mail and The Sun are doing their David Cameron impression and are ignoring the story in the hope it will disappear, the likes of The Guardian, BBC and Sky News have all been fantastic in their coverage - I'd add Yahoo! News to that list too but you'd think I was being bigheaded. Sky News has been the biggest surprise of all — how a company in the Murdoch clan has been reporting the saga so effectively is nothing short of impressive.

Regardless of a few success stories, that's large chunks of the media, government and police force all ruled out of the UK trust club, which leads to the question... is there anybody left to trust?

Surely not him? Not Ed Miliband? Well, yes. Surprisingly enough the Labour leader has been one of the few people driving this thing forward and talking sense at the same time. The agenda he's pushing is painfully obvious but when he's saying the right things we can allow him that.

After all it was Ed who pushed for the parliamentary inquiry which will play host to the Murdochs — and possibly Rebekah Brooks - on Tuesday. And it was Ed who called for Brooks to resign. And it was also Ed who called on Cameron to apologise for bringing Coulson into Downing Street. Put simply, the guy is on a roll.

I'm fully aware that it's at this point in the article I'm likely to lose most people's interest. Featuring pictures of Ed Miliband has previously proved fatal in attracting readers. People generally don't know who he is, or if they do, are quite annoyed by him. The fact that he constantly sounds like he has a peg on his nose doesn't help his cause.

This is Ed's big chance to shine and for all our sakes I hope he doesn't mess it up because there aren't many people who can get the job done that are actually trying to get the job done, which is probably the most worrying thing of all.