THE public revulsion over the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World is growing and David Cameron, under pressure from Ed Miliband, is correct to agree to a public inquiry.

In fact, there are so many strands in all this – not least, the newspaper allegedly paying the police for information, which is corruption – that m’learned friends are likely to be kept occupied for years to come.

Part of the cause of this crisis is that News International has grown so powerful that it felt there were no constraints on it to modify its behaviour.

Politicians of all parties have preferred to cosy up to it rather than question it – how Mr Cameron must now be regretting taking former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to the heart of his government – and, as we have seen, the police have had no inclination to delve into its murkiness.

Even in the current crisis, it is noticeable that News International has not put one of its key players – Rupert Murdoch or Rebekah Brooks – up for a personal appearance. If a Government minister or the BBC had been engulfed in such a scandal, News International’s rolling news channels and its newspapers would, quite rightly, have demanded an interview with a senior figure.

It would also have demanded that heads roll, but Mr Murdoch said in his brief statement yesterday that Ms Brooks was continuing to head the investigation into her own behaviour.

As this crisis was created by the company becoming too powerful, it is odd that the Conservatives are allowing Mr Murdoch’s controversial takeover of British Sky Broadcasting to continue.

The only certain outcome of this takeover is that Mr Murdoch’s empire will become even more powerful than it currently is, and that will be dangerous.

Mr Cameron argued plausibly yesterday that some parts of the public inquiry could not begin until the police had concluded their, hopefully, thorough investigation. Surely, then, the takeover should also not be allowed to proceed until those investigations and inquiries are complete and we can judge whether News International is a fit and proper company to be given even more muscle that it can use in the corridors of power.