This man can never again hold such a grip over us

It was extraordinary to see the whole of the Commons unite yesterday in a single roar of disapproval against the "dark arts" practised by the News of the World. This was the day Britain made Rupert Murdoch sit up and beg.

For too long we have allowed one man, who doesn't even live or pay taxes here, to have a vast sway over our national life. Police have been suborned, investigations thwarted, politicians cowed. Surely we must resolve that one person should never again be allowed to hold the reins of four national newspapers, the largest national broadcaster by revenue, the satellite platform, and a vast array of exclusive sports and movie rights.

Of course the focus has been on those in direct charge of operations in News International but the executive and non-executive directors of News Corp have to take their share of the blame. After all, they have fiduciary duties to prevent criminality and to ensure that their company co-operates with the police at all times.

So what did the likes of José Maria Aznar, the former Spanish prime minister who sits on the News Corp board, do? Did he ask searching questions?

Did the directors ensure that a real investigation was taking place? Did they act when Rebekah Brooks admitted that papers had paid police officers?

Were they ever notified that vast pay-offs were being made to Max Clifford and Gordon Taylor, whose phones had been hacked by Glenn Mulcaire on behalf of the News of the World, in exchange for confidentiality clauses that would ensure the whole sordid business never came to light?

That's why I question whether the owners and directors of News Corp are fit and proper people to retain even their present holding in BSkyB. After all, BSkyB is an integral part of modern British life. It has done plenty of great things. Its spunky entrepreneurialism gave us technological innovations such as Sky Plus and interactive Wimbledon.

But its prominence tends towards monopoly. So my constituents simply cannot get most TV without paying for a Sky package, channels are bundled together so as to bring maximum profit to the company, and the consumer is left forking out a whopping average of £492 a year.

Of course we should promote risk-takers in this country but a failure to rein in BSkyB and News International is actually anti-entrepreneurial. And to fail to act now, against the background of the institutional criminality at the News of the World, would be a simple dereliction of duty.

Let's hope the judge-led inquiry gets to the bottom of what went on and that the police bring the law-breakers to justice. Let's hope we end up with a new system of press regulation that is as independent of the press as of government and is more fit for purpose than the chihuahua with no bark that is the Press Complaints Commission.

Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch himself have been summoned to the Culture Media and Sport Committee next Tuesday. If Brooks refuses to attend, the House of Commons should send the Serjeant at Arms to arrest her.

But if the two US citizens refuse, people will resolve that the Murdochs are effectively waving goodbye to Britain. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad result.