Dowler family bags £2m payout over phone-hacking saga

"Regret". Please.

Murdoch's "regret" needs to be "underscored" by a lengthy prison sentence.

'Bags £2miilion'?

Really? After their murdered daughter's phone messages were listen to.

You think that's a good way of putting it?

Sorry but

What the notw did was terrible but we need to put this into perspective. At most all they did was raise false hope for a few days and frankly since no amount of money can compensate you for losing a child I don't believe any payment to the family should have been any more than a token.

On the understanding that nobody will know the family's feelings about this, a personal viewpoint: this is tainted money. if I were in their situation, every time I thought about spending any of it, I'd think of the events that brought it to me and how it compounded the tragedy of a murder.

It's tantamount to blood money and all the professed shame in the world by Mr Murdoch and co doesn't alter the fact that it need never have come to pass were it not for a corrupt organisation trying to sell more newspapers.

And for the 'official' taps?

The use of 'authorised' telephone taps continues to grow, getting on for 2,000 each year.

Some of these official interceptions will be just as invasive as those set up by newspapers, and a proportion will be misplaced or malicious. There is, however, no remedy for the harm that official taps cause.

http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/jul/uk-interception-of-communications-commissioner-report-2010.pdf

With Respect

I am quite sure that if the Dowler's had been given a straight choice between getting £2m or keeping their daughter then the daughter would have been the choice without hesitation. Thankfully families that do accept payment for their offspring are few and far between.

Furthermore, I don't doubt that Murdoch does feel remorseful about this situation. He's a human being with human thoughts, and whilst he may have many qualities which many people would find contemptible I very much doubt that he is unable to appreciate what losing a precious daughter could bring. So in that respect, I award him some human respect for having tried to do something positive to compensate. Aside from nailing his despicable son to a cross and parading him for the world to see I can't actually see what other action he could have taken beside handing over a wedge. Sure, Murdoch is a very rich man and maybe there could have been some discussion about the amount being offered - but he's made an honest commitment to try and bring peace to a family that has suffered from the actions that were brought about by a company that he owned - and I applaud him for that.

And whilst I'm not defending Murdoch or his evil empire, it wasn't him who was directly involved in phone tapping any more than it would be the owner of a company who sold pump action shotguns used to carry out the Columnbine disaster (etc). The problem comes down to the greed of individuals, who sold their soul so as to earn a living. Maybe there was a problem within the Murdoch empire which allowed that to happen, maybe there wasn't. But old man Murdoch wasn't the one pulling the proverbial trigger. I somehow doubt that Murdoch sleeps peacefully about this situation.

As far as I am concerned they can tap my phone a thousand times and post the results in the daily news - if it helps keep creatures like the one that carried out the crime off of the streets. I have a daughter too, broadly similar age to Milly, and I sure as hell wouldn't want her to suffer in the way that Milly did. And for the record, £2m won't buy her release, ever.

My greatest respects to the Dowler family. It must be an appalling tragedy to deal with.