There is a concept in large professions such as law that no single person is more important than the profession. Many analyses have been written about the relationship between Tony Blair and his Party, and indeed subsequently between Gordon Brown and the same Party, and the concept has arisen that Tony Blair was more popular than Labour, making him such a formidable ‘election winning machine’. The electability of the Leader has always been cited by New Labourites as being pivotal to Labour’s ultimate electoral success, and I believe that this die-hard group of members within Labour still feel this today, with their eye on 2015.

This week was a ‘game changer’ for Ed for various complicated reasons. Having been stuck ‘on loop’ with the traditional Labour bust-up with the Unions, it seemed unlikely that Ed would be able to make a new, innovative step in Labour. A quantum leap. Thankfully, the Right seemed to resent that the group representing ‘It’s the Sun that won it’ had been caught up in such a robust scandal. Rewind – the Right seemed to resent the fact that the Left seemed to be enjoying it so much. What about Tony Blair’s transatlantic flight to court Rupert Murdoch once?

What about Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander meeting Rupert Murdoch only the other week? Rupert Murdoch, more than the Left, is more symbolic of the corporate in US and UK life, and it is this maximization of shareholder profit which is about to come under enormous scrutiny in David Cameron’s single term of government. The NHS Health and Social Care Bill is (potentially) fundamentally flawed because it edges towards NHS institution becoming private limited companies, with legal corporate legal liability, with the function of maximizing shareholder profit, and becoming subject to the intense regulation of competition, insolvency, and employment law disciplines, but a few.

History has shown that, when corporate scandals of any description, such as ENRON, they have a lasting impact, because they force management analysts to examine how a toxic organizational culture has arisen, and how corporates must have a strong grasp on the triple bottom line ‘people, planet and profit’ (i.e. they must mean it), to survive. This is not however the same as a belief that pursuing profit is fundamentally wrong. This, so-called “corporate social responsibility”, can directly impact on their financial success, as investors can powerfully make a financial decision to go elsewhere. In the case of News International, investors can decide to shop around, but the genuine question is whether other entities are simply better at hiding their own brand of toxicity. The danger would of course be for the Left to conflate the toxicity of News of the World (“NOTW”) (evidenced, arguably, by the Management Board of News International deciding to dump NOTW in its last edition this Sunday) with any toxicity of the Conservative brand. A noteworthy success of David Cameron has been to detoxify his own brand.

You can often tell a lot about a leader by its followers in management analysis, but people are more interested in leadership than followership (reflected in fact in the relative numbers of books written on the subject on Amazon). The fact that David Cameron promoted Andy Coulson, after he had left News of the World, at a time when John Prescott had warned of there existing some ‘unfinished business’, is at best an error of judgment. A minority of people feel that he has handled the News International scandal well, and it should be of no shame to him that he personally gets well with Rebekah Wade and Andy Coulson. People are not so superficial to think that this impacts on running the country, but the corollary in business is whether a corporate should be able to make large profits at any cost.  Interestingly, the Independent ran a story earlier this week suggesting that Directors could be negligent in spotting illegal phone-hacking activity through s.79 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act [2000] (article by Andreas Whittam-Smith dated 7 July 2011, quoted by @charonqc on his blog).

In the far-from real world, the New York Times gave a glowing description of Rebekah Brooks’ leadership qualities today. In traditional MBA territory, Ed Miliband has in fact shown excellent leadership. He demonstrated risk-taking behaviour, in being the first to dare to break from the fetters of ‘It’s the Sun that Won it’. He showed emotional intelligence in agreeing to a discussion of the matter with David Cameron next Wednesday, and he also displayed cognitive intelligence in being able to analyse a case for regulation of the journalism profession this morning. He has inspired followers, but indeed books can be justifiably written about whether the followers are actually ‘susceptible’. This notion of susceptibility can arise from the view that David Cameron did not in any sense win the election, but Gordon Brown (predictably) lost it, and a lot of people (including a vast majority of English Labour supporters, but rarely social Liberal Democrat voters) feel they’re biding time until 2015. The severity of the situation has meant that people are not too concerned about whether Ed Miliband looks like Gromit the Dog, but feel that there is something toxic about the culture in some parts of the News International, from the past, if the allegations are to be believed.

However, an inquiry through the Inquiries Act [2oo5], and the various criminal cases, seem like a sensible way for the law to progress. David Cameron’s (and, now, by association, Nick Clegg’s) challenge is to try to ‘nudge’ a sentiment of members in the public being inspired enough to consider he will contribute in clearing up the mess. The ultimate challenge for Rupert Murdoch to survive through these challenges, and for Jeremy Hunt to avoid referring it to the Competition Commission which many believe he is still able to; and, of course, for the re-branding of a newspaper on Sunday to go smoothly. Whether ‘ringfencing’ will be sufficient is anyone’s guess, but we’ve actually been here before.

@legalaware is a full-time MBA student at BPP Business School, St Mary Axe, The City, London. This article is not to be taken as representative the views of the BPP Legal Awareness Society, nor of BPP University College.