No showboating please, Parliament

Rupert Murdoch, after initially declining Parliament's request to attend the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and sport, has accepted the invitation.

Next Tuesday (when the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks are scheduled to give evidence) is an opportunity for Parliament to showcase themselves as an effective body that aims to throw light on this hacking scandal - not to show off.  Amidst huge public outrage and anger, it would be easy enough for MPs on the select committee to grandstand and look to ridicule the Murdochs.  Instead, they must show voters that Parliament works - by asking questions designed to further the investigation - and not merely humiliate the Murdochs as an end in itself.

Indeed, it is a chance for Parliament to vindicate itself: when the chief executive of Kraft refused to attend a  Parliamentary select committee, she argued that she would be met with "ill-founded allegations and insults."  On Tuesday, Parliament can show these claims were wrong.