Plenty of advice is being given to the British MPs who will tonight probably end Rupert Murdoch’s 58-year run as CEO of News by simply allowing him to self-destruct in front of a huge global television audience.

The News Corp independent directors are already preparing to install Chase Carey as CEO, based on leaks to Bloomberg by people who have watched Rupert struggling through rehearsals.

The Sun King is in an impossible position. He is entirely responsible for creating and rewarding a toxic culture; the evidence is there for all to see and the cover-up will lead to numerous people going to jail, possibly including his own son, James, and his longest-serving lieutenant Les Hinton.

The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are united in their desire to completely end Murdoch’s 30-year reign as the most powerful person in Britain.

Having come this far, they need to finish the job because, based on historical performances, Rupert’s revenge would be something to behold. After Gordon Brown’s extraordinary tirade against the Murdochs and Ed Miliband’s call to break up the company, Labour’s only two acceptable outcomes are Murdoch out of News Corp or News Corp out of Britain.

It looks pretty clear the next sacrificial offer by the Murdochs will be the departure of James Murdoch as BSkyB chairman and Rupert Murdoch stepping back to the role of non-executive chairman.

But that would still leave the Murdoch family with board dominance and voting control of the world’s most powerful media empire, a totally unacceptable position for the British.

Ultimately, this will come down to a heavy political negotiation coupled with an effective plea bargain. The coalition of outraged politicians and police have two key trump cards: the first is locking up News Corp’s top brass for all that criminal journalism and the subsequent cover-up; the second is forcing News Corp to sell its treasured 39% stake in BSkyB, currently worth about $US8 billion, on the basis it fails the “fit and proper” test.

Rupert’s remaining British newspapers aren’t licensed but they are a faltering business model anyway and severely damaged by the News of The World scandal.

News Corp is primarily a global pay-TV empire and BSkyB is the best pay-TV business in the world. The UK version of Sky News provides a great service and has covered the hacking scandal far more creditably than any other part of the Murdoch empire. BSkyB is Rupert’s greatest achievement. Of course he would dump his British newspapers if that was the price that had to be paid to keep BSkyB.

If the British political and law enforcement establishment are determined to play hard ball, one pragmatic settlement would be for all charges to be dropped if News Corp sells out of Britain and pays a fine of at least $1 billion, out of which compensation payments to be victims could be funded.

The Brits could then get on with re-writing their media rules without the toxic influence of the Murdochs polluting their democracy any more.

As for the cross-examination tonight, here are 10 suggested questions, along with a profile of the committee members, put together by the BBC. Geoffrey Robertson QC did an excellent job with his list of combative questions for The Daily Beast and absolutely nailed it with the focus given to culture.

Just get Rupert talking about the culture, reporting lines, ethical standards and the exercise of power. A good opener would be to get the Wapping Three on their record about News Corporation employment contracts and shareholdings in the company.

Ask Rebekah Brooks about her reported $5 million payout and any commitments to ongoing legal support.

Ask Rupert why he is being so seemingly generous to the potential jailbird. This would expose his Achilles heel — that inexplicable loyalty he shows to dodgy characters all over the world.

The other key tactic is to be flexible. By all means go in there with some set questions, but don’t just read down a long list, follow up and allow the conversation to flow depending on what the accused say. Any lengthy attempt to get into forensic details about individual payments would be a waste of time and the Wapping Three would probably claim privilege anyway.

The only exception to that would be on the question of whether News Corp is paying Glenn Mulcaire’s legal bills, seeing as his 11,000 pages of notes are the key to the whole hacking scandal.

The four-year campaign of cover-up and denial is at the heart of this scandal, so any insights into that would be hugely valuable.

Ever since Crikey published this story last Friday, there have been more than 8000 unique visits to the transcript of the 12-minute exchange with Rupert at last year’s News Corp AGM in New York.

It would be great if someone on the committee asked Rupert whether he had yet bothered to read this 5000-word New York Times feature on the hacking scandal, which he simply refused to read in the six weeks between its publication and the 2010 AGM.

This is a vital insight. Rupert’s personal approach was “hear no evil, see no evil”. As founder, executive chairman and controlling shareholder, for that he must take ultimate responsibility.

*Stephen Mayne is a former News Ltd journalist and Australian shareholder activist who has spent several hours asking Rupert Murdoch questions at 10 News Corp shareholder meetings since 1999. He can be reached on Stephen@maynereport.com or @maynereport on Twitter.