Office politics/gossip get involved or stay well clear??!!!

I guess every single working environment will suffer from the much dreaded gossip/ politics.. What to do in a situation where one ends up getting involved???
Well... I'm at the best of times quite an outspoken person so against best judgement in occasions I end up being quite honest and giving people my opinion on the matter in hand. I have to say that not always goes down well, but hey, doesn't really bother me most times.

However, due to a few changes happening round here, the office politics/gossip reached an all time high where common sense just tells me "stay well clear or you'll end up getting into shit over your big gob!!"

It's proving to be really difficult for me to keep my mouth shut, I have had to bite my tongue in occasions(quite a few occasions in fact), especially as a recently promoted person is getting a head so big, I don't think it'll actually fit up you know where any longer, also considering that I have known this person for most of the time I have worked here and we actually had a good working relationship, I'm finding really difficult to handle his self-importance when its not really justified ( major power trip )- and just to make this clear, everyone in this office is having a problem with it - so much so, that I don't think most of us can actually hold a conversation with this person without being sarcastic ( but he wont even notice- self important and dumb, talk about great combinations).

Apologies for rambling a bit..

So.. office gossip. Yes??!!!! Lets see how I manage....

Speak soon,

Isabel