Yesterday afternoon, with impeccable timing, just as most
eyes were on the local election results, the Government announced that the
Royal Charter on the future of press regulation would
not be going before the Privy Council on May 15. There are to be further
consultations, perhaps because some press interests have put forward their own
Charter.
This was greeted with barely suppressed glee by the Sun’s non-bullying Political Editor Tom
Newton Dunn, who could not wait to get the good news out there. Evan Harris, on
the other hand, took a more cautious view, and asserted that the delay was
legally required. Ministers were aware of the possibility of a last minute challenge.
But these responses were eclipsed by the perpetually thirsty
Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, who have sold out totally
to the Fourth Estate. As part of the press establishment, they want the status
quo to be maintained, as any change could impact on their nice little earners
with the Murdoch, Rothermere, Barclay Brothers and Desmond empires.
The Great Guido was
celebrating Press Freedom Day, oblivious as usual to the UK languishing at
Number 29 in the
Press Freedom Index, well behind countries that have properly independent
press regulation like Finland, which tops the chart right now. And as part of
the Fawkes folks maintaining the pretence that we have a wonderfully free
press, there had to be a suitably malicious smear.
After an apparently straight explanation of the event, in
went the boot: “Guido is sure the likes
of Evan Harris, Hugh Grant, Max Mosley, Brian Cathcart, Steve Coogan, Tom
Watson, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Oliver Letwin, Maria Miller,
Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris will be celebrating”. You read that right:
Staines and his rabble have bracketed all those names together.
So not only is Rolf Harris, who has not been convicted of
any offence, been put on the same level as Stuart Hall, who has owned up and is
awaiting sentencing, so have three Party leaders, two senior Government
figures, and half a dozen press campaigners. It’s a quite magnificent example
of gratuitous nastiness, and should be borne in mind by anyone minded to cut
Staines and his pals some slack.
Don’t bother. Once again, The Great Guido is bang out of
order. Another fine mess.
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