Leveson Unspiked

The House of Lords, that paragon of democracy which works so well that the Conservatives ruptured the coalition to protect it from reform, has repaid the favour by voting against the Government on the defamation bill. Their amendments include a low-cost arbitration system for victims of the press, which may sit ill with the Government's abolition of legal aid; and a system of statutory press regulation, which Rupert Murdoch does not want and which for some reason or other is equally unacceptable to Daveybloke and his chums. There have been some listless cross-party talks, but Lord Puttnam complained that "anyone who reads the bill as it stands will not find so much as a hint of the fact that we live in a country that has spent much of the past two years debating the fallout directly attributable to the unaccountable power of newspapers over our public life and over the lives of ordinary citizens. It is almost as if Leveson never happened." Of course, Daveybloke has been jolly busy putting the Euro-wogs in their place and setting Timbuktu to rights; and the Milibeing has not been exerting much pressure, presumably because he hopes to be working for News Corporation himself in a couple of years' time.