And If He Gets It Wrong, We'll Ignore Him Too

I am sure we all remember the Leveson report and its recommendation that the British press be transformed from its present raucous yet scrupulous self into a Mugabe-style organ of state propaganda. Daveybloke and his cuddly chums intervened in the name of liberty, and there the matter has rested, although the editor of the Financial Times is impatient to clear it up before September, when Daveybloke's chums from the Murdoch family will be invited to clear their names. Accordingly, Lionel Barber has come up with a spiffing new wheeze to break the deadlock between what the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre want and what the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre will settle for, and has proposed that the Government appoint a mediator to broker a deal between the press barons and their more vindictive persecutors. "You need someone who some experience of journalism, some experience of business and some political nous, and someone who is respected on all sides," Lionel Barber told the Commons committee on prolefeed. His favoured candidate, therefore, is a Conservative peer and a member of Paul Dacre's pet complaints commission; which will certainly connote the term "honest broker" in some sections of the British press even if it's a bit left-wing for the mainstream.