Discretion is the Better Part of Retaining Your Chauffeured Limousine

Since the Ministry of Justice has nothing more urgent to worry about than the potential discomfiture of the rich and famous, the latest Secretary of State for Profitable Incarceration has suggested that nice people accused of certain crimes might benefit from being kept anonymous, at least until they are formally charged. The Minister stressed that such protection would apply only if the accused had a reputation to protect, since in such matters neither the great witch-hunting public nor the free and cantankerous Press can be relied upon to distinguish fact from news. However, a substantial risk would of course arise for abuse of the law by mere plebs, in the nefarious interest of preventing themselves being splashed across the front pages and spattered with whatever journalistic ordure the warriors for truth cared to splurge. Such a law, in other words, might well end up introducing the Stalinist provisions of Leveson 2 by the back door. No wonder the Murdoch team at Downing Street has been quick to slap the upstart down, and to obtain a full, spontaneous and unqualified public retraction of anything he might inadvertently have said.