I'm completely baffled by the widely held notion that we currently have a free press to threaten.

With the mass of existing D-notices, "official secrets", super-injunctions - not to mention the overwhelmingly centre to centre-right ideological slant of not just the newspapers but the BBC is it even possible to squeeze any more regulation into the box?

I mean, 85% of what the press puts out as news today is simply reporting what the Prime Minister and his lackeys say. It's simply inconceivable that they would ever question whether what is being said is a pack of lies.

So that's god knows how many thousands of hours of evidence and millions of pounds of cost to the taxpayer, to decide that it's as you were chaps except the PCC is going to have a couple more (albeit fairly blunt) teeth?

Other than knowing that Cameron needs to ring his wife to find out where they had dinner last week, pretty much a giant waste of everyone's time and effort.

Pretty much spot on.....At a time of supposed national hardship, this has been a disgraceful waste of public money....Cameron should also be ashamed of himself for so brazenly rejecting the reccomendations set out by Leveson.

Personally, I think the only way change will ever happen, is if people get out of the habit of actually reading and buying these newspapers who blatantly set out to ignore the feelings of the general public and instead just push their own agenda.

Would he ignore a petition ?

[urlhttp://hackinginquiry.org/[/url

The video is a cracker



LOL - Greg gets a copy too, I'm already on his mailing list, wonder if I'll get a personal response - watch this space.

The man's a borderline sociopath. After first stating that he would impliment Leveson's recommendations "as long as they weren't completely bonkers", he now runs away from the whole episode, one of his own making. It's not too disimilar to his "we will introduce legislation to ensure all energy companies offer the lowest rates possible". He was trapped into that at PMQs, much to the surprise of the treasury and even his own energy minister. Tory grandees must crap themselves at every Wednesday noontime, wondering just what garbage will come out of his mouth.

The money wasted on Leveson is not unique for this bunch though, just look at some of the vanity projects coming from Porky Pickles over at the DCLG. After many local councils moved to fortnightly collections of garbage, he has decided to offer them a bung to reinstate weekly collections. No one has apparently challenged him as to which sofa he found this loose change down the back of. This is a government supposedly committed to "localism", yet they are displaying all the hallmarks of top-down management. Don't get me started on the extra money that introducing efficiencies into the NHS is costing. But when we have a financial iliterate as chancellor, what more could we expect? Instead of the promised deficit reduction, he's presided over it widening by 22% and is too thick to realise that if you throw people out of work, the tax-take reduces while the benefit bill increases.

It's all Labour's fault

Signed.
What a fooking motley bunch of cronies in the vid.

What video, "I can't remember"

The Amnesiac Collective.

He bears a striking resemblance to Saddened's avatar

I'm looking forward to Paul Dacre demanding self-regulation for, say, the trade unions.

Or even (more apt) the BBC?

True.

Remember this ?

Well I got my response from Greg today, as I knew I would, and while I expected a standard format "thank you" response (after all my email to him was the standard form off the petition) what I didn't expect was the length of the reply which went into detail on his belief in a free press with responsibility, what Leveson was enquiring into, what it recommended, how he fully supported Leveson and how he is determined to keep campaigning for it, its one of the longest emails I've seen



Good guy is Greg.

I think you may hang onto him come the next election.
Had a decent majority last time round and although the Lib/Dems are gonna get a good spanking I think he'll probably be safe.

He's the only MP I've ever seen in this constituency, and I've lived here for all but 10 of 56 years, who puts himself about and gets involved in local issues, the colour of his flag is irrelevant when he makes himself so accessable to anyone who needs a voice in parliament, in fact he was better in opposition when he was REALLY keen to hang his hat on an issue and kick the government.

So if he was National Front you would have no issue, as long as (s)he was accessible?

What a ridiculous question, are you drunk ?

You said, "the colour of his flag is irrelevant when he makes himself so accessable"

I am merely asking, whether if his 'flag' was the national front it would still be irrelevant?

No.

Anything else I can help you with ?

I guess they must still be around somewhere then ...

Could this be [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823Cameron's most embarassing U-turn[/url so far?

After publicly proclaiming he was walking away from cross-party talks on implementing Leveson's recommendations and was willing to go to a vote in Parliament today, it looks like a deal has been reached that's more like the Clegg/Miliband suggestion.

At least he waited until after his party's Spring conference.

Is it? Unless it is underpinned by law isn't it Clegg and Miliband who have climbed down?

The reportiong the BBC you link to says this:

The BBC's Nick Robinson said Labour and the Liberal Democrats appeared to have accepted a watered-down version of their demands for full legal underpinning of a royal charter establishing a new watchdog.

Ms Miller said: "We're very close to a deal. What has been accepted by all the main parties is that the prime minister's royal charter should go ahead, and more importantly we've stopped Labour's extreme version of the press law."

So its a watered down version according to Nick Robinson and Labour has been "stopped" according to Miller. Now I know Nick Robinson is a Tory and Miller obviously wants to paint the picture she does but just how far has Cameron moved toward the Labour/ Lib Dem position?

blogs.spectator.co.uk/isabel-hardman/2013/03/harriet-harman-and-maria-miller-both-claim-victory-in-leveson-talks/

Its as clear as mud ATM.

I will say however that Cameron has come back to the table (Even at arms length) and one has to wonder why?
Perhaps because he has realised he is going to be defeated when every single none Tory MP are lined up against him.

And a few Tory MPs to be fair.

Camoron had no chance of winning a vote on the proposal he walked away from the table with. He must have known that at the time. What's more interesting is why Labour and the Lib Dems agreed to negotiate further when they already had a winning hand.

Quite. It seems Labour are saying the fact there will be a law that says royal charters in general can't be tampered with means it does have a legal underpinning whereas Miller doesn't mention the effect this legislation will have, only that they have stopped Labour's " Labour's extreme version of the press law".

Which is it?

The fact the legislation applies generally to all royal charters is supposedly a way of avoiding saying just underpinning this one by law means only the press has a royal charter regulating them that us underpinned by law.

I think there are some other compromises in there from both sides but given the Labour and Lib Dem position was legal underpinning was required I don''t see how they can accept anything that doesn't give that regardless of what other concessions are given towards their position (no veto by the press on commission members etc).



I think he was more worried about the 20 or so Tory MP's who would line up against him as well. It's not as party political as Miller wants to make out.