Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 21 March 2013

issue 23 March 2013

There is supposed to be a Leveson Part II, although everyone has forgotten about it. As well as telling him to look into everything bad about newspapers (‘Please could you clean the Augean stables by Friday, Hercules’), David Cameron also asked Lord Justice Leveson to investigate who did what when over phone-hacking. This was postponed because of the forthcoming criminal trials, but I mention it because it is a reminder that things are back to front. Normally when you have an inquiry, you first work out what happened and then you work out what to do about it. Leveson is the opposite, hence the resulting chaos. The problem is particularly acute if you put a judge in charge. Judges like laws, so they propose new ones. Mr Cameron never wanted a new law, so why did he appoint the learned Lord Justice?

Few people seem to realise that the press regulation now formulated is the long-meditated revenge of the left.

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