Leveson inquiry

I cannot believe that we are even talking about a statutorily regulated press.  That way lies totalitarianism. An independent press is an essential feature of a democracy.  There's no doubt we need to beef up the way complaints are handled and give the Press Complaints Authority (or whatever succeeds it) more teeth, but for God's sake, leave Parliament and politicians out of it - just look at the way the mere discussion of the inquiry itself has immediately degenerated into personal and political posturing and point-scoring.  We're very much into "lesser of two evils" territory here - you can make a case for statutory regulation and a case against it.  For me the case against is overwhelmingly more powerful, but that's not to deny that there is a case for.  What we should be looking at is making the law on defamation more available to the ordinary man or woman in the street and coming up with some sort of privacy law.  Other than that, keep legislation out of it.