John Whittingdale has apparently not decided whether or not to issue a ‘commencement order’, which is a formality within the provision of the Crime and Courts Act.
The Act will allow judges to impose costs on newspapers who force plaintiffs to go through expensive court actions because they have not signed up to a recognized independent regulator providing a low cost arbitration service.
Many acts of parliament require commencement orders to bring them into force, just to give the bureaucracy a chance to prepare. Parliament passed the act, with cross-party support, and it did not intend for the Secretary of State to be given the authority to unilaterally repeal it.
Whittingdale apparently mutters something about how Parliament and Leveson had envisaged a situation where one or two newspapers were resisting joining a recognized regulator, rather than where all of the major newspapers have refused point blank.
Whatever Leveson intended, it surely wasn’t the situation we are in now.
Whittingdale not only has to decide the future of the BBC, but also has his finger hovering over a button that newspapers desperately do not want him to press.
The whole argument of those who opposed Leveson’s reforms, an argument that Leveson himself carefully tried to address and design his system around, was that they did not want the government to have the power to interfere in the freedom of the press.
And yet here Whittingdale is claiming that he is hesitating because he himself is worried about that very thing, while he knows that the press must be careful not to upset him in case he decides to push his button.
Meanwhile rumours abound that the papers have some lurid scandal up their sleeve and are holding him to ransom.
This story on Byline.com on the culture secretary, with allegations of a relationship with a dominatrix, has been widely shared on social media. If true, it raises questions about Whittingdale’s judgement and whether he is escaping media exposure because of his position on Leveson.
It’s like an episode of House of Cards.
If is he any sort of statesman Whittingdale should remove himself immediately from this hypocritical situation.
The whole purpose of the Royal Charter is to put such decisions in the hands of an independent body – independent from the government. No regulator has been recognized as yet, and so the cost provisions will not have any immediate effect.
The Recognition Panel, established at two arms-length from the government has the job of deciding whether to recognise IMPRESS, a new press regulator with so far only a few minor titles signed up to it.
If there is a decision to be made about whether a regulator should be recognized when no major titles have signed up to it, then it is for the Recognition Panel to make that decision, not the minister via some technical bottleneck.
On the other hand, if Whittingdale believes that the legislation has been mis-drafted in some way that does not reflect the will of parliament, or that the will of parliament has changed, then he needs to send it back to Parliament immediately.
He must do something, because the situation he has allowed to materialize is exactly the one that everyone, and most of all the newspapers, professed to be afraid of.
Tags: commencement order, dominatrix, John Whittingdale, Leveson, scandal
Whoever wrote this will be in trouble with Rob Marchant as it shows a prejudice in connecting Tory ministers with s&m sexual perversions. Is that why there is no author’s name, or is it fear of the legal profession. Meanwhile poor old john Whittingdale not only works for Murdoch, but will soon be supplying Murdoch’s papers with all sorts of juicy wicked personal going ons. The younger Mosley comes to mind straight away.
No-one cares about a Minister and whips but the allegation is that he used expenses to fund the relationship and may have used his position to influence the papers not to publish the story should be of concern to us all.
No-one cares about a Minister and whips but the allegation is that he used expenses to fund the relationship
And I bet all the married ones do likewise with regards to their spouses and offsprings wherever and whenever they can (in fact I know they do in the case of two MPs and one ex-MP that I know). Australia trips anyone? Kids from previous relationships and housing? etc etc
We are now being told that the papers left the story alone out of respect for the minister’s privacy. I would love to know how the tabloid editors of papers that are close to mortal enemies arrive at this consensus. Still some may accuse me of cynicism, in which case I have this bridge you may like to buy.