Proper free speech, or don't bother

Press regulation

Leveson thinks ultimate power should rest with the courts. He's a judge. Milliband and Clegg agree. Well, politicians make the law, run the courts and tend to have a legal background. I think you need to approach things like press regulation from first principles, not from a sprawling overlong report and the emotion of the genuine victims of phone hacking.

These are my first principles:

• We've got laws, slander, libel, phone hacking, use them.
• State interference with the press and free speech are mutually exclusive (viz the politically correct's favourite cliché: “you can't say that” (I just did)).
• The best reads, like Private Eye, come with plenty of humour, loads of mischief and a dash of spite. They're always up in front of the beaks defending themselves against some pompous humourless oaf or other,
• There are genuine victims of phone hacking, and there are mildly inconvenienced celebs having a right moan.
• There should be liberty, and non-interference. Free speech means exactly that ( and not some watered-down, ends-serving version), and we deeply need some robust 'sticks and stones' thinking.
• Whatever party they are in (at the moment) politicians are among the best-paid, best-off people in society. As such, they are bound to be small 'c' conservatives because they want to preserve the status quo under which they're doing rather well, and hence the reluctance, even if something is patently broken beyond repair and not working, to scrap it and start again.

The radio playlist theory applies...

The radio playlist theory

Radio playlists are based on the charts, and on past success in the charts. Chart success depends on radio plays (among other things). A closed loop, stagnation. People tend to buy what they hear on the radio. A bad feedback loop. Radio depends on charts, charts depend on radio, so nothing changes. The shops discount chart music, people buy what's discounted, and the inertia is huge.

With the internet, because the stagnant cycle is easier to break out of now. There's all those radio stations, there's access to a huge range of music, the charts are becoming increasingly irrelevant (unless you're a big Kylie or Madonna fan, or otherwise unevolved).

This philosophy works in many fields. The chicken tikka massala effect. What's the most popular? What shall I have? What's the most popular? I'll have what he's having. The spiral takes hold. Indian restaurants start referring to the dish simply as CTM.

Waterstones discount bulk best selling paperbacks, they're more likely to sell, because they're discounted, and remain on the best seller list, and attract the discount.

Stale, stagnant, and boring.

Much beloved by the conservatives, big and small 'C's.