The Mail has launched an all-out assault on Lord Justice Leveson this morning with an investigation that claims to expose one of Brian’s chief advisers as a “central figure” of the McAlpine debacle.

Sir David Bell is a trustee of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the crisis-hit amateur hacks who produced the infamous McAlpine Newsnight report. Bell also co-founded the Media Standards Trust, the body that helped set up tabloid-badgers Hacked Off. It’s more Thick of It than Watergate, but it does highlight the cosy close-knit group lobbying for an unfree press.

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