Click to enlarge. You can read Dave’s speech in full here.

Over 1,600 of you voted this morning, with a huge majority telling Dave and Maria Miller that their deal does amount to statutory underpinning:

That’s considerably clearer than Miller was earlier…

The papers are reporting this morning that Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and David Cameorn were on the verge of agreement until Hugh Grant’s Hacked Off campaign lobbied Labour aggressively. This is the draft press release brandished by Hacked Off to put the wind up Ed Miliband if he went ahead with the deal:

Click to Enlarge

The language is ridiculous, Hugh Grant is a victim of his own making, calling on the Queen not to carry out her constitutional duty because he doesn’t want his picture in the papers any more is frankly comical. Hacked Off is a bunch of celebs who have been caught with their pants down hiding behind the genuine suffering of the McCanns and the Dowlers who were victims of real crimes which the police are already pursuing. Hacked Off won’t say who funds them, they are self-appointed and they are secretive with a sinister agenda to protect the rich and powerful from the prying eyes of the public.

Guido is opposed to all the proposals to control the press including the government’s misguided plan to enforce extra-territorial control of publications. We won’t be cooperating with any legislation that tries to control a foreign publication like this blog because it is, in the words of the Charter, “targeted primarily at an audience in the United Kingdom”. Imagine if the Soviets had tried to do the same to Radio Free Europe during the Cold War, or the Iranian regime demanded today to regulate the BBC’s Persian Service on the grounds that it is “targeted primarily at an audience in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Guido reminded Brian Leveson when he was giving his evidence that under the obligations of Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights as agreed by Britain in 1948

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

That is more important than preventing the paparazzi taking pictures of Hugh Grant on a bad hair day…

The PM tells the Pope:

“The white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear.”

Click on Dave to see his proposals for the future of the British press, click on Nick and Ed to see their statutory alternative…

Dave says no deal to Nick and Ed; they will now have to vote him down on Monday. Channelling Churchill the PM says “a free press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that free men prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny”. Labour will now have to wreck the Crime and Courts bill if they want to pursue statutory regulation. The trap is set…

“…an easy answer, some easy way out of this…”

Things aren’t that bad…

The chairman of the OBR has written to the PM stressing the “uncertain” effect of government policy, after Dave said he had their backing that zero growth was not his fault. Worth noting how Labour paint the OBR as a bunch of jokers when they disagree with their message, but the second Cameron gets a slap they have nothing but praise…

“Government to legislate for plain cigarette packaging this year”, claimed Tuesday’s Guardian scoop. A “senior Whitehall source” vows “there will be legislation”, reported Patrick Wintour. All pretty certain then; no chance of having jumped the gun. Step forward David Cameron on Thursday: “The decision has not been taken”. Doh.

On the left: Ed speech, February 14. On the right: Dave speech today. A Labour source tells Guido: “We are sending an invoice to Craig Oliver for speech backdrop consultancy”.