That shackling the press with statutory regulation is a priority only for the chattering classes, just like constitutional reform, is borne out by the survey released today by the Free Speech Network. Bread and butter issues dominate the public’s worries…

The Sunday Times has produced a handy graphic to highlight Common Purpose, the openly elitist group behind much of the effort to undermine the freedom of the press through the Media Standards Trust and its associated Hacked Off campaign on behalf of coke-snorting and hooker-hiring celebs who want tougher privacy laws.

 click to enlarge

See also: Media Standards Trust: Unaccountable and Undemocratic

Guido was pleasantly surprised by how few Tory MPs have signed a letter written by Cameron’s former Press Secretary George Eustice, demanding that the press be muzzled. The second anyone speaks out against statutory regulation, cries go up about prejudicing the inquiry, and accusations are thrown around about trying to taint Leveson. Moves to try to influence Brian the other way, like this morning’s Guardian splash are welcomed with open arms though.

Guido was not surprised to see former cabinet minister Caroline Spelman leading the way. This year the multimillionaire spent over £60,000 – the equivalent of one years salary as an MP – in a failed attempt to keep her drug cheat England rugby playing son out of the papers. The public interest in exposing cheating in sport was apparently second fiddle to the fact that Spelman was a politician. Any other member of the squad without a loaded, famous parent would have had to face the music.

The rest of the list is littered with your normal array of big state lovers, arms dealer chums, drunks, expenses cheats and shaggers. These are the people any new legislation will protect.

As Guido revealed in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday column, the hunt is on in CCHQ:

“MANY in Conservative Party HQ are increasingly convinced Labour has a mole working in the building. Beyond the usual media leaks, confidential private polling appears to have got directly into Labour’s hands. As the party moves on to an election footing, the Tories want to be sure their battle plans are secure. Background checks are quietly being made to establish the true-blue credentials of newer staff.”

Guido is watching this one…

Other fun includes Vicky Pryce’s terrible choice in men, MacShame, Tory grandees reactions to the EU vote rout and Luciana Berger backfiring attacks.

It’s online now here.

Buy the #DailyStarSunday for news of a hunt for a Labour Party spy in Tory HQ—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) November 04, 2012

Also how Denis MacShane’s “red herring” proved what a slippery fish he was, Luciana Berger’s back-firing question, George Galloway’s support for Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad. 

Just 90p…

Yesterday Guido exposed William Hague’s snake to the world, today the papers follow suit. Albert the anaconda made the front page of the Sun, every other paper, TV and radio. You’re either in front of Guido…

On Wednesday both the Mail and Telegraph splashed with the story of Energy Minister John Hayes declaring “enough is enough” over wind farms. The Mail’s report was labelled as an exclusive and their political editor James Chapman noted in his piece that Hayes’ remarks came from a private interview. Yet mysteriously the Telegraph had the same story with quotations in its first edition. How come?

It seems the Telegraph got sight of Chapman’s raw, unsubbed copy – Hayes had only spoken to him. Mail sources point out that their version said:

‘Even if a minority of what’s in the system is built we are going to reach our 2020 target,’ he said. ‘I’m saying enough is enough.’

The quote is mysteriously longer in the Telegraph version:

‘If you look at what has been built, what has consent and what is in the planning system, much of it will not get through and will be rejected. Even if a minority of what’s in the system is built we are going to reach our 2020 target,’ Mr Hayes said. ‘I’m saying enough is enough.’

One disgruntled Mail hack points out that “It’s common practice in the lobby to get wind of things and seek to do a spoiler or cobble something together with source quotes but to actually barefacedly steal the copy and use the quotes as your own is unprecedented in my experience.”

So what happened? Did the Telegraph’s Political Editor Robert Winnett find a copy of Chapman’s story on a Commons printer? Nope. Guido understands that Chapman did print out his story but took it home in his briefcase.

Did a Telegraph spy at the Mail leak the story to Winnett? Possibly. Mail HQ is now in a state of high security. Or was the Telegraph tipped off by veteran eco-sceptic Christopher Booker, who wrote a feature linked to the Hayes story in Wednesday’s Mail? Booker, though a long-time columnist for the Telegraph, is surely too experienced a hack to hand an exclusive to the Mail’s arch rival in that way.

Some argue that Winnett is in breach of the first rule of the Lobby – by shamelessly lifting the story he has breached his “duty to the Lobby as a whole, in that he should do nothing to prejudice the communal life of the Lobby..” and should be thrown out. Angry phone-calls were exchanged between executives at both papers yesterday with Ben Brogan – the former Mail man and now Telegraph deputy editor – being accused of “theft”. Brogan is said to be claiming it was “serendipity” and is not taking Guido’s calls this morning…

Guido’s favourite bit of this week’s Daily Star Sunday column was giving Sir Jeremy Heywood’s whispered nickname a wider audience:

“DISQUIET about Downing Street’s shambolic grip on the Government machine has given way to open speculation about the No.10 team. Whispers are growing about the amount of power seized by slippery senior civil servant Sir Jeremy Heywood. With him having the PM’s ear, insiders have nicknamed the pasty-skinned Sir Jeremy “Wormtongue”, after the sinister character in The Lord Of The Rings who whispered poison to the king to further his own agenda.”

Don’t miss Marr, Bryant and Balls in the rest of the column, now online here.

Guido knew things were bad at Guardian towers, but he didn’t think they were this bad. A leaked internal memo sent today reveals that Guardian employees have been told to clear out their cupboards immediately, with the lights to be turned off officially this weekend. Has the day of reckoning finally arrived?

Alas, no. Kings Place will merely be undergoing a full power shutdown on Sunday in order to fulfil health and safety requirements, and normal service will be resumed on Monday morning. You didn’t get your hopes up, did you? 

Star reporter Clark Kent, aka Superman, has sensationally quit the Daily Planet to set up his own blog. DC Comics have revealed that Superman is making the print-to-digital shift because he has “too much journalistic integrity” to carry on working for the newspaper. The saviour of the world says that he doesn’t want to become a “grizzled ink-stained wretch”, and has become disillusioned with the dead tree press because he “believes news should be about, I don’t know, news?”. Desperate colleagues attempted to convince him to stay but were forced to admit that “times are changing and print is a dying medium”.

Superman is tipped to “come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth”.

Guido welcomes the competition…

Trinity Mirror’s share price has crashed 12.5% this morning. It closed at 72p yesterday, opening at 65p when it was revealed overnight that the Mirror‘s publishers faced legal action over phone-hacking allegations, dropping again to 62p as the morning went on. £18 million was wiped from the value of the company. And there is more to come…

UPDATE: Trinity Mirror has a market capitalisation of £163 million, the group already has a pension fund deficit estimated to be £159.5 million, almost equal to the struggling media firm’s market capitalisation. Given News International has paid out some £200 million in hacking legal costs already the actual solvency of the firm could be in danger if claims mount up. Murdoch could afford to take the hit, Morgan’s old mates can’t…