Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I welcome the Minister to the House. In particular, I commend him on his thought provoking and broad-ranging address to the House. It is indicative of the Minister's approach to this issue and I am pleased that he is here to hear our views on it. We sought a debate on a press council and the Minister will forgive me for dwelling on that particular aspect. I suggest that perhaps the Minister is in need of a press council because his own comments here this morning, and the range of commentary on his proposals so far, would suggest that somebody has got the wrong end of the stick. I am sure the Minister has read some of the comments on the issue of the alleged Government-appointed press council he is alleged to be promoting.

Given the extent of press coverage of this issue, particularly in recent weeks, I did a trawl on the Internet to review many of the newspaper comments and reports. I was surprised by some of the inconsistencies which have arisen. I draw the attention of the House – I do not need to draw it to the Minister's attention—