There were a number of people at the time who doubted – or even denied – that the McKennitt v Ash verdict, and similar cases subsequently, would contribute to increased restrictions on freedom of expression, and specifically freedom of the press. Reading, in particular, what Private Eye editor Ian Hislop had to say to a Parliamentary hearing yesterday might provide food for thought. Among other things, Hislop was able to show that a perfectly legitimate journalistic investigation had been stopped in its tracks by a letter from law firm Schillings “invoking the developing law on privacy”.

Allow me to get up on this high horse just here, and say that those of us who feared this would happen take no pleasure whatever in being proved right…