Why I went to the Levy party

Interesting row brewing over at Guido Fawkes. Should I and other hacks have shown our faces at the Lord Levy party last night (see my earlier post)? Yes, of course. That's the point of access. You go along and then you pass on what you find to your readers. Which is why I went and reported back to Coffee House as I did. Which is also why (I happen to know) the bloggers are petitioning for lobby credentials that will give them the same rights as print journalists at Westminster: quite right, too. Guido suggests that my going to the party might compromise my coverage of any trial involving Levy. Er, I don't think so. The Spectator has scarcely done the Government or Lord Cashpoint any favours during the loans-for-honours furore and I was personally ticked off by an ally of Levy for running a piece by Fraser last May which reopened (sensationally, in my view) the question of His Lordship's connections with the Hindujas. And there was me thinking Guido liked a party....