Pizzas banned as politicians get set for crunch press talks

It’s funny that the pizzas that ministers, advisers and lobbyists munched as they thrashed out a deal on press regulation in March have become a symbol of all that was wrong with those late-night negotiations. Today when Maria Miller decided to distance herself from the talks in Ed Miliband’s office, a source close to the Culture Secretary explained that this included ‘the Miliband office, the pizza, it was the presence of Hacked Off’. Obviously the presence of Hacked Off was more menacing than a few boxes of ham and pineapple pizza, but both have been banned from the three days of talks that the parties will now go into, ahead of a final decision on Friday. Labour says it will ‘be speaking to the victims’, which means Hacked Off, but no campaign groups will be present during the negotiations proper.

As Fraser explains, neither the charter on offer now or whatever Maria Miller, Harriet Harman and Lord Wallace cobble together over some kind of healthy alternative to pizza is palatable to those publications who fear political meddling with press freedom.