Crucial vote looms on British press laws
UK: British MPs were on Monday to take a crucial vote on press
regulation, with senior government members claiming a deal could still
be brokered despite the breakdown of cross-party talks.
Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday abandoned discussions with
Deputy PM Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrat junior coalition
partners, and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Bringing the matter to a head, Conservative Party leader Cameron said
lawmakers would vote Monday on his proposals for a new newspaper
watchdog.
Labour and the Lib Dems want statutory regulation as recommended by
the Leveson Inquiry, which Cameron commissioned in 2011 after the
voicemail hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the
World tabloid.
Cameron believes underpinning the system in legislation would pose a
risk to press freedom and talks with Clegg on Sunday again ended with no
agreement.
But Culture Secretary Maria Miller and finance minister George
Osborne both insisted earlier Sunday that there was still time for a
breakthrough before the House of Commons vote.
"There's been compromise on both sides to make sure that we take the
Leveson report -- which was never a blueprint for the regulation of the
press -- and make it work in practice," said Miller.
Osborne maintained that "there is still an opportunity for us to get
together and get a press regulation that works." "Ultimately we are not
about grandstanding on this," he told BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"It would be great on Monday if we can get some kind of agreement,
even at this late stage, between the parties," he added.
Cameron is asking lawmakers to vote for his plans for a royal charter
-- a special document used to establish organisations including the BBC
and the Bank of England.
He faces a substantial risk of losing Monday's vote, an outcome that
would deal a further blow for a prime minister struggling with a weak
economy and divisions within his party.
The premier also believes that a pre-vote deal can be reached and
said Saturday that he was "delighted" at how close together the two
sides had come before he dramatically pulled the plug on talks. And he
said the Lib Dem-Labour proposed statutory underpinning was not "a big
issue of principle".
"I think we're in a much better place and I'm confident about the
future," he said.
Labour leader Miliband on Sunday urged lawmakers to "stand up for the
victims" of press abuse by enshrining a new press regulator in law.
AFP |