For some the World Cup is a virtual feast of non-stop footballing wonders. For others, (well, for one), its an all-you-can-eat buffet. International cuisine. But the matter of Luis will be resolved today. One way or another. His sad plea of ‘we just banged into each other’ is in slight contradiction to the film of actual events. Yet it needs a quick resolution. And FIFA are not really good at ‘quick’. Nor really at ‘resolution’. Look at Qatar ’22. That worked well. Still is working well. But speed is of the essence so we can get on with the next course. Sorry, the next football.

Meanwhile, at home, David Cameron has once again fallen foul of the lawyers. So eager to extricate himself from any of the phone-hacking mess, even though he did employ Mr Phone-Hacker-Supreme as a spin doctor. The Prime Minister, eager to ‘apologise and put this matter behind him’ (as if) did so before the other charges against Andy Coulson have been wound up in court. Thus the Prime Minister is interfering with judicial process. Or ‘being a total nob’ as its known in the legal world. A bit like he did when he spoke up in Nigella’s defence whilst that case was still in progress.

And the usual suspects are once again calling for ‘more regulation!’ for ‘tougher punishments’, for ‘government interference’ with the press. For although hacking into murdered girl Millie Dowler’s phone was appalling and vile, hacking into a few B-list celeb messages about cancelled hair appointments and rearranged sessions with personal trainers is hardly the ‘ALMOST LIKE RAPE!!!’ that we hear about. And a press regulated by the government is not a free press. And if you don’t have a free press you don’t have a proper democracy. So for Sienna Miller’s voicemail from her mum telling her not to be late for dinner, we end up as Syria. Not a fair deal.

Phone hacking is illegal. Illegal shit is illegal even for newspapers. Thus they mustn’t do it. Or they’ll go to jail like Andy Coulson will, Rebekah Brookes won’t and Rupert Murdoch should. Regulation by the government means plonkers like Cameron would have control over what was printed about him. And that’s too high a price to pay for anything.

Without the freedom of speech I’d have to only say nice things about people. And that, quite frankly, would be impossible. I’d go to prison. And to be honest, you’re not that nice.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx