However, the cost overruns have apparently been resolved and as of last Friday, the process was back on track.The SRA claims that a confidential agreement between Sir Alastair and Lord Macdonald requires the minister to turn around a decision in seven days, meaning that we should expect an answer any day now. Unfortunately, Virgin has threatened to cause trouble in the run-up to the election by suing if the decision goes against it All of which leaves Lord Macdonald in an awkward spot On the one hand he has Sir Alastair bearing down on him One the other he has Sir Richard. Which of them, if either, is he more afraid of?* j.warner independent.co.uk. It may not be quite the mark he wanted to make on history; but Piers Morgan can tell his grandchildren that one of the last laws proposed by the present Labour government owes something to him. He would have preferred to see his lively Mirror overtake The Sun in sales or to present the FA Cup to Arsenal. But the Mirror editor's footnote in history is of a more sober nature. It may not be quite the mark he wanted to make on history; but Piers Morgan can tell his grandchildren that one of the last laws proposed by the present Labour government owes something to him.
He would have preferred to see his lively Mirror overtake The Sun in sales or to present the FA Cup to Arsenal. But the Mirror editor's footnote in history is of a more sober nature. Last week, the Government proposed legislation on journalists and "financial promotion" as part of the Financial Promotion Act, which means that journalists tipping shares they own have to declare an interest. Last year, of course, the two writers of The Mirror's City Slickers column were sacked after tipping shares that they owned and that Piers Morgan had bought the day before. The Department of Trade and Industry is still conducting an inquiry into the case.One might have expected The Sun to glory in legislation that reflects The Mirror's discomfort.
But instead it greeted the government proposal last week with a leader saying: "His [Blair's] government has come up with a crackpot, unworkable piece of legislation which would scupper financial journalism in this country."Les Hinton, the chairman of the newspaper industry's Code of Practice Committee and executive chairman of News International, has written to the Treasury minister Melanie Johnson, with copies to Messrs Blair, Brown and Straw, condemning what is this government's first statutory control of the press. He said the government was subjecting journalists to criminal controls.Readers, who may be more sceptical about journalistic integrity than Mr Hinton is, probably wonder why the honest hack should have anything to fear from the new rules. National papers all now have their own codes, some that existed before the Mirror scandal, some after. Generally, financial journalists, as here on The Independent, have to inform their editor or managing editor about any shares that they own. So why should they fall foul of the Government's own proposed code?You can't deny that over the years some questionable practices have gone on in the City departments of newspapers, and not just at The Mirror But the proposed Treasury wording is bizarre and unhelpful. The Act would stipulate that everyone involved in production of an article - writer, commissioning editor, sub-editors, photographer - would have to declare their share interests in a list that could be longer than the article.