Daily View 2×2: 13 October 2009

Two big stories

The Grauniad has been gagged:

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

Bonnie Greer and Chris Huhne to tackle Nick Griffin on next week’s Question Time:

The black playwright and author Bonnie Greer is to take on the British National Party leader Nick Griffin on the BBC One programme Question Time next week.

… Greer, 60, will be joined on the panel by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, and a Conservative politician whose name has not yet been confirmed.

Two must-read posts

Paul Walters gives whingeing MPs both barrels:

The whole point of having an independent person making a review is that not everyone is going to like all the conclusions. Tough. The alternative is going back to rules essentially written and administered by the MPs themselves and risk a revolution.

Bernard Salmon defended MPs with his gunfire:

MPs have the same right as anyone else to know the nature of any charges against them and to know that they will be subject to a fair process in dealing with these.

It’s not a principle that MPs have always applied when dealing with other people, particularly in some of the assaults on civil liberties which the Labour government has introduced, such as control orders.

But MPs have discovered today why such principles are important.