Why on earth are people so afraid of statutory regulation?

Regulation of the press?

Because that restricts freedom of expression....

Asked whether he had secured agreement for his plan, which he hopes will see off the requirement for a regulatory system backed up by statutory powers, Hunt said this was the case. "I've had one-to-one meetings with all publishers, who cover thousands of editors," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, saying this covered local and regional titles as well as the national press. "They have all said they would sign up. This would be the first time ever that we have a binding in to a legal system through contracts."

Ofcom seems to work OK with the broadcast industry.

Hmmmm.

Including Desmond?

There is, behind the scenes, an almost comic attempt to get all the newspaper groups to sign up to some sort of statement on regulatory reform. But it would be easier to get 10 cats to sashay down Oxford Street in a straight line.

The Express Newspapers mogul, Richard Desmond, can't bear the Telegraph Media Group factotum, Lord (Guy) Black, a key architect of the industry's plan for beefed up self-regulation. So any letter that is sent to him from this camp – which also includes the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) chairman, Lord Hunt, and the Daily Mail editor in chief, Paul Dacre – doesn't have Black's name on it.

Such is the suspicion of Dacre that editors and owners of what used to be known as the broadsheets are reluctant to be seen sharing the same piece of paper. So his lieutenant, Peter Wright, does his best to give the impression that everybody else has signed up when trying to persuade others to sign up.

Meanwhile, the editors of the Financial Times, Independent, London Evening Standard and this newspaper have signed their own letter instead. But there is talk that Hunt wanted to put his pen to that too.

It is tempting to portray this as some sort of Ruritanian civil war, a hopelessly confused conflict that is of no consequence as morning commuters switch from being print readers to smartphone and tablet gamers. But underlying it is a very real battle for power. In one corner is the Mail/Telegraph alliance that has long dominated the PCC (traditionally supported by News International) and which is fronted by Black, that consummate Conservative insider.

If there is a conspiracy to run Britain, or rather the media part of it, it is not to be found with the obscure former FT chairman Sir David Bell, but here in the nexus of relations between Black, Michael Howard's one-time spin doctor (who used to holiday with Rebekah Brooks); Dacre, Britain's most powerful tabloid editor; the Telegraph owners the Barclays, a secretive family of plutocrats who can happily text prime ministers advice; and the publicity-shy Mail proprietor, Viscount Rothermere, who politely dines with them. It would be interesting, too, for Cameron to tell us on Thursday who from this group has been lobbying him in person over the past three months.

In the other camp, of course, is whatever's left of the liberal conspiracy – the FT, Independent and Guardian – whose critics will be quick to note they have the smallest circulations of the national dailies (as if that invalidates their opinion). And perhaps Richard Desmond, although, in truth he is in nobody's corner.