Toby Atkin-Wright

We’ve had years of media stories about the misbehaviour of the some elements of the press, sometimes leading to criminal prosecutions. The Leveson Inquiry held high-profile hearings with many of the major players, and is due to report tomorrow. It is one of the big political stories of the moment, and their response to the report could define how political parties are judged going into the next general election.

But today the BBC reported that Holyrood will makes its own decision about press regulation. In particular, Alex Salmond said that he would not support state regulation of the press.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-20520823

I’d not been aware before today that while control of broadcasting in Scotland is reserved to Westminster, regulation of the press is the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. Maybe this has been reported before, and I’d missed it, but I think our national broadcasters do us a disservice by concentrating on the Westminster response to Leveson, when that won’t be relevant to Scotland.

I suppose we could end up with state regulation of the press in England and Wales, but a softer contractual form of regulation in Scotland. Could this mean that London-based national titles could see an advantage to moving their publishing to Scotland?

Education funding is devolved to Holyrood. Was it appropriate for Scottish MPs to vote on tuition fees at Westminster today, in legislation that will only apply in England and Wales?

Education funding is devolved to Holyrood. Was it appropriate for Scottish MPs to vote on tuition fees at Westminster today, in legislation that will only apply in England and Wales?