. Mr Cameron has been bruised by being forced to accept a plan he had sought to avoid. Rumbling arguments between press and politicians looks like the result, perhaps with Labour backing a full-blown press law if recalcitrant newspapers refuse to budge. Conservatives are likely to resist this, bringing the row back to Parliament. Crossing the Rubicon on press regulation turns out to be a lot easier than working out what to do on the other side.

An altogether more optimistic analysis is offered by David Putnam in The guardian today:

I hope the events of this past week signify that we have collectively turned the page, and that politicians of all persuasions now recognise that the regulation of the media, entirely independent of government, and backed by appropriate powers of civil enforcement, is one of the fundamental guarantors of a healthy democracy in the 21st century.