Salut!

As conspiracy against the press gathers pace, 'respectable' hackers surface

Press freedom is under grave threat in the UK, if the first of my two assessments is correct. And Britain will not actually care a great deal about it, if I am right with the second.

Forgive the cynicism but I am far from convinced that the vaunted national commitment to such a principle is much more than a squalid charade.

And what better suits the agenda of those who despise the trade of journalism than to have a host of its practitioners facing prosecution? They face it in the near certainty that the prospect of truly fair trials, in the current climate (leaving aside the one before, which was also quite hostile), is remote.

French Discoveries: (1) Fire and fruit, Fuego and kumquats

I needed relief from my struggles to achieve the right balance and tone in a piece in which I argue that no journalist, high or low, can seriously expect a fair trial given the conspiracy of legal, political and public opinion weighing against them and should just go down fighting. So here is the start of a new series that will, very sporadically, describe things I come across that may be old hat to you but are new to me. The hacks can wait ...

It is not often that you buy wine in the south of France and feel able to declare you have found a real bargain.