A lunch with David Cameron organised by the Newspaper Society yesterday was interrupted by news of the death of Colonel Gadaffi.
Regional newspaper political journalists were quizzing the Prime Minister at the lunch held in the Commons press gallery when reports of the former Libyan dictator’s demise began to filter through.
London Evening Standard political editor Joe Murphy broke the news to Mr Cameron during the question and answer session and asked him for his reaction.
The Prime Minister replied that he could not comment on unconfirmed reports before abruptly leaving the lunch to return to 10 Downing Street, missing the chicken supreme main course.
Shortly afterwards, having received confirmation, Mr Cameron made his statement to television cameras outside Number Ten.
Before the news broke, he had made a brief speech to the lunch about the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, denying that it represented a threat to press freedom.
The Prime Minister said that it was of paramount importance that the British press be free to delve into the “dark recesses” of society.
“I am passionate about not just a free press but a press that feels free to inquire. I don’t want anything to stop that,” he said.
He also said he did not want MPs to use the inquiry as “an avenue for revenge for the expenses saga.”
“There is no intention on behalf of this government to neuter the press. There is a very good reason for Leveson and that’s the phone-hacking scandal,” he added.
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The lengths people will go to, to avoid meeting regional papoer editors …
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Why oh why are so many people spelling it Gadaffi?!
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I preferred Qadafy myself – looks more authentic – but as your comment acknowledges, the Anglicised version seems to have gained more widespread traction and it’s not really for HTFP to seek to challenge that apparent consensus!
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NOT the chicken supreme, surely to god?
Don’t tell me those thoughtless b*st*rd rebels croacked the Colonel before the chicken supreme was served.
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I’m not challenging the spelling of “Gaddafi”, I’m challenging the spelling “Gadaffi” – the only people using that version are those on Twitter!
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Surely the consensus on spelling the colonel’s name is Gaddafi. There may well be others but the only paper I’ve noticed spelling it HTFP-style as Gadaffi is the Sunday Times (and even they wobble occasionally on the number of d’s and f’s).
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Gaddafi?
Pah! That’s nothing.
I recently got a load of press releases from a police PRO with three different spellings of a missing person’s name before they settled on the right one.
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