Tough questions

Mission creep was always a danger for Obiter’s friend Lord Justice Leveson (pictured). It was maybe there from the very moment the prime minister decided that a little local trouble with endemic phone hacking at News of the World merited a wide-ranging look at the relationship between media, politicians and the police. Proof-positive of the enormous pressure on the inquiry to look ever wider was a sign pinned to the railings of the Royal Courts of Justice this week. ‘LEVESON IGNORES FUKUSHIMA MEDIA COVER UP’ may not yet have the same resonance among seasoned hacks as ‘the shots came from the grassy knoll!’ But consider this superficial test: Obiter typed the words ‘Fukushima Leveson’ into Google, and found it had generated over 20 million hits. The knoll – the nub of four decades of Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories – gets a paltry 218,000. Obiter thinks Leveson’s job may not be as easy as it looks. Or is this angle worth a couple of inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC’s more open-ended questions to the right witness?