Lord Neill’s recommendation that politicians and the ad industry
should agree a new code for party political advertising may be a forlorn
hope.
Most people agree that the present system is an unsatisfactory, cobbled
compromise.
The trouble is that politicians will praise any new code when it suits
them and heartily condemn it when it doesn’t. Agreement on this one
looks as likely, or as imminent, as William Hague’s first prime
ministerial broadcast.