It’s that time of year again: violence in the Holy Land, the Greeks defeated, oil shortages in general. It may be Channukah on Saturday but the outlook is a bit bleak, so why not treat yourself to a glance over this year’s catalogue of Gabriel Festive Innovations!
Time for a miracle? Middle East update.
So Farewell Then Lord Justice Leveson
It’s a bit heartbreaking; m’learned friend Lord Justice Leveson has finished his Inquiry and unless I end up in court some day, I am unlikely ever again to hear his dulcet tones.
That said, as the end came it was a bit of an anti-climax. His proposals weren’t particularly groundbreaking, and in fact the plan is pretty similar to that which came out of Australia’s similar process in 2011, the Finkelstein Inquiry. (Obviously senior Jewish judges are the only people eligible to conduct inquiries into media regulation.)
Leveson suggests a system of self-regulation – to which, fortunately enough, this blog will not be subject – with “statutory underpinning.”
‘Underpinning’ is one of those words which entered the English language in the space of about a week. Nobody ever used it before rumours about the Leveson Report started circulating, and nobody will ever use it again in any context. Cf. step aside, v., to resign but less so, and omnivoreshambles, n., an aborted badger cull.
A balanced look at Monday’s news
Lighting the Channukah Campbells
Handing straight over to the most senior politician ever to have guest-edited this blog: he has a bit of a festive greeting.
Afterword
That’s all for the moment. In the meantime, Gabrielquotes offers its readers a hearty chag sameach and a happy, unregulated Channukah with joyful underpinning.
Gabrielquotes 
A belated ‘good blog’. I bet not many of your readers/listeners knew that you had a 1970s track by The Klezmorin playing under Sir GC. Where did you get it from?