Jacob Rees-Mogg MP gave a wonderful speech in the House of Commons last night defending the freedom of the press and free speech. (Click here to watch it) Speaking against Lords' amendments which, if passed into law, would require newspapers to pay double court costs even if the win a libel case, Jacob said:

"We know the weakness of our local papers and how they struggle hand to mouth, but how easy would it be, for example, for my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Bill Wiggin), who is no longer in his place, to take to court the journal that he does not like because it said things about him that inaccurate? It is fair enough for him not to like them, but if an hon. Member took a local paper to court, that local paper would be insolvent, because many of them do not have powerful parents behind them. Many of them—I am thinking of some in my constituency—are run by entrepreneurial individuals trying to make a reasonable living. The threat of having to pay double costs would be sufficient to stop them printing a disagreeable story about us."