HOW is the release of Abu Qatada conducive to the public good?

This loathsome individual really is having a laugh, milking the UK taxpayer for all it’s worth and manipulating the legal system he seeks to undermine.

The European Court of Human Rights, whose silliness underpins all this, clearly has a very different idea of what constitutes justice than the bulk of my constituents.

The Home Secretary, to her very great credit, has gone the extra mile in ensuring this person will not be abused when deported. No other jurisdiction could have done more and most would have ended this charade years ago.

The Government is right to appeal. I look forward, more in hope than expectation, to some judicial common sense and an early flight out for Mr Qatada.

Mr Entwistle had to resign over the BBC’s Newsnight programme. The media isn’t the Committee of Public Safety circa 1790 and really cannot be allowed to summarily guillotine people’s reputations.

Lord McAlpine is probably capable of suing the BBC in a major way, and I hope he does, but not everyone is able to fight the mighty and increasingly feral British media.

As for Mr Entwistle’s payoff, the corporation’s chairman Chris Patten has shown how out of touch he is in green-lighting such an unwarranted chunk of licence fee payers’ money.