A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE Press Council held its first meeting this week and very sensibly appointed Colonel John Astor as its chairman. It also passed a resolution which " strongly deprecates, as contrary to the best traditions of British journalism, the holding by the Daily Mirror of a public poll in the matter of Princess Margaret and Group Captain Townsend." The Press Council could hardly have failed to take notice of what is, even for the Daily Mirror, an unusually tawdry start; but what happens now ? The Daily Mirror on the following morning published, under the plaintive headline " And Now the Press Council Attacks the Mirror" but with- out comment, the text of the resolution; and there, as far as one can see, the matter is likely to rest. Unlike (for instance) the Jockey Club, the Press Council has de jure no powers, and de facto no sanctions, with which it can give force to its decisions. It can, as it did this week, give expression—often, I suppose, rather belatedly—to the repugnance aroused in virtually everyone, inside and outside journalism, by a display of bad taste or sharp practice; and one would like to hope that in time the personal standing of its twenty-five voluntary members and the responsible way in which it is likely to con- duct its affairs will confer on it some of the authority of a Court of Honour. But this is a slightly pious hope; and a realist has only to glance at the Daily Mirror to be tempted to murmur, with Lady Teazle, " Don't you think we may as Well leave Honour out of the question ? "
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