The Gloves Are Off In The Battle For Democracy.

In the red corner, Labour are toying with fairer votes, u-turning on privacy laws that protect the public from the Daily Mail et al and offering Murdoch a slice of the BBC.

In the blue corner, the Tories are upping the ante - abolish the impartiality of broadcast news, also slice up the BBC and fiddle with the boundaries of our dysfunctioning electoral system and cynically pretend it is fair to do so.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the next general election could be the last held under any pretence of democracy.

We already have a press that is the shame of the world, now our TV and radio news which is still highly regarded, could also be heading for the scrapheap.