As the evening drew in yesterday and the rain began to fall, the Government announced its intention to impose regulations on the Press after months of dithering. This morning I woke to hear Labour's Harriet Harman tell Radio 4's Today Programme that the Press could no longer be allowed to mark their own homework. The fact that the campaigning group, Hacked Off, is also pleased is equally worrying. I was delighted to read that Spectator editor Fraser Nelson has reacted by saying "press being regulated by politicians is like allowing the foxes to regulate the chicken coop". I could not have put it better. I believe this is the slippery slope to more regulation of our so-called free Press, already answerable to criminal, libel and defamation laws. It's interesting to note that after I'd spoken out against further press regulation in the Chamber this week, I was interviewed on Russia's equivalent to the BBC shortly afterwards. I suspect they simply could not believe that a country like ours was even contemplating going down this route, let alone implementing it. A short while ago, Mr Cameron said statutory underpinning of a Royal Charter was crossing the Rubicon, as far as he was concerned. Why has he now done so? There will now no doubt be a stand-off between the Press and politicians, which is not a healthy place for a democracy to be. Please note this date; it's one that history will remember as a bad one.