"He is. It isn't" - a fair cop, that is. So concluded the left-wing press on the removal from his post of Commander Brian Paddick while the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into allegations by a former boyfriend that Paddick had smoked cannabis and allowed the drug to be taken in his home. There was also the matter of the police officer having an "unlawful" relationship with the man while he was on police bail.

The right/left divide in the press was as wide as it was predictable after the Mail on Sunday ran the kiss-and-sell story from Paddick's former lover of five years, James Renolleau. To the Sun, he was "Commander Crackpot", a man "brought down not by homophobia, but by his own arrogance". The Mirror claimed that the "remarkably successful" officer would be a "serious loss" even if he were found guilty of the alleged offences. The paper implied a gay witch-hunt.

The Telegraph described Paddick's private life as "an unnecessary distraction" to the business of fighting crime; the Mail said his position had become untenable. To the Guardian, he was "our kind of cop" while the Independent argued that "the story has become the excuse for a bit of gay-slagging". This sentiment was shared by the officer himself, who claimed he had become a target for "right-wing homophobes" (why do people think homophobes exist only on the right?). All of which conveniently obscured the rather sobering fact that this police officer was being investigated for breaking the law.

Those who belong to minority or traditionally oppressed groups have at some stage resorted to the defence of "you're only saying/doing that because I'm . . . [fill in any of the following: a woman, Asian, black, gay, a New Zealander, etc]". And we know that sometimes this has been true, and sometimes it has not. The mere assertion of prejudice does not guarantee its existence.

Few would disagree that some form of positive discrimination is necessary in the liberation of any oppressed group; but at what point should this stop, and the oppressed group be judged on the same grounds as everyone else?

Would Paddick not have been better advised to stand on his impressive record fighting drug crime and argue that the laws on cannabis needed changing, rather than claiming that it was all a homophobic plot?

There can be no automatic assumption of homophobic guilt simply because the critic - whether a man or woman, tabloid editor or fellow police officer - is heterosexual.

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It's so good, they had to name it twice - the Mirror as Newspaper of the Year, of course. The winners at the annual British Press Awards were quick to trumpet their success and raced into print that night. The Guardian (four awards, including one for its 12 September front page) praised itself and the Mirror. The Telegraph (three awards) praised itself and the Sunday Telegraph. The Mirror praised only itself, and who can blame it?

On the night, Piers Morgan, the editor of the Mirror, was less than gentlemanly to its rival the Sun. A series of hand gestures featuring raised fingers was observed by the few who, by that time of the night, were sober enough to notice.

One worrying sign for the industry: the boycott by the Express titles, which neither attended nor entered the competition.

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Kate Adie is the nation's third-favourite news presenter, according to an Independent Television Commission study. She is employed by the BBC for a reported £400,000 a year to present a half-hour show on Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent - during which she speaks, albeit beautifully, for about two minutes. That works out at about £2,000 a second and makes her probably the most expensive "old trout" in the world. Surely, the time has come to put Adie back on the box, where she belongs - or sack her.

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John Humphrys's On the Record interview with Clare Short should be made compulsory viewing for all wannabe political interviewers. With eloquence and elegance, Humphrys demonstrated the long-forgotten art of the civilised political interchange. Without hectoring and with an absence of disdain, he proved that you do not have to resort to the bully-boy tactics of the playground to get a decent story and a piece of compelling television out of a politician. As the debate about the future of the BBC's political coverage continues amid fears of dumbing down, here was a prime (but not prime-time) example of how good old-fashioned journalism and mutual respect deliver quality television.

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Margaret Thatcher's fondness for old movies took a new twist this week with the Times's serialisation of her book, Statecraft. Her last self-styled appearance was during the 2001 election campaign in "The Return of the Mummy". Now she was back as Mommie Dearest, tormenting her political offspring with highly intemperate language about the perils of Nazism and mainland Europe, this at a time when the E-word is not uttered in polite Tory circles.

For anyone under the age of 40, the worst things about Germany are a propensity to thrash us at football and a proclivity for nicking our sunbeds on holiday.

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