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In the run up to him becoming prime minister Gordon Brown penned Courage. The book is a paean to eight of the most foremost exponents of that most enviable of virtues. It’s a useful yardstick. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help thinking of Gordon’s book when I read reports of his own displays of courage:

Gordon Brown has demanded the scrapping of longstanding plans for a clampdown on newspapers that illegally buy personal data, such as health, bank and telephone records, the Guardian has learned. This has provoked criticism that he has bowed to pressure from the media.

The Prime Minister’s reason for doing so is a peach. The government doesn’t want to hurt journalists, it wants to help them.

Peers were recently told by one minister, Lord Hunt, that Brown was concerned “to make sure that legitimate investigative journalism is not impeded”.

Which makes me begin to think I must have hallucinated the last eleven years. I clearly recall this government attempting to thwart ‘legitimate investigative journalism’ at every opportunity.

I remember there being some fuss about allegations that were made by some guy called Andrew Gilligan. But that can’t be right because the government doesn’t want to impede legitimate investigative journalism.

I also remember the government being somewhat lacklustre, stonewalling, and regardless of the spirit and the letter of its own Freedom of Information laws. But that can’t be right either because that behaviour would also impede legitimate investigative journalism.

I’m sure Members of Parliament are very unhappy about plans to release details of how they spend tax-payers’ money. But nobody wants to impede legitimate investigative journalism so I must have that wrong as well.

The Tories, of course, in a show of the tenacious and vociferous opposition for which they are rightly respected (not the effete, self-serving and ineffectual opposition of popular perception) are up in arms about all this. No, sorry, I got that wrong. They’re down in arms about this.

That may or may not have something to do with the Conservative Party’s director of communications being Andy Coulson. He may or may not be the same Andy Coulson who resigned as editor of News of the World after his royal correspondent went to jail for illegally intercepting telephone calls.

So we shouldn’t castigate the Prime Minister for a perceived lack of courage, or Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition for appearing to be unworthy of the name. It’s all about creating a level playing field for legitimate investigative journalism not our elected representatives abasing themselves before the venal demands of newspaper owners and editors.

I’m sure we’ll be reminded of that the second personal details of a minister or shadow minister, obtained by shady practices, turn up in the Sunday tabloids. To fail to do so would be a betrayal of the courage Gordon Brown wants to see in all of us.