Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question ...

Gag defeated by press, web users and MPs.

Trafigura is a Swiss-based multinational company founded in 1993 trading in base metals and energy, including oil, which has been named or involved in several scandals, especially in Africa.

Efforts by the law firm Carter-Ruck to stop reporting of a Commons question about Trafigura have outraged MPs on all sides.

In Australia, whose institutions still pride themselves on an antiquated obsession with aspects of English gagging, suppression orders do retain a certain mystique. They certainly do in the Australian...