Bush now Conrad Black’s last hope

Lord Black of Crossharbour, the former proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, who is currently residing in a Florida jail, will not be trading his prison fatigues for a pinstripe suit anytime soon. Yesterday, he lost his appeal against convictions for fraud and obstructing the course of justice, meaning that he will now almost certainly serve the six-and-a-half prison sentence handed out to him last year.

The judge at the appeals court in Chicago ruled that Lord Black had, contrary to what his defence lawyers claimed, engaged in "a conventional fraud", siphoning off $6.1m by inserting bogus clauses into deals relating to his company Hollinger.

Commentators claim that Black has one last "get out of jail free" card to play - he could ask the outgoing President George W Bush for a pardon, however the peer, until now, has always brushed aside this suggestion.