Latest developments in Birmingham have the beleaguered Labour-run council getting let off the hook by central government. It’s not just the rape gang inquiries that are being quietly dropped…
Back in April last year Michael Gove announced a statutory inquiry under the Local Government Act into the council’s financial mismanagement, including failing to roll out an IT system in a debacle that auditors said would set taxpayers back “at least £90 million in excess of the original budget.“ Labour thinks that’s not worth it anymore…
LocalGov reports that “Angela Rayner has dropped government plans for a statutory inquiry that would have investigated Labour-run Birmingham City Council’s failed rollout of an IT system… a council insider confirmed this would no longer go ahead.“ Under the carpet it goes – along with the bins…
Over the weekend the Sunday Mirror published pictures of Michael Gove engaging in a modest and momentary public display of affection in a restaurant. Their application for a Pulitzer Prize will have to wait…
Mikey Smith, the hack in question, hit ‘publish’. The SW1 reaction came in. Not from adoring fans or rival newsdesks begging for publication rights – but instead from everyone on X who saw no public interest and couldn’t have cared less. In fact, it was a total self-own from the Mirror, as the backlash was ferocious…
“This is not news“, said one punter. “You people are ghastly” said another. Owen Jones called it “trash” (proving a broken clock is right twice a day). Even – checks notes – Labour MP Shaun Davies asked the question the Sunday Mirror obviously didn’t: “Why does this matter?” Reach PLC is looking for further job cuts and hires who will do more with less – any of the online commenters over the weekend would have shown better judgement than their current crew…
On October 17th the Spectator’s new editor Michael Gove publicly backed Kamala Harris on a BBC podcast. It caused a bit of a splash…
During an age in which the news outlet endorsement is dying out this struck media sources as a questionable choice – especially as the Spectator has been putting lots of hard-fought effort into its US expansion since 2019. All while Gove refused to back Badenoch on the record because “the Spectator doesn’t back candidates, it backs causes”…
Expansion into a market like the US’ as a right-leaning British magazine is difficult enough. US Editor Freddy Gray has written a piece today describing Trump as an “American titan,” eloquently setting out the President-elect’s appeal:
“But the Donald was only ever down, not out. ‘Trump fatigue’, as people called it, turned out to be a mirage and the Trump of 2024 is jubilant, albeit exhausted, having accomplished his extraordinary re-election mission. ‘I’ll never be doing a rally again, can you believe it,’ he said in his victory speech, sounding truly sad. But, he added, ‘success is going to bring us together’. Whatever else you think of him, it would be hard not to admit that Trump has grit. He has survived eight years of the most brutal political warfare – two impeachments, two assassination attempts, four criminal indictments, endless media ridicule and opprobrium – and emerged victorious again. He has won back the presidency.“
Media sources say Gove’s intervention is “embarrassing” seeing as Trump has just scored so well with Americans on his way back to the White House. His supporters make up the majority of the American voting public. Having the editor publicly oppose him as “evil” may not endear the magazine to those potential readers…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”