It’s armageddon for the Remainer dinner party alliance, so spare a thought for them on this cold Monday morning. The resignations of both Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have them playing all the greatest hits as they attempt to blame anyone but the BBC for its failings. It’s the populists, it’s the MAGA movement, it’s the Telegraph, it’s the forces of grievance and division, it’s those who wish to upset the delicate broadcasting ecology…
Alastair Campbell has written a 700-word diatribe in ‘The New World’ (a rebrand of The New European, apparently) in which he attacks “the hard right populists and their corrupt media allies” for a “campaign” against the BBC, and claims they “hate it because they can’t control it“. He then laments the BBC’s supposedly incessant coverage of Farage and Reform. You’d think there’s a contradiction there for Bad Al, but seemingly not…
Former Sun Editor David Yelland is also struggling to cope. He spent last night tweeting about the “populists” and “cabal of toxic plotters”, declaring it a bad day “for our values [and] our country”. He said the same on Radio 4 this morning. This was a view shared by Emily Maitlis, who retweeted Yelland’s screed and announced a short delay to The News Agents’ emergency podcast because the story is “far more complicated” than anyone else understands. Maitlis, Sopel and Goodall should have it figured out by this afternoon…
The day after Starmer U-turned and refused to blame Trump for the war Rachel Reeves told the Mirror:
“Obviously no sensible person is a supporter of the Iranian regime, but to start a conflict without being clear what the objectives are and not being clear about how you are going to get out of it, I do think that is a folly and it is one that is affecting families here in the UK but also families in the US and around the world.”