You know a failing government is losing the plot when it starts to blame the media for literally all of its problems. Under new spin supremo Tim Allan, No10 is blind to the main cause of its unpopularity which is, er, ‘the boss’ Keir Starmer himself…
First there was the long-read tantrum by Starmer’s hagiographer Tom Baldwin earlier this month. The potty-mouthed former Times hack ranted at the navel-gazing of the lobby (fair enough) but lost it at days “filled with stories about leaks” and a general focus on the government’s incompetence. As Guido asked at the time, has the Government tried not being s*it?
Now boomer Blair-era outrider Peter Hyman – a close associate of Baldwin and Allan – has posted on Substack:
“Journalism is about questions. And over time, particularly in politics, they have changed. Political interviews have become far more about the Westminster bubble not the real world. Journalists are too often chasing a gotcha moment, trying to get a response to the ‘story of the day’, wanting, ‘a good clip for socials,’ or trying to get the next juicy nugget of the political soap opera. All of this has the underlying question: “Why is this lying b*stard lying to me?” (in Jeremy Paxman’s words) – and assumes the public have no interest in substance.”
The Starmer press operation is disappearing up its own backside…
Speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC 5 Live, Shabana Mahmood was asked what the naughtiest thing she has ever done is:
“I think I took a drag on a cigarette when I was a teenager, when I shouldn’t have done, but it did trigger an asthma attack. And so I figured that was God telling me, don’t smoke.”