Gordon Rayner is The Telegraph’s political editor, today his byline was on a story claiming that “new advertisements have started appearing yesterday following criticism that the Government slogan was too vague”. An astonished government source tells Guido “Gordon is a moron, Telegraph executives helped devise the campaign, taxpayers just paid for it”.
It is not a government campaign, it is a backdoor subsidy for financially desperate newspapers to keep them alive. The campaign was created by the dead tree press trade body Newsworks, who explain in a press release:
“Branded content ran in today’s papers and online with the words “keep our distance, wash our hands, think of others and play our part” highlighted the heartfelt stories that show how the country is working together.
Sponsored stories include everything from a school trust delivering food hampers to the families most at need in Yorkshire (via the The Telegraph) to a team of engineers aiming to supply an incredible 10,000 ventilators within 100 days to hospitals across the country, something that would have normally taken over two years (via Kent Online).
The “All in, all together” campaign idea was developed by the newspaper industry as a way of delivering government communications in an intimate, human and compassionate tone that readers can relate to.”
Slagging off an advertiser in these financially challenging times for newspapers is brave. Slagging off the government for a campaign your own paper helped create is special…
Robert Peston caused a bit of a stir yesterday afternoon reporting that Theresa May was about to “do a Canada”:
“Her aspiration for after those two or perhaps three years of transition is for our future trading relationship to be what is known – in the ghastly jargon – as CETA plus… What this means is we want a trade deal modelled on Canada’s new one (CETA) with the EU, that has just become operative in interim mode, and not the more intimate integration with the EU of Norway or Switzerland. The reason we are doing a Canada is there has been no resiling from the position taken by the PM in her landmark Lancaster House speech… all of that is broadly May’s position, to be expressed tomorrow.”
May actually ruled Canada out:
“One way of approaching this question is to put forward a stark and unimaginative choice between two models: either something based on European Economic Area membership; or a traditional Free Trade Agreement, such as that the EU has recently negotiated with Canada. I don’t believe either of these options would be best for the UK or for the European Union.”
Doh!
Over at the Telegraph they has this top pre-speech scoop:
Except it didn’t come true, there was no mention of this in the speech. Boris seemed happy too, rather than on the verge of resigning. Doh!
What about all those Remain pundits who said again and again that May had dropped her view that “no deal is better than a bad deal”? Asked by Laura K, May confirmed this was still her position. Doh!
Then there was Sky’s Faisal Islam, who after the speech claimed May was “65% towards the Norway model”. Nope, you can read May’s damning verdict of Norway here. Doh!
Brexit reporting not particularly enlightening at the moment…
The Telegraph went all in with the claim that Boris Johnson was set to resign at 1pm yesterday, something both Boris and his team denied within minutes of the story being published. The original copy was swiftly and quietly deleted and replaced with the news that Boris was in fact staying and had “dismissed suggestions” he was about to quit. (Suggestions from, er, the Telegraph.) The unchanged URL address suggests it was the Telegraph rather than Boris that came back from the brink…
Telegraph’s pol-ed Gordon Rayner is claiming that Boris will resign if Theresa May goes soft on Brexit.
Boris denies it…
Two big Lobby moves which MediaGuido can announce. Gordon Rayner has been appointed political editor at the Telegraph, leaving his previous role as chief reporter to join the Lobby. An internal hire was inevitable. Would’ve taken silly money to convince a top hack from a rival to join the Tel…
Talking of which, Jason Groves is the new Daily Mail political editor, as tipped by MediaGudio a few weeks back. John Stevens has been promoted to deputy pol ed – he had been one of the favourites for the Sunday Times deputy job. The Mail will be pleased to have kept him out of their clutches.
