Shami Chakrabarti was asked once again if Corbyn had offered her a peerage on Newsnight, her response to Kirsty Wark’s question is bad tempered to say the least:

Chakrabarti: “Well I don’t know Kirsty, are you going to take one?”

Wark: “Well I haven’t been offered one, have you?”

Chakrabarti: “Many times”

Assume that’s a yes then…

There’s been an outbreak of jingoistic fervour among media luvvies following yesterday’s announcement that Japan’s Nikkei bought the FT for £844 million.

First there was a glorious moment on Newsnight last night when Kirsty Wark felt the need to assure Will Hutton “I’m not suggesting you’re a racist at all” as she questioned his line that foreign owners of British media might not have the correct “purpose“.

Wark: What you seem to be suggesting is, that there should be some kind of imperial protectionism here

Hutton: I’m not suggesting that at all, what I’m saying is…

Wark: I’m not suggesting you’re a racist at all

This morning we have the odd declaration on the Guardian‘s front page that it is “British based” and “British owned“. Complete with a Union Jack Flag..

Odd when you consider that the Guardian wins its prized Pulitzers in the US and keeps its assets untaxed in the Cayman Islands…

Andy Burnham’s car crash with Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark is well worth a watch:

A very tetchy Shadow Health Secretary began the interview by admitting “there is a role for the private sector”, then piled into the Tories for putting “all services” at the hands of the market. As Kirsty politely pointed out, only 6% of NHS services have been outsourced to the private sector, and the vast majority of that was done by Burnham’s Labour government:

When Wark asked for “a straight answer” on how much Labour would allow to be outsourced – “a number, a number please” – Burnham refused, saying: “I’m not going to put a number on it” and that responsibility for this was at local level. The Tory outsourcing so aggressively decried by Burnham is just 1.5% more than he implemented, and he won’t even commit to reducing it. 

Perhaps Burnham’s bad mood was something to do with this morning’s front pages, which report Labour figures have responded to his big speech yesterday by laying into the party’s NHS strategy.

As Miliband centres Labour’s election campaign on the NHS, public satisfaction is at an all time high…