Even the Today programme could not ignore the Labour donor row this morning.
The blogger who came to their editorial defence yesterday when I criticised them for playing down the biggest political sotry of the year had as little editorial judgement and news sense as the programme he was defending.
If even the “Today” programme has to give this story some attention, you have to conclude this is big news and is changing the political climate in an important way.
John Humphrys this morning showed little enthusiaism for the story but did ask some of the questions he needed to to stay in touch with where the political and media worlds are going.
He also revealed his insouciance towards free enterprise by misquoting the extent of the Stock market rise yesterday and by saying he could not understand why Stock markets went up when the economics news was bleak. The answer, John, is simple. Markets look ahead. They understand the current problems. Buyers believe the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, led by the Fed, will cut interest rates substantially to get things moving in a positive direciton again. Cheaper money would be good for business. Sellers look to the remaining bad news to come out as the credit crunch unfolds.Sometimes the buyers win. Markets usually move off the bottom long before the bad news is all out of the way.
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November 30, 2007
Newsnight is from the same stable as Today. It is most encouraging how the anchors have all adopted the same tone of voice that they once used on "the tooories" under John Major.
So, things can only get better! (At last).
November 30, 2007
John Humphrys did however mutter "this story seems to STILL be in the news"…
November 30, 2007
John,
Slightly off topic but I have a question for you.
There are a million voices now asking for Gordon Brown's head on a stick. He's sunk with or without Cameron's input. Elections are lost and not won.
I guess the challenge for Cameron is to shape a credible looking alternative and somehow stay above the melee that Brown is stuck in. How should he do that? You sometimes do spoof political advice briefings for Brown. Maybe you could do one for Cameron on how to position himself and the Conservatives for election victory and how to play PMQs for maximum electoral advantage.
Reply: Maybe one day – but I don't want to give my best advice away – I can give it directly to Cameron!
November 30, 2007
The 'Today' programme, is one thing, and
'The World at One' is another. An investigation into the political bias on the latter programme would be worthwhile. It has been a NuLab mouthpiece for years, but the exclusion of Conservative Party comment during the present 'Donorgate' sleaze has been quite extraordinary. There has been a constant succession of Labour MPs and others seeking damage limitation, but where are the Oppostion voices?
Reply: thanks for the tip off. There are not enough hours in the day for me to be able to monitor The World at One as well as Today. I and others would be happy to go if asked.
November 30, 2007
I'm really struggling to understand Labour's defence on this issue. They did not know that certain actions were against the law, and yet they were the ones who passed the legislation! Bearing in mind they (apparently) don't understand their own laws, I have to ask, are these the best possible people to subject a bill to parliamentary scrutiny much less draft primary legislation?