Friends like these
State-funded gossip Nick Robinson gives us the inside track on the new tensions between Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street…
The chancellor has told his friends that he could do nothing about the 10p tax problem because Gordon Brown was still in denial about it.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were to confide in my ‘friends’ about my troubles at work and their first reaction was to inform the BBC, they wouldn’t be my bloody ‘friends’ for very much longer.
But then it could be that ‘friends’ is more of the code that Robinson likes to use to show us how important he is and how excluded we are from the intrigue at the heart of the nation. ‘Friends’ in this instance are very likely to be flunkies of Alistair Darling sanctioned to have a whisper in Robinson’s ear, much like those anonymous ’sources’ that Robinson also likes to brag about.
Robinson, needless to say, can’t tell us who these ’sources’ and ‘friends’ are because his job and, it seems, the very conduct of government business is dependent on whispered second hand ‘he said’s and ’she said’s. Introduce an open and honest dialogue between adults into this equation and stop treating the voting public like imbeciles and who knows what the hell kind of catastrophe might be visited upon us. Robinson being reduced to a common or garden curtain twitcher rather than a tax payer-funded political one would just be for starters.
It’s just another sign of the disconnect between the public and the policital classes. Who else talks like that? Try going home tonight and saying to your other half, ’sources tell me we’re having egg and chips for tea this evening’ or ‘friends of my mother have let it be known today that she’s coming round for Sunday lunch’. You’ll sound like a right tit.
‘I understand…’ is another one. ‘I understand that the Prime Minister is doing all he can to resolve the crisis,’ Robinson will intone to the camera like a obsequious puppy with delusions of gravitas. What he means is that ‘friends’ or ’sources’ have tipped him the wink and Robinson is doing his bit for the eternal propaganda battle on behalf of this minister or that.
Again, try going home tonight and saying to your partner, ‘I understand my spouse has let friends know that he/she is angry at recent developments. Sources tell me I left my underpants on the bathroom floor again this morning’. The slap in the chops you’ll doubtlessly receive will be richly deserved.
Robinson clearly sees himself as an important man whereas he actually appears to be the eager-to-please middle man in a game of Chinese Whispers between two supposedly grown men whose relationship bears all the signs of degenerating into yet another playground spat. I understand from sources that this is the way to run the country in the 21st century.
Posted on June 27th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
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Filed under Culture, media and sport, New Labour, UK politics |
Michael Crick’s report on Caroline Spelman last night was full of ‘I understand…’, though he did at least come up with a named source (thought it wasn’t clear whether she’d spoken directly to Crick, which might account for the convoluted formulation)
I couldn’t agree more. His snivelling creepy crawly blog frequently incences me - pointless pap that I object to being forced to pay for.
Elusive Pimpernel’s latest blog post… Lisbon Treaty Petition
Congratulations, I will now endeavour to reference this post whenever the issue of the media talking down to us arises.
Even bloggers should be scolded when acting on such gossipy little tip-bits, let alone a BBC chap.
devolute’s latest blog post… San Franciscans show dry wit in political matters
I am led to understand that that this is a very entertaining post.
I understand the BBC has a policy on anonymous sources however they do seem to be getting used an awful lot. In the quoted section here, he uses an anonymous source to give us the most trivial piece of information, which we all know is probably nothing more than the Chancellor briefing against the PM whilst maintaining deniability.
I feel that anonymity should be reserved for serious, significant information and when journalists are approached by politicians just trying to smear others they should tell them to fuck off and find somebody else to do their dirty work. The American media seems to deal with anonymous sources much more seriously
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3677/is_200704/ai_n25137498.
Well said. Robinson also plays the same silly obsequious game with the conservatives. I am given to understand that he is very concerned about making sure he is “in” with the next government because his smoke and mirrors act (to disguise the triteness of his observations) depends on portraying himself as an insider.
No office politics where you work, then? No conversations like “I heard that Jason is being moved to work as Brian’s assistant”?
Lobby talk is like office talk: mainly lies or chinese whispers. Take it or leave it. Anyone remember when the Independent was launched and the editor announced that they wouldn’t employ a lobby correspondent? Political news in the Independent would be devoid of gossip and thoroughly bland. How long did that last?
No office politics where you work, then? No conversations like “I heard that Jason is being moved to work as Brian’s assistant”?
I work at home on me Jack Jones, so no. I suppose I could start talking to myself: ‘Sources tell you Justin that it’s time for a tom tit’ but it lacks the spirit of Richelieu that Nick Robinson is trying to evoke.
Lobby talk is like office talk: mainly lies or chinese whispers. Take it or leave it.
But don’t you think that when this is the filter through which those us who care how this country is run get the inside skinny, somebody needs a kick in the pants? This is the government not who boffed who at the office party.
I work at home on me Jack Jones, so no. I suppose I could start talking to myself: ‘Sources tell you Justin that it’s time for a tom tit’ but it lacks the spirit of Richelieu that Nick Robinson is trying to evoke.
If, however, Robinson rendered his office gossip in faux-Cockney slang, I for one would take out a cable subscription in order to be able to watch it.
ejh’s latest blog post… Away fan
Private Eye has pointed out on a number of occasions that when newspapers referred to “friends of David Blunkett” in their stories they almost always meant that they had been talking to DB himself. Probably because he doesn’t have any friends.
.66p for Liz to wash her drawers per day in the backyard of Hyde Park. £139.50 per annum for Nick to squit his controlled diahorea at the taxpayers expense.
Wait - my entire license fee goes on Nick Robinson? But who’s paying for all those episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps?
Sources tell me to stop moaning, because if I happen to hate ex-Hollyoaks actors being unfunny or bald men with statement specs wittering on about Westminster gossip I can just wait for the next episode of MeeBox, The Mighty Boosh or something with David Attenborough looking fascinated while strange creatures hump each other. They also tell me to consider for a moment just how much is got out of that license fee - something above 1,500 hours of broadcasting a day, much of it original, without any advertising - and just what an insanely impressive technical achievement that is.
(Disclaimer: The BBC used to pay me for stuff. Not any more, though.)
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I’d forgive Robinson if he could start an actual playground spat between the two.
Psst, Nicky says Alistair and Gordon are having a fight by the slide at noon. Pass it on!
As a result of this post I’m going to adopt exactly this mode of conversation with the long-suffering Mrs F.
And when I tell her I’m off for a pony I shall instruct her to inform the media.
fatboyfat’s latest blog post… 57 varieties of stupid
I`ve never been a Nick Robbo fan, nor of Andrew Marr before him - whenever I see or hear either of these two smirking and chuckling on about who said what to whom about who, I just mentally switch off. Both Robinson’s reports and Marr’s Politics show are redolent with a kind of affable mateyness which makes we think that I`m just not getting a committed, clear-eyed perspective on the nation’s political matters. There’s a great deal going on that is not in the least bit amusing yet Nicko and Andy still indulge in their nudgenudge, winkwink reportage. Unctuous smugpants, the both of them!
[...] cabinet minister talking to anonymous ‘friends’. (Those damned ‘friends’ again.) That’s some going. I’m wondering how you top it. No doubt state-funded gossip Nick [...]