Physician heal thyself
James Forsyth 8:23am
After Nick Clegg yesterday, it was David Cameron’s turn to do The Today Programme pre-local election interview this morning. John Humphrys was in particularly combative form, interrupting at every opportunity. But the whole technique descended into farce when Humprhys asked Cameron if he had failed to meet his promise to end Punch and Judy politics. Cameron, whose PMQs performances are pure Punch and Judy, admitted that he hadn’t. But Humphrys harried him so much that Cameron could not get out his explanation for why he had not been able to keep this promise. The irony of this seemed lost on Humphrys.
Admittedly, Cameron is a master at turning the tables on the interviewer, remember his interview with Jeremy Paxman back in 2005. But this morning performance by Humphrys—with its obligatory reference to the Bullingdon Club—failed to elicit anything interest either in terms of policy or Cameron’s character; the whole Punch and Judy act seemed rather stale this morning. We shall see how Humphrys does with the Prime Minister tomorrow morning.
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Comments
cjcjc
April 29th, 2008 8:59amWasn't it Naughtie - Gordon's best friend - doing the interview?
Faceless Bureaucrat
April 29th, 2008 10:08amDoesn't really matter who conducted the interview - the BBC's left-wing bias is now so endemic that they could have sent in the Cleaner to do the interviewing and got the same biased result...
Air on a G String
April 29th, 2008 10:19amThere is obviously a pressing need to investigate Humphrys' poverty-stricken youth. All these years we've been lured into believing that he is a venerable journalist with many years' experience. If a photograph or anecdote exists about what he was up to in his teens and twenties that shows him in a less than flattering light it will become clear that in truth he is a rather an unsavory character who is not worthy of our attention.
London Calling
April 29th, 2008 10:26amI don’t think people mind a little bit of Punch & Judy, but can we have the Ice-cream and the deckchairs to go with it? Only the Sand of Politics is getting in our eyes and has become quite abrasive.
Millions of eyes are watching, don’t give us a poor performance,please, otherwise we shall all be demanding our money back :0
Chuck Unsworth
April 29th, 2008 10:30amI was surprised by Humphrys. He really didn't do very well at all this morning. Interrupting and talking over each of Cameron's responses was remarkably unprofessional. Normally, when he manages to keep himself in check, Humphrys' robust approach is useful and revealing. But to do that well you've at least got to allow some sort of response - otherwise why bother to have Cameron on anyway? And all that garbage about the Bullingdon was really pathetic - a very slender issue to try to hang a political point on. Maybe we should just be grateful that usually Humphrys gets it just about right.
Paul
April 29th, 2008 11:31amCriticism of a "Punch and Judy" politician from a "Punch and Judy" interviewer
Ian C
April 29th, 2008 3:35pmUnprofessional is what Humphrys does. never worth listening to an interview of his as he cannot let anyone answer a question.
Fergus Pickering
April 29th, 2008 5:56pmI thought Cameron was excellent. He was confident, never lost his cool and wrong-footed Humphrys on Punch and Judy with his mea culpa Of course the Beeb don't get it. They think they've got Cameron to admit he lied. But they don't get anything much. I quite like Humphrys usually but he was useless this morning and lost at least six nil.
David Lindsay
April 29th, 2008 6:10pmJohn Humphrys, please note, asked Cameron about the prospect of Bullingdon Club members as all three of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mayor of London this Friday. Clearly, as far as the Beeb is concerned, the Heir To Blair is already Prime Minister.
But the Bullingdon Club is Cameron's big problem just waiting to happen. There are two years between now and the Election. Plenty of time for a long-suffering Oxfordshire publican to tell them where the can stick their money, he'll see them in court. And then the dominoes really will start to fall.
Imagine if a group of boys aged 18 to 21 on a council estate set up something like that. They'd all be sent to prison, and rightly so.
Oscar Miller
April 29th, 2008 8:13pmEntirely agree with Fergus. Cam outsmarted horrible Humphrys in two ways - Yes he wrongfooted him but he also announced he was dumping the 'no P&J' tactic that has been a weight round his neck since he announced it - with the BBC supplying free publicity. Now no-one can bleat - 'but I thought you wanted to end Punch and Judy politics' everytime he lays into Brown at PMQs. Excellent.
Fergus Pickering
April 30th, 2008 6:07amSorry, David Lindsay, what exactly did the Bullingdon Club do in the Oxfordshire pub? Drink? Break things? Did they pay for them later? Was anyone beaten up? Or was it just normal yoof behaviour? Perhaps you never did such things but I sure as hell did. In fact one of the many problems withBroon is that he so evidently didn't. Of course I take it all back if you can show me Cameron going round beating seven bells out of the Oxfordshire citizenry. That would certainly be very disgraceful.