tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post6638017509245082324..comments2023-11-14T08:19:54.657+00:00Comments on DMossEsq: Oborneiana – Theresa May and Brodie ClarkDavid Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post-70137642717962188082011-11-15T10:34:31.541+00:002011-11-15T10:34:31.541+00:00I take the point, Mr Reader. There are many classe...I take the point, Mr Reader. There are many classes of journalist. Some detectives. Some polemicists. And some mouthpieces.<br /><br />Rachel Sylvester in this morning's <i><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/rachelsylvester/article3226645.ece" rel="nofollow">Times</a></i> reproduces many of the points made on this blog, e.g. "<i>The civil servants may answer to politicians, but they also have an extraordinary power over them. Officials do not have to hang their ministers out to dry, they just let them hang themselves by not giving them all the support they need</i>".<br /><br />But then she does her mouthpiece bit: "<i>She [Theresa May] took the decision to do this [dump on Brodie Clark], I am told, against the advice of Home Office civil servants, who thought it would be wiser to hold a swift internal inquiry and establish the full facts before suspending a senior member of staff</i>".<br /><br />"I am told"?David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post-52550405921979930562011-11-13T16:43:16.993+00:002011-11-13T16:43:16.993+00:00Also, I have to tell you that the last thing anyon...Also, I have to tell you that the last thing anyone paid to commentate on politics for TV, radio or the Press actually does is find stuff out. They have servants (i.e. real real reporters) to do that for them. These rather grand chaps feel that their role is simply to interpret what's already in the public domain. They don't do what you do - i.e. dig.Torygraph Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post-87398185663258626982011-11-13T16:37:45.165+00:002011-11-13T16:37:45.165+00:00Oborne's odd. The two books of his I've re...Oborne's odd. The two books of his I've read - The Triumph of the Political Class and The Rise of Political Lying were both excellent. When he started writing for the Telgraph, I looked forward to reading his stuff as an antidote to all the Polly Filla crap silting up the rest of the paper. But he seems to have decided that, because the creeps who run the politico-media show are a bunch of lying spivs (correct) that the traditional, "men in grey suits" section of the establishment - in other words, St James's clubmen - is all that stands between us and disaster. The trouble is, as you keep pointing out, DMossEsq, they're part of the problem - maybe the major part. I suspect theirs is a milieu Oborne feels at home in - but he really needs to get over that and start laying into them, and Torygraph readers like me might actually look forward to reading his stuff, rather than doing it as a sort of duty.Torygraph Readernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post-38586745545502656852011-11-11T12:26:27.473+00:002011-11-11T12:26:27.473+00:00I share your ambivalence, as President Clinton alm...I share your ambivalence, as President Clinton almost said.<br /><br />There's <a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2011/11/whitehall-on-trials.html" rel="nofollow">more to read</a> I'm afraid.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3048449668150968412.post-10720663143480844062011-11-11T09:37:36.407+00:002011-11-11T09:37:36.407+00:00Your last two posts concerning the Theresa May-Bro...Your last two posts concerning the Theresa May-Brodie Clarke furore are both fascinating and highly informative so thank you. I can't quite make up my mind about Peter Oborne [his documentaries for Channel 4 are quite dire], but he writes sense usually and he knows a lot about cricket which indicates that his heart is in the right place.SDGnoreply@blogger.com