[Politics] ‘Government in death spiral’: broadcasters’ remarks on an extraordinary day in UK politics

[FazzNoth]

Absolute abject chaos. A government in its death spiral. Utter turmoil. Chaos on all fronts.

Extraordinary opening remarks from the nation’s broadcasters on yet another extraordinary day in British politics.

After Liz Truss’s latest U-turn on the pensions triple-lock at prime minister’s questions, the home secretary’s resignation, confusion around the status of the Tory party whips and allegations of manhandling in the parliamentary lobbies during a key vote, the BBC and ITV’s flagship 10pm news programmes faced the impossible task of distilling the day’s events into a succinct and punchy curtain raiser.

With the bombast of Chris Morris’s Day Today newsreader, ITV’s Tom Bradby opened the News at Ten with a bruising summary.

It has been a night of astonishing scenes at Westminster with reports of jostling, manhandling, bullying and shouting outside the parliamentary lobbies in a supposed vote of confidence in the government.

The deputy chief whip was reported to have left the scene saying, ‘I’m absolutely F-ing furious, I just don’t F-ing care any more’, before he resigned along with the chief whip. But we’ve just been told they have now officially unresigned. The home secretary has, however, definitely gone.

In short it is total absolute abject chaos.

Over on the BBC, Huw Edwards adopted his trademark sombre tone, as if he was announcing the death of another member of the royal family, yet it was the government’s demise he was relaying to the viewers at home.

Tonight at 10, chaos on all fronts for Liz Truss. The home secretary resigns and party discipline breaks down in the Commons.

Suella Braverman is out as home secretary. She admits breaking the rules on official communications but she also criticises Liz Truss. In her resignation letter, she accuses the government of losing direction and of breaking promises to voters.

In the Commons tonight, chaos and confusion in a vote on fracking revealing the depth of anger among some conservative MPs.

His opening was followed up with a pithy precis of the day in Westminster with a wounding payoff from the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason.

 

Spare a thought for Channel 4 News presenter, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, whose standout moment on a potential fateful day in politics was not for a viral polemic but for a viral on-air blunder in which he was heard off-camera calling the Northern Ireland minister and arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker a “cunt”.

Guru-Murthy was forced to apologise “unreservedly” to Baker after swearing at him in an “unguarded moment”.

The broadcaster said the remark followed a “robust interview” with Baker but it was “beneath the standards I set myself”.

From Italy to Sweden, Hungary to France, the far right is once again a force to be reckoned with. Its hostility towards immigrants encourages xenophobes everywhere, including in Belgium. Its social conservatism threatens hard-won LGBTQ+ rights. Its euroscepticism has already upset the dynamics of the EU. 

The normalisation of far right rhetoric has gone far enough. For decades, Guardian journalism has challenged populists like this, and the divisions that they sow. Fiercely independent, we are able to confront without holding back because of the interests of shareholders or a billionaire owner. Our journalism is always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful.

And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/20/government-in-death-spiral-broadcasters-remarks-on-an-extraordinary-day-in-uk-politics