There is an unhealthy stink of hypocrisy when Labour MPs act all outraged about the Tories briefing hacks on an announcement before going to Parliament.
Shadow Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw in particular had a face like a supply teacher chiding a six year old in the House when the issue came up just now.
The problem is I had loads of early briefings with Labour ministers and secretaries of state, and no one was ever forcing them to do it.
At no point did they come to the briefing and pronounce that despite having arranged it themselves, it absolutely could not go ahead because of their duty to inform Parliament first.
Press briefings before big announcements were a key part of the Labour way of doing things, now they may well be a key part of the Tory way of doing things.
I can understand if new members on the Labour benches want to change things, but if they’re going to do it credibly they need to have a little honesty as to how the status quo came about.
Wednesday 30 June 2010
A brief quibble...
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1 comment:
That Ben Bradshaw's still got the Culture brief (albeit in Opposition) shows the hilarious paucity of talent within the Labour party. Remember on Question Time when Bradshaw admitted that, before the extradition controversy, he'd never even heard of Roman Polanski?
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