It took a literal pandemic for the Government to end its boycott of the BBC’s Today Programme.
For more than two months following the 2019 general election, ministers refused to appear as part of a protest against the corporation’s perceived Remain bias.
That was until 3 March 2020, when then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock went on to warn that some new virus called Covid-19 was possibly about to swamp the nation.
Fast forward the best part of two years and, as the Omicron variant appears to be waning, with experts suggesting the UK may have a ‘flu-like’ relationship with the virus by the end of the year, ministers are again preparing to go to the mattresses.
I stand by my assertion a few weeks ago that not everything is a ‘dead cat’ – a dramatic distraction from the ‘real’ story. But an argument with the BBC does rather seem like something Boris Johnson wants to have over, say, 700 more news cycles relating to lockdown parties in Downing Street.
The tricky part is, as with the Queen, people do like the BBC, albeit they are somewhat cooler on paying the licence fee. My other query about this so-called ‘red meat’ strategy is that, if you plan to tell Tory backbenchers and Conservative associations things they want to hear, isn’t it odd to pre-brief that it is expedience, rather than ideology that is driving you?
Elsewhere in the paper, Amazon has abandoned its plan to ban Visa credit cards on its UK website only days before the policy was due to come into effect.
In the comment pages, economist Stephen King reckons we’re doing better than Germany, but warns of trouble ahead.
Meanwhile, award-winning British designer Thomas Heatherwick writes that legendary architect Richard Rogers’s legacy is courage and kindness — we need more of it.
And finally, if you’re reading this around 4pm, congratulations – you’ve nearly made it through the most depressing day of the year. So you probably don’t need Phoebe Luckhurst’s survival guide, but you’ll still want to read it.
