Pity the presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. They had an interview lined up with chancellor George Osborne lined up for the flagship 8.10am slot on Thursday – but they were kept waiting for almost 10 minutes. Justin Webb launched into a lengthy preamble about Wednesday’s budget, before announcing “George Osborne is in the radio car … Mr Osborne, can you hear me? Ooh, there is silence. Hold on just one second – we need to be able to find him, otherwise it will be a reasonably short conversation. There is complete silence at the moment. Let’s just pause while we try to find Mr Osborne. We’ll get the radio car up – he’s certainly there.” Webb then turned to business correspondent Simon Jack to fill the gap as producers tried to get Osborne on air. When he still couldn’t get through after five minutes’ conversation, assistant political editor Norman Smith was brought in to provide yet more analysis, until Osborne finally appeared on the line from Lancashire, almost 10 minutes late. Was Osborne playing had to get? Or were gremlins in the BBC system getting revenge for the chancellor’s £750m raid on the corporation’s funding? Monkey would love to know.
