THERE was a time when news of a UK prime minister resigning would have taken over several pages of newspapers and sparked wall-to-wall coverage on the likes of BBC and Sky News.
But so unremarkable was the resignation of Keir Starmer on Monday morning, within an hour or two the country had moved on. So expected was his departure for so long, there would be no period of reflection.
Of course, there was no time to lose, as an Avanti West Coast hypetrain carrying the King of the North Andy Burnham was edging closer and closer to London Euston and we couldn't miss that could we?! f
The UK media didn't seem to think so. The dust had barely settled on the Number 10 lectern and BBC News was broadcasting Burnham's train on the move from its "newscopter" as if he was travelling in a presidential motorcade.
As he got off the train, he was immediately doorstepped by reporters as he made his way through Euston before the newscopter continued to follow him in a taxi all the way to Westminster where he was sworn in as an MP.
It felt bizarre for the news agenda to have moved so fast from what should be groundbreaking news of a prime minister quitting just two years after a landslide election to following a new MP like he was a hero about to swoop in and save the country from ruin.
It looks all but certain Burnham will be prime minister but this still felt like an uncomfortable level of hype and perhaps it hammers home just how embarrassing British politics has become. This never-ending carousel of British prime ministers has become so normalised the UK media simply has to find a way to bring some drama or – as I often say – throw some magic dust on a story struggling to dazzle the public.
Burnham has nowhere near got in the Number 10 door and yet the paparazzi are all over him. The coverage had a bit of that Tony Blair 1997 feel to it, but with little justification with most of the UK not knowing much at all about the Manchester mayor about to take power of the country.
The media fuss around Burnham will feel, most of all, uncomfortable for Scots, who likely know little about him and yet have to endure him as yet another leader they did not vote for.
The London press has piled on the Burnham hypetrain but Scotland already wants to get off.
