At the risk of sounding like a right-wing Citizen Smith...
The closing discussion on this morning's Today discussed whether politicians are out of touch with the public with Matthew Parris of the Times and Michael White of the Guardian, two doughty defenders of the Westminster elite.
The balance here (besides one leaning rightwards and the other leaning leftwards) was in setting someone who defends the Westminster elite 100% and says that it's the public that's out of touch and someone who thinks the other goes a bit too far and, himself, only defends the Westminster elite a mere 90% of the way.
Mishal Husain introduced Matthew by saying he "used to be one of them" (given her rather tight-laced sense of humour I don't think she meant that as a double entendre) but Matthew, as far as I can see, still is "one of them". And so is Michael, despite being a Guardian tribune, saying that the Andrew Mitchell verdict this week "blew apart" "the idea of the Westminster elite and the Establishment and the unaccountable." (Did it really though, given that Mr Mitchell had been immediately dropped like a stone by that very elite when the story first broke in 2012? And aren't judges part of the Establishment?)
It was all good fun (they got to talk Lloyd George and Churchill), but a third journalist - one with a distaste for 'the present lot' of politicians - would have been welcome.
Power to the people!
Power to the people!
