newspapers and Miscellaneous observationsnewspapers

There�s a bit of a �grateful for small mercies� flavour to some of the responses to Shami�s antisemitism report. John Mann and Jonathan Arkush both seemed reasonably satisfied with it. 

We�ll have to see how Keith Vaz and his merry men handle it tomorrow.

Incidentally, Ed Stourton began the interview by mentioning the death of Elie Wiesel.

The BBC�s obit was respectful, but the early morning reports of his death on radio 4 bulletins - not so much. For some reason they shoehorned something about Wiesel�s critics (who doubted the enormity of the Holocaust) into the report  Work experience guys on night duty I suspect.

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Did you read Fraser Nelson�s review of Andrew Marr�s interview with Andrea Leadsom? 

He called it a �scratchy job interview� (I wonder if Speccie writers make up their own headlines) I didn�t think it was scratchy at all - at least any scratchiness came from the direction of the interviewer rather than the interviewee. 

This business of trying to destroy �Leave� people by bashing them over the head with a wet Nigel Farage is beginning to grate. The media has managed to toxify Nigel Farage so that letting slip the merest whiff of agreement with anything he�s ever said or done is to commit virtual suicide by association. The very mention of �That Poster� is enough to trigger sufficient unsafety to reach outer space. My god. It�s almost like �Settlements� 

Mention �Settlements� and you�re finished.  Poleaxed by misdirected outrage.

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My constituency MP, minister for DEFRA, has come out in favour of Michael Gove. Good for him. 

The media has been really mean to Gove, amplifying the back-stabbing label for all it�s worth. I actually believe his version of how events panned out with Boris.  As Gove says, Boris could have stood if he really wanted to. The downside of it all is that it reveals a lack of judgment on Gove�s part - or at least a prolonged case of hope triumphing over experience.

I think the media despises honesty whenever they suspect an MP is suffering from it. They want their MPs to be back-stabbing, ruthless and robotic. I don�t know why. That�s my honest opinion and, for now, I�m sticking to it.

newspapers and The "Leave" shownewspapers

I haven�t watched much TV lately, but something I did watch last night was the �Leave� show, starring Michael Gove and Faisal Islam on Sky. Also present, Kay Burley and �the public�. 

Faisal Islam seems to have turned into Mehdi Hasan. That irritating, non-stop hectoring style is just up Mehdi�s street. I�m really surprised that no-one has mentioned it.

Ah! I�m wrong. Janet Daley has:

In spite of � or maybe because of � being relentlessly barracked and harassed by Faisal Islam, Mr Gove won the room. He repeatedly got spontaneous applause from the audience. In fact, he seemed to gain in confidence as he went on, looking amused rather than defensive even when Islam absurdly likened him to Mr Trump.

I didn�t see the �Remain� show, starring David Cameron (and I haven�t caught-up with it yet) so I don�t know if Faisal Islam was just as exasperating and intrusive with Dave as he was with Mike, but relentless pursuit of a yes/no answer to an ill-conceived �killer� question is pure Mehdi, and a bit Mishal too. 

Have you (or have you not) stopped beating your wife?  Have you? Have you? Have you?

How many economists have come out on your side? How many? Name one. 

Can you guarantee that no-one will lose their job as a result of leaving the EU?  Can you? Can you guarantee that the weather will improve on June 24th? Can you?

No, Faisal made matters much less clear with his obtrusive interventions. A skilled, less terrier-like interviewer would have calmly let the questions and answers flow, one after the other. We would have learned more.

From the reaction of the MSM, I really did wonder whether I�d watched the right programme. Maybe they�d been watching the real one and I�d somehow stumbled upon the dress rehearsal. 

The chap in the audience who compared  Gove�s �Leave� advocacy to a World War 1 general waving the flag and saying "over the top, men!� did have a point, but prediction is not a science, and that particular argument is predicated upon the certainty and stability of a turbulent and unstable EU, which of course there  ain�t.