As the General Election draws near, those who brought so
much amusement to television viewers in the aftermath of the last such contest
are making their presence felt, although not perhaps in the way in which they
might have hoped. One of those august beings, whose comedy turn was wholly
inadvertent, was Adam Boulton, long-serving pundit for Sky News (“first for breaking wind”).
A rant that even surprised Big Al
Boulton, as a result of genuine tiredness – he had been
awake all through the previous night, apparently – was on the proverbial hair
trigger when a discussion with Alastair Campbell, transmitted live, lurched
into farce as he lost it with Big Al and descended into a wibbling heap before
our eyes. And, just for good measure, he lost it again later with Labour MP Ben
Bradshaw.
Could he top that in the run-up to next May? The signs
suggest that he could indeed, after displaying the kind of metropolitan
Westminster ignorance that should be blatant enough to get him noticed by a
wider audience. Boulton was watching as former Labour advisor John McTernan
declared that his Twitter followers should also consider following John
Prescott.
“He made cities cool”
explained McTernan, which may be a partisan point, but it is at least a
coherent one. Boulton attempted to be both clever and cynical, but the result, “by knocking them down?” brought
reminders of what Lyndon Johnson said about Gerald Ford. Prezza may have done
many things both good and bad, but knocking down city centres was not one of
them.
McTernan tried to steer him towards the more factual: “By enforcing brownfield new build,
renovating council homes, investing in regeneration. A renaissance”, he
replied. Again, this is clearly partisan – many Tories would take issue with
those assertions – but attempts to stay in touch with reality. Perhaps the man
from Sky News would like to continue in the same spirit?
No chance: once again it was off the cuff once too often as
Boulton quipped “& flattened
Liverpool and Newcastle”. Yeah, right. I can’t speak for the north-east,
but on Liverpool he is plain flat wrong, as anyone who has got out of London
and visited the city recently will know. Central Liverpool, with its mix of
fine old buildings and a new shopping centre, Liverpool One, is certainly not “flattened”.
McTernan said as much as he tried to convey some sense in
Boulton’s general direction: “Newcastle
was done by T Dan Smith, as for Liverpool the centre is transformed”. And T
Dan Smith was many, many years ago – before Prescott even became an MP. With
that level of ignorance, if Boulton is around at next May’s elections, there
could be more of those difficult live TV encounters.
Especially if his
interviewees bring up either of those Tweets.
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