Asked and Answered
The newspaper sketch writers had a field day with Ed Miliband's appearance on the Andrew Marr programme at the weekend - as the Labour leader employed a strange technique of interviewing himself instead of answering the interviewer's questions.
Now this is an irritating yet fairly common practice with politicians of all political parties these days - although as I hadn't caught the Andrew Marr programme on Sunday I made a point of watching it on the BBC iPlayer.
And you know what, it's true - every word of what the sketch writers had to say - and here's a good example from a chap called Michael Deacon at the Telegraph.
Sketch: Forget Frost/Nixon, here's Miliband/Miliband
As the Labour party conference begins, Michael Deacon watches Ed Miliband on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show.
Ed Miliband on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show in Brighton Photo: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
By Michael Deacon, Parliamentary Sketchwriter
Ed Miliband has come up with a brilliant way of helping the BBC save money. It’s called the Self-Interview. This morning the Labour leader treated viewers of The Andrew Marr Show to a special demonstration.
Currently, the BBC spends a lot of money employing professional interviewers. Mr Miliband was determined to prove that this was unnecessary. He did it in two ways. First, by ignoring Andrew Marr’s questions; second, by asking himself questions of his own, which he would then answer. Today the questions he asked himself included, “Who is best placed to tackle the standard-of-living crisis the country faces?”, “Is there a party that can tackle that?”, “What sort of set of priorities is that?”, “Why is it so important?” and (twice) “Now, why do I say that?”
As a helpless Marr looked on, gloomily reflecting on his own obsolescence, Mr Miliband grilled himself rigorously, probing and probing, fearlessly asking himself questions from which lesser interviewers would have flinched.
Unfortunately there isn’t space here to transcribe the Self-Interview in full, but essentially it went as follows.
“Why are we facing a crisis in living standards? Because this Government has failed. In what way has this Government failed? The average salary is only going in one direction. Who’s my favourite member of One Direction? It would be easy for me to sit here and say ‘Harry Styles’, but I’m going to be bold and say ‘Liam Payne’. Why are ordinary families feeling so much pain? Because the crisis in living standards has left them broken-hearted. What becomes of the broken-hearted, who had love that’s now departed? We’ll be setting out our position on that at the election, but I think it’s clear that as a country we’ve got to find some kind of peace of mind. What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding – ohhhh, what’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? I think that’s a bread-and-butter issue for ordinary families and it’s certainly something we’re looking at.”
Occasionally these exchanges were interrupted by Mr Marr calling out a question of his own. Politely but firmly, Mr Miliband would give a brief reply, before returning to his preferred inquisitor. Here, for example, is his answer to Mr Marr on whether Labour would hold an in-out referendum on EU membership. “We’ve set out a very, very clear position on this – but we’ll set out our position at the election.”
The other most striking aspect of the Self-Interview was Mr Miliband’s voice, which sounded deeper than usual, and oddly breathy. If you’d closed your eyes you might have assumed you were listening to Margaret Thatcher. Come to think of it, Lady T – ever on the alert for ingenious ways to cut costs – would probably have approved of Mr Miliband’s interview technique.
I don’t know whether the Self-Interview is official Labour policy, but no doubt, as with everything else, Mr Miliband will be setting out his position at the election.
