Boris vs Paxman: Is this set to become a classic?
And is Darling helping the Tories move on from Lisbon?
If you didn’t watch BBC 2’s Newsnight last night then check it out on the BBC IPlayer – 16 minutes in. This is one of the most enjoyable Paxman interviews for a long time and will rank, surely, alongside his famous encounters with Michael Howard and John Reid.
The issue, of course, is the Lisbon Treaty and what the Tories would do if on winning a general election all member states within the EU have ratified. Boris has not been as “on message” as perhaps the party leadership would have liked and Paxman sought to put the Mayor of London under the screw. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Lisbon, as an issue, is still there but, like several on the thread overnight, I wonder if the Labour spin strategy has let Cameron and his colleagues off the hook.
The Darling public sector pay freeze news was timed, it would seem, to divert attention away from Manchester – it might just have helped the Tories to move on.
Trying to manage the news agenda can sometimes lead to unforeseen results.