The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Who are they hiding from?
Who’s afraid of the big bad scrutiny? Our political leaders, it seems. There is a disconcerting habit forming among those who claim to represent us.
It involves a set-piece event, the repeating of slogans and a propensity to disappear without answering any questions on anything they may not want to talk about.
This has been in sharp focus twice this week, starting with Jeremy Corbyn’s frankly comical evasion of the press in both Aviemore and Dunfermline.
The UK Labour leader sneaked in a back entrance to the STUC conference up north before being walked back into his car behind a red rope as he left, like a B-list Hollywood movie extra, waving to journalists who wanted to ask him actual questions.
Perhaps it was the shock of Highland snow in April, given he would usually be more used to a quiet croissant and latte in north London at this time of year, that made him go down that route.
By the time he had made it to Fife, he had a flight to catch so no time to be asked about voters’ real concerns, merely time to repeat campaign clips.
Theresa May, meanwhile, headed to deepest, darkest Aberdeenshire at the weekend to deliver a speech to handpicked activists.
The spin was that she took questions from the assembled press pack.
Ha! Take that, Labour! Except the Prime Minister was barely any better.
If a reporter wanted to ask her a question, it had to be submitted and vetted in advance.
That’s not how being held to account works, I’m afraid.
If you’re not up to the job of answering questions off the cuff from a small group of newspaper journalists then it is probably fair for people to ask questions about your ability to run the country.
Supporters of both May and Corbyn will cry: “But they did the Sunday morning TV shows!”
The arrogance of that view is astounding. Voters should not be grateful for the opportunity to get up early on their day off and watch the people who say they are up to the job of being their leaders dodge questions for 20 minutes.
This is not about toys being thrown out of the pram.
Reporters at regional papers get used to people, in particular ambitious people in politics with egos that outstrip their intellect, looking down their noses towards us. These people have a habit of falling out of power, incidentally, so I’m comfortable with the idea of what goes around comes around.
The real danger here is that ordinary people are treated like chumps by politicians who think that parroting the same sound bites over and over equates to any kind of respect for those who employ them with their votes.
Nicola Sturgeon, never one to miss an opportunity, has been savvy enough to make political capital on this, despite the regularity of the “monthly” press conferences she promised on her election as First Minister being only loosely based on their title.
You see, she held a press huddle at the STUC conference and was able to get her message across in answer to unscripted questions.
She did the same thing when Theresa May hid in a Glasgow hotel room after saying “now is not the time” for a second independence referendum over and over and over and over again.
Perhaps now is the time for a change. Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 News anchor, had an interesting suggestion at the weekend.
He said: “We cover their speeches and events on a pooled (shared) basis so they know their slogans will be on TV and social media regardless.
“They get this free platform whether or not they agree to answer questions from either the public or journalists.
“If the media acted together it could say speeches only get covered if there is proper questioning. Would this be right or wrong?”
There is only one way to find out and those trying to levitate above accountability might not like the answer.
The danger is ordinary people are treated like chumps