Solid Workers

Who tuned in tonight to watch Andrew Neil grill Jeremy Hunt? Not me. As he's not going to win, there's little point dwelling upon his interview. Tonight then was all about Boris Johnson. Did we learn anything new, or were all our preconceptions reconfirmed? We know from decades of suffering this oaf how he elbows his way into the centre of attention, and through a series of studied ruses not only monopolises it but manipulates the situation. As Hunt observed in a rare moment of insight during the ITV debates earlier this week, Boris Johnson will make you smile and while you're laughing you've forgotten how he didn't answer the question. That might work with the less experienced interviewer, or a one shot questioner in a press conference, but in a half hour sit down with the country's fiercest politics inquisitor? Andrew Neil started off softly, asking Johnson about his character and whether he could be trusted. Perhaps expecting something a bit tougher, Johnso...

Panorama , the BBC's premier investigative journalism show comes in two flavours. You have considered pieces, usually but not always focusing on allegations of wrongdoing, that sifts through evidence and builds a case for or against that episode's object of scrutiny. And then you have the lazy hit job that sees testimony and documentation arranged without due space for the right of reply, nor the consideration of evidence that flies in the face of the case. Can you guess which way tonight's Panorama alleging leadership interference in anti-semitism complaints went? This isn't the first time a political target has been roughed up this way. Indeed, not long after Jeremy Corbyn came to prominence the BBC used Panorama to suggest he was chillaxed with the Iraqi resistance attacking British soldiers, because in December 2003 Stop the War was present at a conference in Cairo that urged resistance to the US/British invasion, and the declaration of said meeting was published...

And, for one night only, six became five as Boris Johnson ducked out of Channel 4's leader's debate. With his lead stretching far out in front and with everything to lose, it might or might not be a canny move. But on the basis of tonight's debate, it was hardly a blue-on-blue bear pit and it's doubtful he'd have got a mauling. Those who did attend were fairly collegial and when it came to argy-bargy it got about as heated as an Andrew Marr interview. Did we learn anything new from our candidates? Not really. Asked about their weaknesses, we got trite answers. Michael Gove was "impatient", Dominic Raab "restless" and Sajid Javid "stubborn". Not what normally passes for frailties in mainstream politics. Rory Stewart hit the right note with the audience by saying he didn't have much time for the masculine style of debate or leadership, preferring to weigh things up and think. Yes, thinking is a weakness. Nevertheless, having given an ...