Page 42 - Michael Crick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Very often, particularly around partygate and the sue gray. report, one has felt that proper accountability - would actually lead to - senior people, and indeed the prime minister, really, - genuinely taking responsibility in a way that didn't happen over quite a long period. . and i think it's perhaps fair that some journalists, - looking back on that period, might feel that they could . have held the mirror up to the prime minister. a little bit more forcefully. jane? i thinkjoey made some of the points i would have made. i would say, in response to michael, in a way, that i think the press ...

You saw the new operation actually send people out on the morning rounds saying things that weren't true. and i think that's why the frustration�*s come so much. it's not actually over what pincher did. it's over how the reaction was the same. but here's the question. and, michael and joey, i'd like to put this to you — maybe michael first. does the system need to change? or are the problems thatjames is describing, where untruths are being briefed to the press, perhaps that is a problem specific to the current operation in number 10? well, i mean, i'm not, you know, involved in reporting ...

But manyjournalists have probably been too supine, whereas actually they are now doing theirjob at least, and you would hope they would do that of prime ministers and politicians of all stripes rather than just the ones that they don't particularly like. and actually, now, we have a prime minister that they are holding, or trying to hold, to account. and i should say that line that you allude to, keir starmer asked the prime minister about that in prime minister's questions — he said, "yes or no, did you say it?" and the prime minister declined to give a yes or no answer. james, you began th...

Mrjohnson�*s the best man to lead britain." so we've been getting different messages from the mail across the last few days. but more broadly, michael crick, there does appear to have been an evolution in the position of the right—of—centre press. how do you explain that? well, it's inevitable. i mean, the right—of—centre press took the view that "we've got to do everything we can to get borisjohnson elected, or re—elected," three years ago at the general election. and i think, gradually, they've realised that he doesn't stand for... he's not doing the conservative brand any good. ...

And i tend to feel that that is l more what has happened here. i don't really buy the idea i that this has been some sort of gradual evolution, - where it's dawned on all these newspapers that the qualities that michael outlined there, i negative qualities associated with the prime minister, - actually make him unfit for their support. - i'm not sure... i mean, i give the sun. great credit, obviously, for reporting the story- a little under a week ago, but i'm not sure they would i have necessarily anticipated it would lead to his downfall, his likely downfall, - in less than a week. the thing...