What is it with Downing Street and timekeeping ? Is it old Etonian arrogance - we'll do this presentation when we're good and ready? Is is boosterish optimism - we'll dash this Powerpoint/essay off by 4pm, and we can still get a game of squash ? Is it an OCD approach to detail [not on current form - Ed] ?
Or were they genuinely still trying to nail down the message and terms of the lockdown between 4pm and 6.30pm, with rows between Cummings, Johnson, Whitty and Vallance ?
There are people working in communications close to Cummings and Johnson who understand newspaper deadlines better than tv. I point to Lee Cain, who had to make sure his pieces from a chicken suit were ready for the next day's Daily Mirror. But Allegra Stratton, with a BBC and ITV pedigree, is also now on hand. When the briefing finally started, there was an apology from the PM for disrupting our viewing on a Saturday night, but no explanation for the delay. My guess is that someone insisted on saying that The Army would be taking a bigger role in track and trace, and there was a row. The outcome is hardly a vote of confidence in Serco/Harding Enterprises....
When they finally came to the podia, we opened with the now traditional Two Ronnies-style sketch of Whitty talking about the slide after next. Few of the images fitted the BBC1 screens, often with both axes, titles and legends cut off. The BBC director kept his ticker in place, so that didn't help. They finally butted up against an immovable deadline - the Strictly Live show. Cain and Stratton were probably pleased that the question-and-answer session was thus consigned to the News Channel.
The readability of the "next slide please" summed up the competence of this government - you might as well have shown us the patterns on Downing Street wallpaper.
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