LORD ASHCROFT

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Sorry for the dearth of posts today (normal business will resume tomorrow, when my monthly list will also appear), but for an overview on the BBC's coverage of the Lord Ashcroft story here's Not a sheep:
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-this-bbc-wording-misleading.html
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/03/bbc-are-in-full-attack-mode.html
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/03/nick-robinson-tells-only-part-of-labour.html
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Besides the BBC News website and Nick Robinson's blog (dealt with by Not a sheep), I've so far only had the chance to listen to The World at One. Its cast list for the Lord Ashcroft story consisted of:
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- Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrats, 2 min 21 sec, no interruptions, I.C. of 0.
- Lord Paul, Labour non-dom donor, 3 min 44 sec, no interruptions, I.C. of 0.
- Gordon Prentice, Labour, 2 min, 1 interruption, I.C. of 0.5
- Michael Gove, Conservative, 2 mins 45 sec, 3 interruptions, I.C. of 1.2
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Messers Huhne and Prentice laid ferociously into Lord Ashcroft and the Conservatives, Huhne especially waxing righteous (and hypocritical). Lord Paul was given a very soft ride by Martha Kearney. Michael Gove's powerful defence of the Conservatives' position, in contrast, was splattered by a plethora of abortive interruptions from Martha, as well as the three full-bodied specimens mentioned above. She repeatedly tried to stop him from naming the equivalent Lib Dem and Labour non-doms - which, given that neither Mr Huhne nor Mr Prentice had been in any way impeded in their attacks on Lord Ashcroft and the Tories was, to say the very least, hardly fair.
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In fairness to her, when Michael Gove returned for an interview about his schools policy, prefaced by an interview with the wonderful but critical Chris Woodhead, he was not interrupted This sank his overall I.C. down to 0.6. Sadly, this part of the interview lasted under 3 minutes, hardly time to do justice to the argument.
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The programme closed with Mark Worthington's report from Ipswich, discussing council funding for the arts in the light of coming cuts. The spokesman for Suffolk County Council made his case for getting more for less, but Mark immediately commented that "these words offer little reassurance" for the theatre and museums of the borough. Suffolk County Council is Conservative-controlled.
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