NORM!

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Norman Smith, the BBC's Tory-bashing chief political correspondent, was in discussion with James Naughtie (no slouch himself on that front) this morning. They were discussing how the meteoric rise of Nick Clegg is effecting the campaign. Being Norman Smith, this became a discussion purely about how Cleggmania is hurting the Conservatives. That Labour are, according to the polls, now in third place and that there are signs that they have been hit almost as badly as the Conservatives by Lib Dem surge, was not something Norman wanted to talk about, not even for a second. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8629000/8629040.stm
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Naughtie's opening question ended with the words 'That must be what's worrying the two bigger parties?' Norman's first answer set the stage for everything else he was going to say: "Well it's certainly profoundly worrying the Conservative Party." (That's the first time I've heard him use the word 'Conservative' in ages. He always uses the word 'Tory' instead). Nothing would steer him away from the Tories and their 'dilemma'.
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Even James Naughtie, one of the most biased of all BBC interviewers, later pointed out that "one poll put Labour in a miserable third place".
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This was their second discussion of the morning. Go back an hour and Norman Smith was saying "In Tory circles it reminds me a bit of that moment in Apollo 13 when, you remember, the astronauts radioed back down to Housten to say, "Housten, we have a problem." The Tories have a real problem and they know they have a real problem." After Naughtie reminded him that Apollo 13 got home safely, he persisted (with his usual hyperbole) "So they know they have an absolutely profound problem."