MARR is back on BBC1, ditto Peston on Wednesday on ITV. Channel 4, in a last minute change to the schedule, will hold a debate tonight. Also this evening, Jeremy Paxman and Jeremy Vine will take up residency on Channel 5 in a bid to answer the question: “Why are Our Politicians so Crap?”
If that is not enough politics in your programming, Andrew Neil, Paisley Grammar and Glasgow University’s finest, has been given his own half hour show on BBC2, starting this Wednesday. All of this in addition to any extended news bulletins coming your way this week as the Commons returns.
Anyone would think British politics had turned into the hottest drama since the last series of Line of Duty.
It is not difficult to see why the channels are rushing to schedule extra programmes ahead of what promises to be a momentous seven days.
Channel 4’s Brexit Debate: A Very British Coup? will be hosted by Krishnan Guru-Murthy and will feature an as yet unannounced panel and an audience of 100. Starting at 7.30pm, it will knock 30 minutes off the usual Channel 4 News.
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In summing up the thinking behind the programme, Louisa Compton, Channel 4 commissioning editor, spoke for her peers on other channels in saying: “The British public have clearly demonstrated their desire for involvement in these unprecedented political times. Our debate will capture a moment in history that has already seen public opinion split, impromptu marches and will put the electorate front and centre of the national conversation.”
In other words, we believe this is a big deal with viewers, and do not want to be seen to miss any of it.
As if to signal its host’s impatience to get back in the interviewer’s chair, The Andrew Marr Show returned yesterday to its old 9am slot. Not to be outdone, Ridge on Sunday went on air half an hour earlier.
Marr’s opening monologue is always a good way to take the temperature of the political week to come. As so often in recent times, he was in the mood for drama. Citing the launch of Get Ready, a Government ad campaign to prepare people for Brexit, he said: “It’s like being in a plane, assured by the pilot we’re on course for a smooth landing while the cabin crew warn all the passengers to adopt the brace position.” At least it made a change from Titanic and train wreck metaphors.
Marr said his main guests, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer, and Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the minister in charge of preparations for exiting the EU, were two men “better placed than anyone else” to answer the question of what happens now. One might have thought the Prime Minister, and his all-over-the-papers chief aide Dominic Cummings, fitted such a billing better, but Boris Johnson’s only interview yesterday was with Tim Shipman of the Sunday Times.
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Like Marr, Shipman asked the PM all the right questions. Getting the answers proved more difficult. Both journalists wanted to know what would happen if opponents of a no deal Brexit succeeded in passing a bill extending the deadline beyond October 31. Would the Government abide by it? The PM avoided the answer in the print interview. Mr Gove executed a similar body swerve on Marr, saying: “Let’s see what the legislation says.”
Surely the answer had to be yes, said Marr, it would be the law.
“You are asking me about a pig in a poke and I will wait to see what legislation the opposition may try to bring forward,” said the minister. Marr tried again, to no avail.
The person who had spent the summer thinking about such legislation, Sir Keir Starmer, was being similarly tight-lipped. Declaring that this week was “almost certainly the last chance” to defeat a no deal Brexit, the Labour MP was asked if the legislation he would table would require the PM to go to the EU and ask for an extension, and no more than that.
While refusing to go into detail, his description of any opposition bill as short and simple hinted that it would be along such lines.
Given the time frame, it will be difficult enough for any bill to pass before parliament is prorogued. Nor is it clear where opponents go next should the legislation route fail and Labour table a vote of no confidence in the Government. Interviewed on Ridge on Sunday, David Gauke, the former Justice Secretary, said he did not want to do anything that would facilitate a Jeremy Corbyn government.
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On the same programme, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was looking the very picture of relaxed contentment. It probably helped that he was at home rather than in a studio.
The McDonnell sweater, like the couch, was a dusty pink number, and the curtains were chintz. He could only have appeared more reassuringly suburban if he had been arranging flowers as he spoke.
Stephen Dixon, filling in for Ridge, lobbed a Sunday newspaper poll at him putting Labour 11 points behind the Conservatives. “You don’t want a General Election, do you?” he asked Mr McDonnell.
“Bring it on,” smiled the Labour veteran.
The action now moves away from the McDonnell sofa to the green and red benches at Westminster. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let the week begin.
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