New Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, was on Question Time

Above: Andy Burnham (left) and David Dimbleby (taken from TV with my mobile phone).

One of the objectives I set (and utterly failed to achieve) for this blog was to “shadow” the Department of Culture Media and Sport. I thought it would give me an extra insight into the power / culture/ media nexus in the United Kingdom and possibly (if I ever made it public) earn me some kudos at the office. I have made a few efforts in this direction, but distraction, prevarication and inertia have (as usual) prevailed.

This will never be a serious “professional” work-related blog I’m afraid.

Too much of “me” always seeps into things.

Anyway, to refocus:

The new Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, was on Question Time last night.

The panel was asked about Housing Minister Caroline Flint’s proposal to evict the unemployed from council housing (if ever there was a case of onomatopoeia it is the name Caroline Flint - she is hard and stony with a black heart).

It soon became obvious that Andy Burnham is incapable of telling a lie (unlike his predecessor James Purnell who was/is an accomplished dissembler).

He attempted to side-step the question but his body language so obviously told us he didn’t believe in what he was saying. He tried answering a different question to the one that had been asked, but Chairman David Dimbleby told him off. He tried listing the government’s achievements to date, but Chairman David Dimbleby stopped him in mid-flow.

Sensing his discomfiture, the Tory on the panel (Christopher Grayling) attempted some mild mischief-making at which point Andy Burnham said the words: “I will take no lectures from you in…”

Nick Robinson, Andrew Neil, and no doubt many other commentators, have told us that when a politician uses the words “I will take no lectures from you” they have reached the nadir of their argumentative powers. Prime Minister Gordon Brown used to regularly use the phrase in Prime Minister’s Questions. It really means: help me, I am drowning.

More on onomatopoeia: http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/rdg/onomatopoeiahelp.html

I will take no lectures from you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLG6ENSUX8
I will take no lectures from you: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brown-treating-people-like-fools-says-cameron-394591.html