One of the few “shared media experiences” that have survived

25th March - my “project” has to be ready tomorrow. Apart from a Leicester facility letting me down over 17 jpgs, it should all be ready on time. In any case, I have done all I can and am having an evening off.

I also caught a later train this morning, which meant that I could listen to the Today programme in the car on the drive to the station. In the 8.10 interview Justice Minister Jack Straw was asked questions by John Humphrys. This 8.10 interview slot is one of the few “shared media experiences” that have survived the media fragmentation of the last ten years.

It was a tetchy and bad-tempered interview - by which I mean Jack Straw was tetchy and bad-tempered while John Humphrys made him answer (or point-blank refuse to answer) questions on the Iraq war. This was all the more impressive as Jack Straw is a slippery interviewee. At one stage Jack Straw was reduced to childish rudeness (“I’ve said that more times than you have”).

On a purely practical level the government should give in to demands for an enquiry into the Iraq war, as otherwise it must be forced upon them. Too many people (too many ordinary non-political people) supported the 2003 call to war and have subsequently been made to feel foolish and betrayed. If left unassuaged, these people will take their revenge at the general election (a government must never make bozos of its own electorate).

Quis custodiet ipsos custodies… How much does continued democracy in this country owe to Andrew Neil, Jeremy Paxman and John Humphrys? One of them should get the Order of Merit for services to the nation.