UK Prime Minister | TV News Coverage

The last British Prime Minister to die in office was the 3rd Viscount Palmerston in 1865. Spencer Perceval is the only British Prime Minister who has been assassinated.

Worst Doctor Who anniversary special ever.

This idea make no sense whatsoever.

The idea the parliamentary Conservative party who have a strong mandate (in how the system works), are going to allow the Labour Party leader to become a temporary PM is quite frankly ridiculous. The people already in cabinet all have far more governmental experience than Starmer and obviously would all believe their direction for the country would be far stronger. A government of national unity is really not the answer here and it’s a time the public need the government to be held to account.

As much as that sounds wonderful, I don’t think it would be quite as simple as Mrs. May merely wanting to do it and that wish being granted. Although, as I also posted elsewhere and therefore fully agree with you, Worzel, Mrs. May’s interview yesterday was very strong and she came across as someone in charge.

But, as even she herself said, as did every single senior politician who was interviewed yesterday (Liam Fox being another), Dominic Raab is in charge and the cabinet system means the cabinet has collective responsibility. And the Civil Service plays a huge role. Particularly the Permanent Cabinet Secretary (if I have the term correct).

It means ‘Sir Humphrey Applebey’ and an army of others is guiding Mr. Raab through this crisis.

And that is quite reassuring.

IF it were decided that the Country will have another acting Prime Minister for whatever reason (May, Starmer, Brown, whoever), only The Queen can appoint her/him. But that is unprecedented.

Interesting times.

Coronavirus be gone! You’re destroying us.

And now having watched the interview, it’s clear the suggestion was that some labour figures including Starmer could effectively be brought into the cabinet, which sounds slightly more plausible than him taking over as acting PM.

^^ Agreed. The focus of everyone now should be to beat the virus/save lives and that alone.

Political points-scoring at this time is just a big no no. The unity of the entire nation is what’s needed now.

With regard to the likely prolonged physical absence* of the PM, I’m sure we’ll get more clarity in the coming days as to how the configuration of the decision-making team may look. We are in unprecedented territory.

Bringing this back to television news coverage of the PM’s absence, I was rather taken aback by the retort of one senior tv political news figure who maintained “it is still my job to hold the politicians to account, even now”.

I don’t deny that it is. However, let us get our priorities straight. From what I can detect, the vast majority of the British public right now are united in 1) beating the virus; 2) wishing the Prime Minister a full and speedy recovery.

To ensure that 1) is achieved, the Government has to appear strong and consistent and make clear to the media and the people: Raab is in charge. End of story.

The media lining-up every day at 5pm to ask some ridiculously pointless questions is really not helping to further the scientific message that we all need to hear right now. The absolutely necessary medical advice is being drowned-out by a fixation about who’s in charge!

Adding in edit: some of the big names seem to be over-dramatizing all of this. I was distinctly unimpressed by a few of the Political Editors’ handling of this yesterday. On the other hand, the BBC’s Vicki Young remains composed, factual and brings the news without gasp and drama. Hence, I’ll be more inclined to listen to her than others. Not that we have that choice, really.


* one medical expert indicting on BBC News yesterday that should there be no further significant deterioration in Mr. Johnson’s condition and he stabilizes now, he should probably be away from work for 3-4 weeks to ensure full recovery.

For someone who spends most of their time watching tv news you have an incredible lack of knowledge about it.
The idea that a PM entering Intensive care isn't dramatic is hilarious and the reason we have the 5 pm press conferences with actual experts is because of the old system of off the record anonymous briefings lead to panic and rumour mongering about "herd immunity". "Boris wants to kill Granny" ridiculousness.

Every other country/city in a similar situation including Ireland and New York have these press conferences with no problems and they just tell the truth.
Everybody from the Sun to Nick Robinson to C4 news called the Government's spin/lies on Monday ridiculous. The idea that Boris was fully in control and attended Hospital for "routine" tests during a pandemic was beyond stupid. 40 minutes later he was in intensive care...
Raab started the same conference infering he was in constant contact with Boris but by the end admitted that he hadn't spoken to him in over 48 hours.
The country deserved to know who will make emergency decisions whether it be Raab, the "War " cabinet or the actual cabinet. You seem to care more about the colour of Simon McCoy's socks as is your right but some of us want actual clarity.

He didn't actually say this... After the host asked could a former "big beast" from Tory past effectively fill in for Boris, he said something akin to a unity government was more likely now that Corbyn was gone. He wasn't saying it was an actual possibility

Ironically, it was for many of the reasons you mentioned here that I started this thread in the first place!! Of course the PM being in intensive care is very serious. When did I say it wasn’t a serious matter?

The point I tried to make above is that from the outset of the PM going into ICU, Raab declared in the very first interview that “the PM has asked me to deputize for him as necessary”. (Words to that effect). So, we take it from that (and as repeated again yesterday by Raab, Gove, May, Fox et al) Raab is in charge.

Why labour the point even further? Thousands of people are dying and we need medical facts to be shared in the briefings.

No need for you to be so offensive towards me, frankly. Some of the comments in your post are personal attacks. I don’t come here to either receive or make personal attacks on anyone, but to only share opinions.

Perhaps you could do the same. Share your opinions; avoid the personal attacks.

Let’s leave it there. I respect your opinions and don’t want to fall out.

I know this is the radio, but one interesting thing on Monday night is that 5 Live's coverage was anchored by Geoff Lloyd, known for his podcast with Ed Miliband but with far more experience as a DJ. He's been doing the odd bit for 5 Live recently, but like Scott Mills and Elis James that's been in feature programming.

As he said on Twitter, when the news broke he was "the nearest person to a microphone" - looks like they were midway through Phil Tufnell's cricket show at the time, while Lloyd was preparing to come on after that to di a fairly light-hearted show, he said they were intending to talk about podcasts and they had some comedians lined up. But as the next "news" presenter he was asked to take over, and went on air with five minutes' notice.

He says on Twitter he felt like he was being talked through defusing a bomb or landing a plane as a civilian, relying on the production team and letting Chris Mason and Nick Eardley talk at length. But he seems to have done a really good job, with lots of people telling him he held it all together in a very sensitive fashion, asking the right questions and getting the tone just right.

I can't imagine how hard that must be so it's kudos to Lloyd and I'm sure it's been noted by the bosses. It reminds me of Roger Finn having to break the news of the Challenger disaster on only his third ever episode of Newsround.