UK
This journalist-banning government tried to defend the indefensible – and failed miserably

Poor Chloe Smith was sent to claim the mass journalist walkout from Downing Street had all been ‘standard practice’. It was nothing of the sort Tom Peck Political Sketch Writer @tompeck Tuesday 4 February 2020It was, in the end, an MP called Chloe Smith who was sent to the despatch box of the House of Commons to account for the government’s behaviour on Monday afternoon, when journalists arrived at No 10 to find themselves being sorted on to separate sides of a large rug, and told which would be allowed into a special briefing and which would not, before they all walked out in protest.

You almost have to feel sorry for her. Not for the first time in her life, one suspects, a lot of names will have to have been crossed off the list before they got to her.

It should really have been Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary. But she’s not allowed in the Commons, because she stood down as an MP at the last election, having refused to serve in the government in which she now serves.

And she also would have been far too busy on Tuesday, getting ready to give a speech on Wednesday on “the future of broadcasting”, which is expected to pave the way for smashing up the BBC, because it dared to do its job and criticise the government she refused to serve in.

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