Over the last 20 years, the long term trend in politics has been
clear - Parliament, the nerve centre of democracy, has been treated with
increasing contempt by political parties and the media alike. Apart from
the infrequent backbench rebellions, the workings of the ’Mother of All
Parliaments’ have had no regular coverage in the press since the death
of the daily reports in the broadsheets towards the middle of the
1980s.
In April 1998, the BBC all but removed Parliament from Radio 4’s FM
frequency and that seemed to be that. Over the last two years, however,
we have been witness to a curious media phenomenon - the strange
re-birth of the Parliamentary page.
In 1997, there were no Parliamentary pages. Now, the Times, the Daily
Telegraph and the Independent all carry a daily page while the Guardian
has a Parliament and politics page.
It’s not immediately obvious what has caused this resurgence. Is it a
desire to act as opposition to Blair’s hegemony? Is it a sense of
vibrancy about the youthful MPs sitting in the house? Is it just because
everyone else is doing it? Each paper has a different reason, although
Andrew Grice at the Independent is clear on one thing: ’We were first
and everyone else is copying us,’ he insists.
In the meantime, the BBC has increased its coverage of Parliament since
April 1998. After MPs spoke out about the corporation’s public service
remit, this session saw Today in Parliament returned to Radio 4’s FM
from its isolation on long wave and the Week in Parliament was moved
back to Saturday mornings from its Thursday night slot.
’In my opinion, no MP and no Parliament freak can now complain that they
don’t get enough coverage of Parliament from the media,’ says Brian
Walker, executive editor of the BBC’s Parliamentary programming.
But what does all this extra coverage mean for the spin doctors?
Charles Lewington, managing director of Media Strategy, who worked with
John Major in the last government, isn’t sure it will mean that
much.
’The last Government was pretty bloody at times and sometimes I would
have preferred a lot less reporting,’ he says.
’As it is, I think the pages will struggle to hold readers’
attention.
Most of the time, Parliament is pretty dull and even when speeches of
quality are being given, it is difficult to convey their power in a
half-page report or a ten-minute programme.’
THE TIMES
Position: Political Editor
Circulation: 735,162
’When I joined the Times in the 1970s it used to run a full page of
parliamentary coverage. In the late-1980s that changed. Television
started broadcasting Parliament. There were more big announcements of
policy outside Parliament than inside the House and the page just
withered away.
’This summer, however, we decided to re-introduce it when Parliament
returned. It has got a great response from the readers. I think that
Parliament is more interesting now. While Blair has an absolute majority
of 177, there’s a whole load of Labour MPs who didn’t expect to get in,
who are using this Parliament to make their mark in the expectation that
they will lose at the next election. As a result the debates these days
are always packed.’
THE INDEPENDENT
Position: Political Editor
Circulation: 230,677
’Our Parliamentary page isn’t just a Hansard-style report of
debates.
We cover the actions of the select committees as well. At a time when
the Government has such a huge majority and the opposition are so low in
the opinion polls it is the select committees that the Government sees
as a thorn in its side.
’On Friday, for instance, we led the page with a story about a select
committee attacking the Government’s position on freedom of
information.
It was a key story and I don’t know why we were the only page to pick up
on it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Lords now that
the hereditary peers have gone. I think it will still cause the
Government a problem, especially with the fox hunting bill coming
up.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Position: Political Editor
Circulation: 1,034,923
’We introduced a Parliament page on 19 October and, to a large extent it
is an attempt to get round the spin doctoring that dominates politics
and which this Government, in particular, uses all the time.
’These days if there is an announcement on education to be made it
follows a very clear pattern through the Sundays, a few dailies, Today,
and news programmes. By the time the announcement reaches Parliament,
it’s an old story so it’s something of a fait accompli.
’We are hoping to give space to the forum where the spin doctors can’t
reach. We encourage backbench MPs to speak and we focus on them quite a
lot. We want to encourage them to speak out, to help portray Parliament
as important.’
THE GUARDIAN
Position: Political Editor
Circulation: 403,692
’I think Parliamentary reporting is at a complicated stage. There are
those who argue that, with the internet and cable television, people can
get all the news from Parliament that they need without turning to the
newspapers. I don’t think that’s true. At the same time, however,
Parliament is no longer the forum for the nation and we can’t escape
that fact.
’We report select committees with our team of specialist reporters and
we have an investigative parliamentary reporter in David Hencke, but
there are some stories that we don’t have the space to run.
’We do get MPs coming up to us and saying ’why weren’t you in the
chamber?’ and we say ’we’ll be in the chamber when you are’.’
