Is it “trite journalism” to ask the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer what the country pays on its national debt? Should the shadow chancellor have these figures to hand, or can he rely on an iPad or advisor to tell him? John McDonnell doesn’t seem to think so.
Here he is with BBC interviewer Andrew Neil (AN) who asks him how much interest we spend on our national debt:
AN: how much do we now spend on (.) paying the interest on our national debt JM: er a lot a lot AN: how much JM: well I give the figure er and I’ll send you a note on the figure with er AN: er ho- you don’t know JM: well I know the figure but I haven’t got it [in front of me AN: [how much JM: I’ll send it well you tell me now (.) AN: well at the moment it’s forty six JM: it’s forty six it was fifty six but it’s gone down AN: er no it’s going up JM: well no it’s gone down previously ((indistinct)) AN: n- no I assure you it’s going up JM: ((indistinct)) AN: ((indistinct)) fifty billion look if you didn’t know the figure then you don’t know whether it’s going up or down JM: I can remember the t- I can remember the trend ...
The next day, McDonnell (JM) defended his lack of immediate recall by calling the journalism “trite journalism”:
JM: the type of journalism where you go into an interview and someone else with a question on a particular figure to be honest is trite form of journalism that’s why we have iPads and that’s why we have advisors et cetra look er so let’s get back to the reality of this ...
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