Moving the story along

The contrast between how the BBC report a story detrimental to Gordon Brown and one detrimental to a leading Conservative is starkly illustrated this morning. Whereas evil Tory stories are reported from the point of view of the accusers and kept running for days, the 'Gordon Brown is a bully' story was very quickly turned into a 'Labour goes on the offensive' story, and this morning's BBC Radio 4 07:30 news bulletin contained the unanswered challenge from Gordon Brown's PPS,Anne Snelgrove, asking why Christine Pratt had gone public now. Anyone who has followed this story will know that Christine Pratt explained why yesterday; Christine Pratt decided she had to come forward because 'Mandelson' had been so categorical in stating that no bullying had taken place in Number 10.

Of course this was a Sunday afternoon/evening news story and so for many (maybe most) people the first they will have heard of this story are the Labour party responses and that's just the way the Labour government and the BBC want it.