Iain Dale’s dilemma

I was in Brussels on Friday when I saw two names trending on Twitter: Iain Dale and Grace Blakeley.

I first became aware of Blakeley last year. Young, articulate and highly opinionated, she seemed to pop up everywhere. She spoke with a ‘posh’ English accent and her politics were unashamedly Corbynite.

Privately educated, she is - inevitably - an avowed socialist who currently works for the left-wing Tribune magazine.

Iain Dale is on the other side of the political fence. A former Conservative parliamentary candidate, he chaired many of the leadership hustings that led to the election of Boris Johnson as party leader.

As some readers may recall, I worked with Iain - briefly - on a magazine called The Politico. It inspired us to discuss launching a competitor to The Spectator, an idea that seems even more ridiculous today than it did then.

Iain is now, if not a household name, well known in media and political circles. He hosts the evening show on weekdays on LBC, presents a weekly podcast with former Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith, and has edited or written numerous political books.

Like Blakeley, he appears regularly on Newsnight, Politics Live and Good Morning Britain.

So why were they trending on Friday morning?

Well, it turns out that in the absence of Jacqui Smith, Iain’s regular sparring partner on GMB on Fridays, producers had lined up Grace Blakeley and Five Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake.

Invited to discuss the revelation that ‘the teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the 10th floor of the Tate Modern in London had spoken about plans to push someone off a high building about a year earlier’, Blakeley basically argued that “austerity” (ie government cuts) was responsible for the horrific incident.

She spoke without interruption for a full minute, which is a long time in today’s soundbite culture and almost unheard of on GMB.

Squeezed between Blakeley and Arthanayake, Dale sat quietly, saying nothing until he was invited to respond.

“Utter rubbish, if I may say so. It has nothing to do with cuts,” he began before being interrupted by Blakeley.

I won’t describe in detail what happened next. If you haven’t seen it watch the video above.

It’s been well reported however that, denied the opportunity to respond without constant interruption, Dale got up, removed his lapel mike and walked off.

Would I have done the same in similar circumstances? No, I don’t think I would, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sympathetic to his dilemma.

To give you an idea of what he was up against, as he stood up to leave Blakeley was beaming from ear to ear, job done. Arthanayake - a BBC radio presenter, lest we forget - then taunted him by saying:

“Wow! Wow! What a fit of pique! What a grown up [word indecipherable] ...”

What surprises me is that, as a regular guest on GMB, Iain must be familiar with the programme’s modus operandi. I’ve done that ‘debate’ slot a couple of times and it’s always been made clear to me by producers that what they want is an on air ‘fight’.

The last time I was on I was even kept in solitary confinement, in a separate hospitality area well away from my ‘opponent’, before we went on air. This is in contrast to most programmes where guests share the green room until it’s time to go on.

I was told I could interrupt and challenge my fellow guest as much as I liked. I shouldn’t wait to be asked to speak, they said. By the time I got in to the studio I was so pumped up I felt like a boxer entering the ring.

Iain must be aware of this but perhaps his double act with Jacqui Smith has sheltered him from the harsh reality the rest of us experience.

Naturally Twitter delighted in his reaction, although opinion was sharply divided. To some he was a hero, to others he was a diva having a pathetic strop.

Blakeley, it should be noted, has form in this area, as anyone who witnessed a previous appearance on GMB will testify.

Dale was on that panel too, so he must have known what he was letting himself in for. Indeed, it may explain why his decision to walk appeared a little premature. Perhaps it was in his mind in advance and he jumped at the opportunity.

Alternatively, what pushed him over the edge may have been the simple fact of being sandwiched between Blakeley and Arthanayake. While Blakeley was speaking over him on one side, Arthanayake could be heard muttering “Ridiculous” (in response to something Dale said) on the other.

To be fair to Blakeley, she did what she always does and it clearly works. As she herself noted on Twitter later in the day:

Apparently I’m trending 😂

I really feel like people don’t realise that the more outraged they get, the bigger the ratings, and the more I’m invited back on 🤑

The sad thing is, GMB is not alone in encouraging this type of confrontation.

I’ve been on radio programmes where the presenter has deliberately sat back and allowed guests to rip into one another.

Sometimes, as a guest, you have no choice because if you don’t interrupt you’ll never get a word in because your opponent will simply keep on talking.

I’ve done a number of those shows - often late at night - and all that happens is the guests end up shouting over one another in a desperate bid to be heard.

As a listener I hate it but some broadcasters seem to like it because it generates more hits on social media.

Less confrontational debates, on the other hand, tend not to be remembered or posted on social media. Again, I have direct experience of this as well.

As a result there is pressure on guests to be as combative as possible because that’s what the producers want.

More often than not I’ve played the game but I rarely feel good about it. Sometimes I feel so bad I just want to get home and have a shower.

I imagine that’s how Iain Dale felt on Friday, even if he was trending.

PS. I was once ambushed on an afternoon programme presented by Alan Titchmarsh.

I don’t blame Titchmarsh, who wasn’t responsible for the choice of guests, but I nevertheless found myself outnumbered three to one when discussing the tobacco display ban, which had yet to be passed by Parliament.

One of the other guests was Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH. After the programme she heard me complain to Titchmarsh and made a point of running after me to say I was right to be annoyed!

We have our differences, Deborah and I, and we will probably never agree on most things to do with smoking, but I have never forgotten that small moment of kindness.

It’s one of the reasons I don’t dislike her, even when she’s giving me a hard time!

You can read the full story here: Three against one: is that a fair fight? (November 2009).

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Grace Blakeley - another one of those rich kids with a guilt complex for being born lucky who now pities "the poor" to make herself feel better about her privileged background. Most of her pet poor people think she is an utter snob who hasn't got a bloody clue about living in the real world of facing abject poverty.

As for GMB and broadcast media generally these days, they do not want discussion, they want a stooge for public humiliation and any old big gob who is prepared to shout down the opposition will do.

A good mud wrestle attracts far more viewers than a reasoned debate. Iain was right not to play the game. If more guests did this, then the broadcasters would have to change the format and create programmes where debate becomes fashionable again and big gob bullies like Blakeley would be rightly put in their place.