{"id":611,"date":"2006-03-27T10:33:19","date_gmt":"2006-03-27T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/27\/is-it-news\/"},"modified":"2006-03-27T11:00:58","modified_gmt":"2006-03-27T10:00:58","slug":"is-it-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/27\/is-it-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it news?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC: Blair admits resignation mistake<\/a>:<\/p>\n

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has acknowledged it may have been a “mistake” to announce he would not be serving a fourth term in office.<\/p>\n

“People kept asking me the question so I decided to answer it. Maybe that was a mistake,” he told Australian radio after attending the Commonwealth Games. <\/p>\n

Later Downing Street said what he meant was it was a mistake to expect the announcement would end speculation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can see a couple of possible reasons why this might be newsworthy: Downing Street can’t help living up to their reputation for spin, backtracking what Blair said; and the sheer idea that Blair has admitted to a mistake about anything<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But this off-hand, drowned out comment doesn’t affect public policy one jot. It also doesn’t even have an implication for the increasingly tedious and over-written “will-they-won’t-they” question about when Gordon Brown – John Major to Blair’s Mrs T. – will take over. So why is it the top story on the BBC, the front page story in theguardian<\/em>, and all over Sky?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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