The Londoner: C4 Byrne scorches Boris and Corbyn

C4 news chief suggests deploying the Queen as a journalist | Caroline Lucas on her all female cabinet | Gwyneth Paltrow's book curator | Humphrys and Cameron to talk again | Tobias Ellwood's messy new office
22 August 2019

TV bigwigs are clamouring for Channel 4’s Dorothy Byrne to front her own show after her barnstorming speech at the Edinburgh TV Festival last night.

Byrne (far right), Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs, delivered this year’s MacTaggart Lecture to an audience of industry insiders. Those spotted particularly enjoying her speech — which also featured comedic turns about the menopause and sexist men in TV — included Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark, Channel 5’s Claudia-Liza Armah (far left) and BBC presenter Anita Anand. The keynote, which prompted a standing ovation and was described as a “tour de force”, focused on her fears for public life as politicians avoid journalists. Byrne launched a potent attack on Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May for avoiding public scrutiny, saying that Margaret Thatcher regularly subjected herself to long broadcast interviews in the national interest.

“Throughout her time as PM, May’s longest interview with Channel 4 News was seven minutes,” Byrne said. “How do you delve into the complex problems of our times in a few minutes?

“Jeremy Corbyn sometimes permits only one question, and then doesn’t answer it!”

The news chief observed that craven evasiveness means the electorate can’t make decisions about leaders. “I genuinely fear that in the next election campaign there will be too little proper democratic debate and scrutiny to enable voters to make informed decisions”. She also joked that we should give the Queen a camera in the event of Corbyn coming to Buckingham Palace in an attempted coup so that “she could ask him some questions on behalf of the British people”.

After Byrne’s brilliant speech last night a source says “there was a joke going round the dinner afterwards that she should lead a government of national unity”. Vote Byrne?

Lucas reshuffles

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Caroline Lucas has defended her much-derided call for an all-female Cabinet to tackle Brexit.

Writing in this week’s New Statesman, she insists that her suggestion of an emergency Cabinet was intended in “inverted commas” and “never meant to be taken literally”.

She adds: “The proposal wasn’t born from me sitting at home dreaming up some sort of fantasy Cabinet — it came from a place of real fear. I made mistakes, for which I apologised.

“But the online abuse was a bruising reminder of how vitriolic our politics has become.”

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“If, driven by Brexit, there was a big independence vote, wouldn’t Britain be close to a Spanish-Catalan stand-off?” asks Andrew Marr in The Spectator. “If [Scottish] independence then happened, it would be after an angry, cantankerous period — marches, civil disobedience... Borders really might go up.”

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Comedian Ivo Graham recalls the time he and his friends were playing a team that included Jo Johnson MP at boules. “They were laughing, and not in a good way, at our team name,” Graham says, “which we were very proud of.” The name in question? “Raging Boules.” Johnson’s verdict: “I thought you were supposed to be comedians”.

Recycling Kate adds a green hue to Oxford Street

Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hap

Hollywood royalty came to Oxford Street yesterday as Kate Hudson launched her new clothing range, Happy x Nature, at Selfridges.

Actor Hudson, whose mother is Goldie Hawn and stepdad is Kurt Russell, revealed the 35-piece fashion line of partly recycled clothing in the London store among supporters including Jasmine Hemsley and Niomi Smart. Fashion brands have become more Hudson’s focus as she has taken time out of acting due to “too many kids”, she said recently.

Up in Finsbury Park, it was the press night for play The Weatherman, a new drama set in a dingy London flat. Fashion boss Vivienne Westwood came out to watch the show, as did actor Adrian Lester and his wife, actor and writer Lolita Chakrabarti.

Wine fills the shelves at Paltrow library

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Gwyneth Paltrow has hired a bookshelf curator whose name is, improbably, Thatcher Wine. Wine’s role is to “curate” shelves based on interest, author, and colour for his clients — and sometimes, just to fill the vast space. Wine tells Town and Country that when Paltrow redecorated her LA home, she needed “about 600 more books to complete the shelves”. So what’s in her bookcase? “I looked at books she already owned,” Wine demurs, “which focused on fashion, art, culture, photography and architecture.”

SW1A

OUTGOING Today presenter John Humphrys will next month interview former PM David Cameron, whose memoir (below), For the Record, is published on September 19. Cameron must take a different view to the new regime. Downing St’s director of comms Lee Cain is said to have advised against ministers appearing on the show and Dominic Cummings is supposed to have declared: “I never listened to Today for the entire year of the referendum and I intend to repeat this while I am here.” Wonder if he’ll make an exception?

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Tobias Ellwood arrived at Portcullis House yesterday to find his new office strewn with rubbish. Fingers were pointed at transport minister Chris Heaton-Harris, its previous inhabitant. Former Army man Ellwood cleaned things up to “Royal Green Jackets standards”, telling The Londoner: “Chris was humble in offering to pop over with his Marigolds.”

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Quote of the day: ‘I am the first British black woman in history to be nominated for the main award at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival... I am dead!!!!!!’ Congratulations to comedian London Hughes.

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