Good Grief

Like Gabriella, I get very annoyed when I listen to our political correspondents as they nobly unravel all of the 'complexities' for us. Christ! Beyond Norman 'Cliche machine' Smith on the Today programme - a man who spouts more uncompleted metaphors in two minutes than even I'd thought possible - we have John Pienaar, who seems to think that we're as interested as he is in the minutiae of the Blair/Brown relationship, and who can still use the phrase 'big beast' in apparent seriousness.

If you wonder why people are disillusioned with politics, listen to these two and to Nick Robinson: once upon a time, it seems that political life was focused on doing stuff. Now - if the mainstream coverage is anything to go by - it's about soap opera, and about a self-absorbed obsession with presentation and surface issues. Hardly news, but still irritating and pathetic. All that surface coverage leaves no room for substance.