Bronwen Maddox’s first issue as Prospect editor hit shelves last week, and it’s been a bumper edition for press coverage.
With all the cries of “Judas! Judas! Judas!,” it was like Easter 2011 had nipped in ahead of Christmas 2010. The British press couldn’t get enough of Clegg’s admission, in an interview with Prospect’s roaming editor-at-large David Goodhart, that “there’s an emotional reaction to the fees decision—all the ‘Judas’ stuff does not surprise me."
“Nick Clegg admits voters hate him,” trumpeted the Mirror gleefully. “Nick Clegg revealed yesterday he had been branded ‘Judas’ by Lib Dem supporters,” they continued. I’m not sure even we at Prospect could claim this was a ‘revelation’ but it was jolly nice of the Mirror to say so, anyway.
The Guardian liked the Clegg interview so much they covered it twice, and Left Foot Forward got in on the act, too.
At the other end of the political spectrum, the Daily Mail also had fun reporting on Clegg’s woes, rolling the Judas quote into a piece on the Lib Dems’ disastrous polling figures. Even the Bishop of Lincoln was jumping on the Clegg/Judas-bashing bandwagon, claiming that the rise in tuition fees is “contrary” to the “teachings of Jesus.”
The Spectator huffed and puffed about Clegg’s suggestion that the decision not to lend money to Sheffield Forgemasters “could be revisited.” While, unsurprisingly, nextleft.org weren’t quite so disapproving of Clegg’s vague suggestion. Nextleft.org also had nice things to say about the “top-notch politics in the new Prospect,” including James Purnell’s look at Marxism and George Osborne’s “unintentionally amusing political parable” about student fees.
Given all the fuss about his interview, it was no wonder David Goodhart popped up on Five Live Drive last Friday (2h 43 minutes in) to talk Clegg, Forgemasters and free markets over the course of four action-packed minutes.
Finally the Guardian's diarist Hugh Muir looked elsewhere in this month’s magazine for his gossip, alighting upon a good old-fashioned story of petty new Labour bitching. Click here to find out just what Jack's been saying about Tony.
