We need more than Westminster reporters to understand government

Lobby correspondent hegemony is bad.

Book now! On January 21st I’ll be speaking live, in a pub, to former DfT transport policy guru Michael Dnes about the future of transport.

You might have seen his viral thread over the weekend on Bluesky or Twitter, on how a sugar mill in Nottinghamshire could be key to saving HS2. We’re going to be talking about all of that – plus how we can make sure Britain’s infrastructure is ready for autonomy vehicles, drones, and much more!

Tickets are now going fast – so book now to avoid disappointment.

---

During the pandemic a common criticism of the then-government was that despite the complicated and technical nature of the Covid response, it still insisted on prioritising its relationships with The Lobby, Westminster’s cadre of political reporters – instead of inviting specialist science journalists to attend briefings and ask questions.

It was an approach that sometimes led to awkward moments, as it meant correspondents accustomed to covering palace intrigue and personality politics were forced instead to ask Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance about R-numbers and epidemiological models.

And at its worst, it exacerbated the information fog. For example, in the early stages of the pandemic there was much hysteria following reporting by Robert Peston that the government intended to follow a “herd immunity” strategy. And though Peston’s reporting was broadly correct, it arguably lacked the context and nuance that a specialist could have added to the reporting.

Anyway, I was reminded of this yesterday by a story on the Sunday Times front page, about a similarly technical topic, that was written up not by a specialist, but by the paper’s political editor.

“Digital ID for pubs and clubs in (half) victory for Tony Blair”, read the headline, which was followed by this intriguing lede:

“Pubgoers will be able to use their smartphones to prove their age as part of plans to introduce government-backed digital IDs.

“Ministers are preparing to change the law for customers buying alcohol in shops and bars as they embrace a technological revolution that will move more state functions online. People will eventually be able to prove their identity for everything from paying tax to opening a bank account using a government-backed app.”

I can’t say for sure how this story ended up with the reporter. Maybe it is the result of months of painstaking investigative work, Woodward and Bernstein-style. Or perhaps it was handed out by a government press officer in a Lobby briefing. Or maybe it was quietly leaked to the specific reporter to curry favour.

But in any case, perhaps because it was written by a Lobby reporter and not a specialist technology correspondent, the resulting article is frankly, a bit of a mess. And I think it is illustrative of a persistent structural problem with a lot of news coverage. It’s not bias to the left, or to the right… but it’s the hegemony of the Lobby correspondent.