Comical Kirkbride
by Graham Davies

Bad expense claims and bad crisis presentation are both distinctive features of the Mackay/Kirkbride household.

Mackay has the initial handicap of his facial appearance. Kirkbride's handicap is her voice. When she is trying to sound concerned on television, it comes across as a simper. Just as when Hazel Blears was saying that the most important relationship in her life was that with her constituents, Kirkbride has the knack of making the viewer want to throw heavy objects at the screen.

She has deliberately avoided calling an Open Meeting in her constituency, presumably because her husband did not come back from a similar event in Bracknell saying, "That was loads of fun, darling. You ought to try one yourself. Most invigorating!"

She is clearly hoping that the storm against her will blow itself out, and that she can hang on by...er, just saying that she will hang on. This is is the presentational equivalent of sticking her fingers in her ears and saying,"La la la...can't hear, can't hear!"

This somewhat limited technique (often used successfully by presenters 40 years younger) won't work this time.

Kirkbride worked for several years at the Telegraph as a Political Journalist. I bet she is wishing that she still did.