Susan O’Keeffe: Reality intrudes on stage-managed political theatre
‘Hopeless Hancock’ and the Putin-Biden summit cut through the airbrushed, manicured, 24/7 performances that are now the mainstay of political discourse
“Are you hopeless Mr Hancock?” will go do down in politics as the defining question of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.
On the face of it, throwing this question in the air at the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, driving away in a car, seems more like a stupid doorstep moment from a lazy journalist.
In reality, this short sentence was when the normal secrecy rules of political power emerged with a bang into the ...