How Was She Supposed To Know That?

On The Politics Show, Jon Sopel not only seemed unaware that Norway and Sweden were two different countries, but also repeatedly referred to people on fifty thousand pounds per annum as being “in the middle” rather than, as is in fact the case, more than twice that far up the ladder. What an extraordinary fantasy-world these people inhabit!

This was in the course of an interview with Harriet Harman, who, one need hardly add, did not pick him up on either point. How could she have done? Like David Dimbleby on Question Time, Sopel pointed out to Harman that Hazel Blears was also a woman. But, as ever, Hatty was unmoved. After all, all working-class people look the same to her. She is aware that they breed like rats, but at first glance she cannot tell the sex of a rat, and nor can she tell the sex of a prole. After all, who can?