I am still scratching my head over a complete bizarre diary story in The Guardian’s Media Monkey column, concerning Rory Bremner’s hosting of last week’s Political Book Awards. Here it is.
To the Paddy Power Political Book awards 2015 at London’s Imax cinema, where the winners included Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, Andrew Marr revealed his next book (presumably another novel because his first one was, er, so remarkable) will be “extremely rude about Labour” when collecting a lifetime award, and the host Rory Bremner took no prisoners as he laid into Cameron, Miliband, Farage, Brown, Obama and Clinton. Was it wise, though, to also target the publisher and broadcaster Iain Dale, mocking his LBC gig as on the margins of radio? Dale founded the awards (with the prize money provided by Lord Ashcroft) and remains the eminence grise behind them, so the impressionist’s chances of a rebooking may have instantly slumped.
The truth is that Rory Bremner did nothing of the sort. I have asked six or seven people who were there and there was no mocking of my radio show, and frankly even if there had been, I’d like to think that my shoulders would have been broad enough to take it.
And just for the record, today I rebooked Rory Bremner for next year’s event. I doubt that will rate a mention in the Media Monkey column though.
