About six years ago, when the Lib Dems were planning the 2010 election campaign, a lot of time went into the schedule of the daily morning press conference. A venue was booked, breakfast was ordered and a topic was picked for each event that we would wishfully imagine would dominate coverage (‘let’s make April 18th rural transport day!’).
In the end those press conferences, like the ones organised by the other parties, didn’t make it beyond the first debate and the realisation that they were, frankly, far more trouble than they were worth. Why spend a huge amount of time and money so that a load of hacks can come along and try to ruin your carefully scheduled plans with their annoying questions and refusal to stick to your script? The press conferences died and are unlikely to ever return.
This time round things seem to have got even worse for many journalists.
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