It’s time for some home truths, Rishi

I wonder how many people in the country are bitterly disappointed that Liz Truss pulled out of her exciting one-to-one interview with Nick Robinson? I can think of only two. First, of course, Nick Robinson. Nick was very much looking forward to it. His ideal assignment would be to interview himself for an entire afternoon, but failing that, Liz Truss would do just fine. The other, of course, is Rishi Sunak, who must have been hoping that Liz would dig herself another hole and carry on digging until she emerged somewhere near Maruia Springs, say, in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.

I suppose it is just about possible that some of Nick’s producers were also disappointed that Liz pulled out, given that they may have a horrifically stunted view of what people consider ‘interesting’. Back in the late 1990s, when I was editor of the Today programme, we interviewed candidates for the post of producer with the first question to them being: ‘If you could choose anyone from history to interview on Today, living or dead, real or fictional, who would you choose?’ One candidate replied, with great verve: ‘Alan Milburn!’ We did not appoint that candidate, but I assume they got a job on World at One.