The slow death of the media Blairites

How can you tell a political movement is well and truly dead? Easy – the Times newspaper finally drops said movement’s advocates from its opinion pages. It’s a process that can take time, as we’ve witnessed with the painfully slow demise of Britain’s media Blairites. RIP.

Steerpike was as sad as anyone to learn last month that David Aaronovitch has left the Times, having spent almost two decades farting out his centrist dad radicalism from the paper of record. We can all take comfort in that fact he will have a new Substack, natch, and he continues to be a voice for the voiceless on Twitter. Just yesterday, for instance, he did the important public service of rebuking the media for calling Epsom College ‘prestigious’ after the private school’s headmistress, husband and child were all found shot dead. Where would we be without you, David?  

Aaronovitch was arguably the last Blairite standing in mainstream media.