The state of the political interview

The humiliation of Chloe Smith at the hands of Jeremy Paxman last night was likened by one twitterati to watching a cat playing with a mouse before devouring it.
 
Of course, Smith was hung out to dry by Osborne&Co. But I want to address another, as yet unremarked upon factor: the age gap between Paxman and Smith. Paxman is 62; Smith is 30. In the words of Robin Day, politicians are ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. The result is that as the years go by, politicians get younger and political interviewers get older.

In the days when the political class was a generation or two older than the interviewing class, the tone was deferential, which was no good for democratic accountability. Today, it’s the interviewing class that is a generation or two older than the politicians. And this has changed the tone, manner and content of many political interviews, and not always in a good way.