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Daily journalist tells of ‘three minutes of nothing’ with Theresa May

Theresa May PlymouthA regional daily journalist who interviewed Theresa May yesterday has described the encounter as “three minutes of nothing”.

Sam Blackledge, chief reporter at the Plymouth Herald, met the Prime Minister, left, during a visit to his patch, but said he was left feeling “deflated” despite managing to raise all the points he wanted to with her.

Sam says he and his colleagues were left scratching their heads and wondering what the top line was when he returned to the office, adding that he “couldn’t be certain” as to whether he had interviewed Mrs May at all.

He has since published a full transcript of the encounter, as well as a first person piece recalling it.

Wrote Sam: “Before 8.30am today, I had never interviewed a Prime Minister. Heading back to the office to transcribe my encounter with Theresa May at Plymouth’s fish market, I couldn’t be certain that had changed.”

Earlier this month, journalists from The Herald’s digital sister title Cornwall Live were barred from photographing or filming Mrs May during an election campaign visit to the Cornish town of Helston.

Sam went on to list the specific questions he had asked Mrs May, and the general responses he had received in reply.

He continued: “I was pleased to have secured the interview and happy to have squeezed all my points in. But no sooner had the ministerial car pulled away from Sutton Harbour than I began to feel a bit deflated.

“If the ultimate job of a journalist is to get answers, I had failed. Should I have stopped her and demanded she be more specific? Could I have gone full angry Paxman, or brought the interview to an abrupt close in protest?

“Last time the PM was in the South West, a group of Cornish journalists were shut in a room and prevented from filming or photographing her.

“At the time it was seen as an embarrassing PR gaffe – but it meant that this morning we were overjoyed to simply be allowed proper access and happy to play along.

“Back at the office, we scratched our heads and wondered what the top line was. She had and given me absolutely nothing. It was like a postmodern version of Radio 4’s Just A Minute.”

HTFP has asked the Conservative Party for a comment.

9 comments

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  • May 31, 2017 at 1:47 pm
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    I’ve been in this boat with another PM but as a local reporter what can you really do? It’s a bit of a cheapshot to just hit them with something that’s part of the ‘scandal of the week’, you’re there to get something for the local readers and they don’t have to talk to you, they don’t ‘need’ you the way they do the BBC or ITV, so you’ve got nothing really to trade.

    ‘I demand answers on social care for the Bognor Regis Bugle, and you’re not leaving until I get them!’

    Erm, where did she go.

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  • May 31, 2017 at 3:16 pm
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    “a group of Cornish journalists were shut in a room and prevented from filming or photographing her”
    I thought their ‘tog was allowed to do his/her bit . The blunts were just barred from getting in the way of proper broadcast (not podcast) and their bigboys toys.

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  • May 31, 2017 at 4:20 pm
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    Theresa May (or May Not) has run the worst campaign by a sitting PM in living memory and she will pay the price next week…

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  • May 31, 2017 at 9:45 pm
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    I had the same problem with Paddy Ashdown – he rattled off 1,000 words but never actually said anything.

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  • June 1, 2017 at 9:48 am
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    Well … what do you expect though? The PM is essentially a very high-profile PR person. They are very good at rehearsing answers and trotting them out when asked to. They are not interested in a proper two-way conversation; and why would they? Too much risk involved and too much opportunity to say something wrong. When talking to a PM you are effectively ‘talking’ to a robot. I am far from saying this is the right way to be – of course it isn’t – but this is the reality of the monstrously PR-savvy times we live in

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  • June 1, 2017 at 9:56 am
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    I once had “three minutes of nothing” with a leading Cabinet minister but he paid me to keep quiet about it afterwards. And he was very gentle.

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  • June 1, 2017 at 11:48 am
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    Naïve for a chief reporter. What did he expect? She is a politician. He is paid to ask the right questions. She is paid to avoid them. Always been like that, always will be. Wise up young man.

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  • June 1, 2017 at 1:44 pm
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    If Sam felt completely underwhelmed by the Prime Minister’s visit, quite right he should say so and tell it as it was.
    I don’t suppose he was expecting a revelatory interview, but you would expect something more than head-scratching sweet FA.

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  • June 2, 2017 at 12:22 pm
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    Lloyd George was much the same……and Enoch Powell told me not to ask him any questions! (Last bit true).
    However, I found Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown pleasant and chatty.

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