Mic-drop moments does not a good government make. Alastair McCapra makes the case for political leaking

In November 1989, cameras were finally allowed into the House of Commons. Just a few months later, in March 1990, John Major delivered the UK’s first televised Budget. Voters at home were not only able to watch the measures unveiled in real time on BBC 2’s Budget 90 Special, but they were treated to expert reaction and analysis immediately after, too.

Though the introduction of cameras remains a totemic moment in the modernisation of parliament, the rules that determine how governments actually communicate with the electorate and business have not kept pace. Outdated rules designed for a different era sit uneasily alongside the speed, scrutiny and public expectations of the digital age. 

Rolling 24-hour news and the rise of social media have made it harder for governments to control the narrative. The risk of leaks as major policies are hammered out has risen significantly, with governments now arguably at the mercy of a press that will catch and amplify the faintest whiff of speculation. The political theatre that surrounded Nigel Lawson’s 1988 Budget,........

© City A.M.