"It's this season's fashion accessory for every politician. Outside election campaigns, press conferences usually signal major set piece events or a national emergency. Now you can't move for them. Reform have had four inside a week with another one lined up for tomorrow. Even Kemi Badenoch has been at it with a bizarre outdoors show and tell last Thursday. Blink and you would have missed it."
"A press conference that takes place at 8.10am in Downing Street and is broadcast on nearly every terrestrial channel screams: Help! Things have gone seriously tits up! Anyone watching would have been well advised to run for cover. You could see the bad news coming a mile away. This was Reeves trying to catch a break. Hoping to get in the bad headlines early so that, come 26 November, she will get an easier ride."
Press conferences have become a routine political accessory, appearing far more often than during traditional major events or emergencies. Parties and politicians stage multiple outdoor and early-morning briefings to create a sense of urgency and to pre-emptively frame bad news. Rachel Reeves held an 8.10am Downing Street briefing that suggested serious trouble, aiming to normalize pessimism before the budget and soften future backlash. The briefings often rely on timing and theatrical presentation rather than explicit details, converting policy hints into spectacle. Language is increasingly coded and evasive, allowing leaders to signal planned income-tax increases without naming them directly.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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