EVER since politicians as diverse as Margaret Thatcher and Ken Livingstone pioneered media training for the telly our news programmes have lost that precious edge that came along with unschooled politicians being quizzed by equally awkward print journalists who had made the leap to TV work way back in the 1950s and 1960s.

This thought was prompted as I watched breakfast coverage of Tuesday’s opening day in the Christmas round of public sector strikes. Interviewees on all sides of the various disputes were hobbled by a sort of disingenuity characteristic of professional media training.

Ministers, of course, were in their own class for evasion and as glib purveyors of sales hokum.

And the so-called presenters seemed more interested in their own theatrics than the subjects under discussion.

Richard Madeley on ITV’s Good Morning Britain deserves to be singled out for a special mention for his virtuoso performance as a highly professional pompous ass.

Although many find telly news programme vox pops intensely irritating, they at least provide some of the few moments of authenticity that we are afforded these days.

F W ANDERSON, NW3