Evan Davis, egotist

Evan Davis ran into trouble with Peter Mandelson on the Today programme on Wednesday morning (12 August), as M. Apache predicted he soon might do. Clever but arrogant Evan fired up every time PM tried to criticise opposition policies Evan seems to want a complete ban on cross-party criticism of any kind.

This led to Mandelson trying to explain to him that voters make a choice between parties, and that criticism is legitimate. “Politics is about a choice…”. Yes, Evan, and it’s called democracy.

PM tried three times to explain what the Chancellor had said in his budget speech about the longer-term future, but this was swamped by Evan’s interruptions. “If you stop interrupting me…” PM said, in reasonable tones that made Evan seem excitable.

Then Evan got incomprehensible. He told PM and us that the economy has a structural deficit of 6% of national income. Fair enough. Immediately after that he said that new debt meant there had to be a tightening “of point eight per cent of GDP”. From 6% to .8 per cent in a few seconds was a bit too much, even for M. Apache’s usually agile intelligence. What on earth was he talking about? There was more, and it went on for a while. Then PM came in with a slyly timed “Have you finished?” And proceeded to answer the question.

PM’s most telling point came earlier. We pointed out a few weeks ago (see June 25 below) that Evan’s reflexive tendencies – he comments on the answers he gets – would get him into trouble, and this time they duly did. PM was able, quite reasonably, to say: “You’re not interviewing yourself, you’re interviewing me”.

It was a killer point for anyone who has listened to Evan’s methods this year. For Evan Davis, the important person in the studio is Evan Davis. The real PM, or this PM, are adjuncts to his big knowledge of economics –in excess this time – and his big ego.

Come on, Evan: calm down, stop being full of yourself, and think of your audience.

Evan Davis: a very clever man

Evan Davis nailed Jack Straw beautifully on Today on 19 June. Straw’s usual hesitation waltz of stuttering speech came to and end when he got cross: “I’m sorry. What you’ve just said is an outrageous and completely unjustified charge against me. I’ve been completely explicit . . .” The sudden clarity was delicious to hear.

Davis had made the point that the figures for financing the Probation service were cooked, since they left out debt interest and social security costs. It was a nifty bit of superior economic knowledge. The absence of funding led, inter alia, to the terrible deaths of two French students at the hands of someone who should have been in prison.

Evan Davis is a very clever man. Evan Davis is very quick. Evan Davis knows a lot about economics. Evan Davis wants to tell the Chancellor what he knows about economics (which may well be more that what the Chancellor knows).

According to Peter Hitchens, Evan Davis is a dangerous man, who espouses liberal causes on Today. And so he does, and may he continue to do so. (Though M. Apache thinks he heard Evan say one morning that there were such a thing as “feral children”, a good Daily Mail line.)

Evan Davis signed off on this occasion with “Jack Straw – always a pleasure to talk to you”. The irony, not to say incipient sarcasm, was unmistakable. There was some blog-comment on this item, and M. Apache is not alone in being pleased at Jack Straw being seen off.

But we need Evan Davis – because we have in the making a liberal interviewer with teeth, who will eventually replace the middle of the road-rightist one with teeth, John Humphrys. Nondescript North American editor Justin Webb is due to hit Today in October, and Davis needs to get established as the liberals’ attack dog.

And he mustn’t make any mistakes. He already has the annoying habit of commenting on the quality of the reply he has elicited. Soon, somebody is going to jump on him for this.
Evan Davis is very arrogant, because he knows how clever he is.

If his arrogance gets the better of him – telling Gordon Brown he was slumping in his chair was not a good idea (especially on radio) – then he will find BBC suits and legal types after him.

Come on Evan: don’t screw up. Keep us liberals happy.