Chris Mason

Just picking up, Sarah, on that.

I find myself when I was thinking about how I would approach the interview that I did.

and how people, depending on their own outlook on politics or society or language or whatever it might be, might digest what they see.

And it reminded me, Adam, of the conversation you and I were having the day before, so on Monday, around the whole business of Peter Mandelson and all of those things that came out via the Humble Address, which is that whole thing about... And there's a wider kind of societal conversation around all of this, which is...

This is not to excuse or condone or condemn or anything.

It's just to try and understand and kick around.

The whole business of forums online or on social media where what is now a substitute for previously ephemeral conversations, whether they're in pubs or workplaces or whatever.

And as I say, I'm not seeking to condemn or condone anything around those conversations.

that now happen online and therefore are permanent and can be quoted back, et cetera, et cetera.

And of course, they're part of the scrutiny of someone's character and all the rest of it, which is what I was seeking to do in the interview.

But where in a different era...

those things would be ephemeral, wouldn't they?

They would have just kind of happened or not happened and then gone because they happen in a way that isn't recorded.

Anyway, there's a sort of rambling half-thought there, which I had a go at rambling through on Monday and now I'm having another go at it.

And also, just for the... Newscasters may or may not appreciate this sort of insight into how we cover by-elections, but in terms of how we work out how to journalistically approach a by-election in a way that is proportionate to the levels of support that parties have recently commanded in the area.

In other words, how do we weight...

proportions that we give to various parties.

In this contest, the judgment is that Labour and Reform are treated equally, and then the other parties are treated as everything else being equal, less significant.

Obviously, where editorially, any of them say stuff that is interesting, then we of course

reflect that and so i went to um ashton to do the andy burnham launch and it was all happening in the car park so we just sort of thought we'll just do the whole thing here i'm going to go back next week and do some stuff where i'm properly mooching around in plattebridge and hindley and oral and by the way i've noticed and i'm sure you guys with your focus on the north west of england are acutely aware of this that lots of people are talking about in makerfield because it's a shorthand for the constituency name but actually it's a