While we're seeking to fix what's wrong with Britain, look hard at our policy-lite, sensation-seeking media | Roger Mosey

"Almost everybody, including Keir Starmer, can see that the Peter Mandelson affair provoked a genuine political crisis. The media were right to make it headline news. But it also shows the febrile atmosphere in which politicians and the media conspire to turn every incident into an issue of confidence in leadership, and we are becoming a country where it is impossible to focus on the long term."

"There is nothing new in the obsession with political process. I was guilty of it myself when I was editor of the Today programme during John Major's attempt to ratify the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s. We gleefully put on air rebels and loyalists as the government battled for survival, and our listeners had a far better briefing on the meltdown within the Conservative party than they did on what was in the treaty."

"But it has got worse. Our attention spans have become shorter, and the arrival of social media has intensified the fury in the national debate. For politicians and journalists alike, a viral post the punchier the better represents a good day in the office. You no longer need to wait to be invited on to Radio 4's World at One to make your case against your leader, because a few words on X during a boring train journey can change the news agenda."

The Peter Mandelson affair produced a genuine political crisis and became headline news, reflecting a febrile atmosphere where incidents are reframed as tests of leadership. Politicians and media routinely convert events into confidence issues, undermining long-term focus and sustained reform. Historical patterns show EU affairs filtered through party conflict rather than substantive explanation, and past coverage sometimes prioritized internal meltdowns over treaty content. Shorter attention spans and social media have intensified rapid, viral-driven news cycles. Viral posts and punchy commentary can reshape agendas instantly, and the media environment has compounded political turnover alongside major events like the global financial crisis and Brexit.

Read at www.theguardian.com