Britain | Bagehot
Bootlicking: a guide to pre-election British politics
Labour is not yet in power. But the honeymoon has already begun
![The Press on their knees, licking a Starmer boot with a Labour rosette sock.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240413_BRD000.jpg)
Daytime television is a surprisingly dangerous place for a politician. During the 2019 general-election campaign, Boris Johnson was chased into an industrial fridge by an intrepid reporter from “Good Morning Britain”, a chatty breakfast show. In 2012, during a live interview on “This Morning”, a usually lightweight late-morning show, a presenter handed David Cameron, then the prime minister, a list of politicians suspected of paedophilia.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The art of bootlicking”
Britain April 13th 2024
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