Tristram Hunt on Today

Here is someone BM has admired on TV and occasionally on the radio for his balanced views and ability to put into context the historical era he describes.  So it was rather dispiriting to hear him on the Today programme earlier, when interviewed as a 'newbie' MP, use the opportunity to launch an all-out attack on the new government for its, as yet unpublished, planned spending cuts.  Describing the idea of a Big Society as giving 'yummy mummies in West London and under-employed professionals' something to do with their time. 

Whilst I have expressed my own reservations about the idea of volunteers running essential services, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Mr Hunt this morning.  For a start he appears to have dropped the rather lovely plummy tones he usually employs when broadcasting (could this be a nod to his new constituents in Stoke on Trent ?) and where was his usual academic rigour in describing the  challenges facing the country?  Answer  - sadly absent.   After all, one would expect the historian to be curious as to why, after 13 years of record investment in schools parents would feel the need to set up schools of their own and to give some contextual analysis of that phenomenon.  

BM was left with the impression of just another Party hack now trying to make an early name for himself as a politician.   Judge for yourself here.  

p.s  Does this also mark the first use of 'yummy mummy' as a pejorative term?