@yorksranter On the one hand, it seems bonkers. On the other, the Mail's reaction explains why he did it…
— Stian Westlake (@stianwestlake) April 6, 2014
We refer of course to this Daily Hell story, in which best mate of Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron, is supposedly astonished and deeply shocked to hear the word sex. So is Joanna Shields, ex-Googler, born 1962.
I find this deeply unconvincing to say the least. As Stian points out, it was probably published so the Hell could enjoy it. But I would go further. Did the meeting ever happen? I’m basically blogging this to remind myself to check the register.
Surely it’s not so much the word as the fact that’s it’s Michael Gove saying it, that people might find distasteful. “Only Berlin comes close” actually made my skin crawl a bit.
Consider the imagined audience.