Selective News

We all heard the outline story. Rishi Sunak is helping out at a hostel for the homeless, and he asks this man if he wants to get into finance. How stupid can you get? Insensitive, out of touch Tory, thinking everybody’s just like him. Until you actually get to read the conversation. Dean asks Rishi if he’s sorting the economy out. He says he’s trying to. Dean says that “best for business.” Rishi asks if he works in business, and offers him some fruit. No, Dean says, he’s homeless. “But I am interested in business.” Dean says he likes finance, that if finance does well, so does the rest of London. So it’s not entirely silly that Rishi asks if that’s something he’d like to get into.

No, it’s nothing like as simple as the outline version, and that’s the trouble. What we’re often fed is the most dramatic story, the one with the simplest moral, but to get that often means touching it up a little, and missing out important details. Yet another reason - not that I was struggling to find one - why the effort and expense of going through my paper copy of The Guardian feels like a worthwhile investment.