Graun news -- no news as silly season beckons

This story is a classic on how to turn no news into news of no news:

Downing Street officials say there has been neither ‘breakthrough nor breakdown’ on major sticking points

On Brexit, of course.

After two full days of talks in London, No 10 officials described the current state of play as neither a “breakthrough nor a breakdown”....Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, and his UK counterpart, David Frost, are in the midst of intensified discussions. A fifth round of talks will go ahead as planned next week, with another round scheduled for August unless agreed otherwise.

The 'intensified discussions' are evidently not the same as 'talks', and the 'major sticking points' seem to be leading to -- more talks as planned.

The Graun is obviously limbering up for the onset of the silly season in 8 days time when all the journos and BBC folk go on holiday. I should imagine that machines now generate the fillers.
 
The Government is capitalising on the forthcoming shock horror Brexit- and covid-induced shortages of news:

Liz Truss’s Department of International Trade is to tackle what it views as “fake news” about the UK’s post Brexit trade policy with its own rapid rebuttal expert.

The DIT has just advertised a new position of “chief media officer, trade policy and rebuttal” to handle the press and denounce stories it believes are false or contain false information....The vacancy comes as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings seeks to shake up media relations in Whitehall.

Meanwhile, as light relief and as a sign of August news values:

Do Manchester's 'metropolitan elite' feel pandered to by BBC?

When the media minister John Whittingdale goaded the BBC this week by saying it pandered to the “metropolitan elite” in London and Manchester, he did not specify where exactly these spoiled audiences could be found, gorging themselves on BBC Four documentaries and listening to difficult jazz on Radio 3....But Whittingdale may well have had the south Manchester suburb of Didsbury in mind, home to million-pound Victorian houses traditionally occupied by lefty professors and students, as well as a prep school and private hospital

The Graun's fearless investigative reporter ('Helen Pidd North of England editor') set out to continue the Graun's mission 'to expose wrongdoing, incompetence, injustice and inequality' and 'interrogate the actions of those in power without fear' via a classic sample of what the Graun thinks are ordinary people: 

Many buy their samphire and scallops from Evans, a fishmonger in the heart of Didsbury village, which also offers fresh-cut sushi. Yet behind the fish counter, Edward Johnson said he felt overcharged by the £157.50 TV licence fee...Is the BBC elitist though? Johnson’s younger colleague Christian D’Andrea had a think. “I can’t afford all the ingredients on Saturday Kitchen,”...Drinking a latte outside an Italian deli in Didsbury, Paul Hartley, a former local BBC presenter turned aircraft dispatcher, was cross....A few doors down from the fishmonger, Ann Hudson was enjoying a sausage butty. “I hate how the BBC has been politicised,” said the 67-year-old...Jeff Smith, the Labour MP for Withington – which includes the expensive cheese-eating enclaves of Didsbury and Chorlton – said it was just Whittingdale’s latest attempt to undermine the BBC. 

Do not tell me that this is wit or self-mockery -- the Graun hasn't done that for years and it is never mentioned in those little appeals for subscriptions at the end of each story, so it can't be policy.