Britain - The media

Fill in the gaps in this text with words from the list below.

confessed     feared      fearsome      former      grilling       persistence      satisfied      scandal

snorting      resign

There are all kinds of reasons why British government ministers have to from their posts. They might have been involved in a , they might be sticking to a promise they made to resign if they did not achieve something specific, or they might just be perceived to be performing poorly. But there is another possible reason - they are afraid of a particular interviewer. The most political interviewer on the TV is Jeremy Paxman, the presenter of the Newsnight programme. Noted for his in the face of stonewalling, he once asked a government minister the same question thirteen times in succession because he was not with the response he was getting. But on the BBC's Radio 4, John Humphrys has just as a reputation. His forte is interrupting ministers and derisively at their answers. In 2005, it emerged (in a TV interview!) that a Education Secretary knew that if she had stayed in her job, she would have had to face a from Humphrys. It was this, she , that tipped her over the edge into resigning.