It was Rory who first saw through New Labour. What's impressive about him is that he takes no prisoners. We used to get Rory a seat in the Commons so he could watch MPs at work. In another time and place, if a bank manager was 'happy' with a piece of comedy, it might set alarm bells ringing. What McCrum would need to explain is how government-approved humour could qualify as 'satire'.
Satire depends on a finely developed sense of irony.
If we did a television version of A Modest Proposal we'd have watchdog organisations all over us. Indeed, Bremner is not Swift, and irony is not the constitutive feature of satire. The great satirists of the past did not worry about official watchdogs, and had greater targets in their sights than sports personalities. It's not just Bremner. Ali G might be said to have criticised the absurdity of government policy regarding the consumption of cannabis.