I must say that I'm baffled by this too. I can't think of a single redeeming feature of his premiership. He can't be bothered to turn up for meetings, he can't be bothered to read reports, he can't be bothered to prepare for PMQT. Now he's looking for a spokesperson as he can't be bothered to...
This didn't ring true to me. I looked up PTE and, true enough, there are 153 results. I looked in one of the smaller threads and there wasn't a single mention of Pliny there. It did, however, highlight 'the'. But that's strange too - there are surely a lot, lot more than 153 threads that use the...