Sunday 21 May 2017

Have the Corbynistas cowed Andrew Marr?



This morning's The Andrew Marr Show was certainly lively. 

The paper review was unusually jolly, with Miranda Green, Amanda Platell and Paul Mason. Amanda Platell does seem to become especially perky when leather-jacketed leftists are on the sofa with her, even when they aren't actually wearing leather jackets. (Remember her steamy Marr Show encounter with Yanis Varouvakis?). And Paul Mason appears much happier now that he's on the BBC now even more than he was when he actually worked for the BBC (or so it seems).

Paul Mason looked particularly happy with, in a very strange moment, Andrew Marr interrupted the paper review to show a Labour Party video of Jeremy Corbyn getting a hero's welcome from a huge, wildly cheering crowd at Tranmere Rovers, beginning:
It's interesting, Paul, around the country we are seeing lots and lots of examples of big, enthusiastic crowds. You've seen some. They don't appear on the traditional media very much. We're going to show you one, which is a Labour Party video I have to warn people, from Tranmere Rovers - the Tranmere Rovers ground. 
Was that a sop to all those Marr-hating Corbynistas on Twitter? 

We then got Brendan Cox again. 

And then came Paul Nuttall again. (The Greens are going to be complaining about that). It was a much tamer interview than the last one (three weeks ago). The issues discussed were: the point of UKIP, the party's recent failures and immigration. The interview lasted 6m 34s, contained 6 interruptions and, thus, resulted in an interruption coefficient of 0.9

Andrew Marr himself was at his liveliest during his interview with Damian Green, though he did occasionally allow the Conservative to get a word in edgeways. Actually, it was no bad thing for Mr Green that Andrew Marr did most of the talking during that interview as the Conservative minister pretty much made a complete pig's ear of it, floundering badly over social care. What an absolute battering Andrew gave him! The issues discussed were the Conservatives' uncosted manifesto, winter fuel payments and social care (the dementia tax). The interview lasted 15m 49s, contained 29 interruptions and, thus, resulted in an interruption coefficient of 1.9.

Then came a much calmer interview with cuddly Uncle John McDonnell, who was all very nice and reassuring. Andrew took off his boxing gloves and just tried the occasional mild slap here. The issues discussed were: social care, welfare benefits, taxes, debt and borrowing, the cost of re-nationalisation and corporation tax The interview lasted 14m 26s, contained 16 interruptions and, thus, resulted in an interruption coefficient of 1.1.

So interruptions-wise, Paul Nuttall was least-interrupted this week, followed by John McDonnell, with Damian Green way in the lead. His interruption coefficient is the highest so far. 

The contrast between the brutal Green interview and the far-less-brutal McDonnell interview, again, should have lessened the anti-Marr ire of the Corbynistas on Twitter....

....and, yes, checking out Twitter, it has. They have fallen uncharacteristically silent. 

It's remarkable to see so few cries of 'BBC bias!' from them on a Sunday morning. They started off in full flow, however, complaining as usual but then, as the show went on and the scale of Mr Marr's 'anti-Tory bias' became plain, they simply stopped tweeting. They were never going to praise Andrew Marr, of course, so they just shut up. (There's nowt so queer as folk!).

Finally, however, came the liveliest bit of the entire programme as Floundering Damian and Uncle John came together on the sofa and started arguing. Uncle John talked over Floundering Damian even more than Andy Marr had earlier, and jabbed his finger repeatedly in the Tory's face before aggressively taking the 'ad hom' route. Uncle John didn't appear anywhere near so cuddly there. Andrew Marr was left a helpless, laughing by-stander. The issues Andrew Marr raised here (mostly with Damian Green) were: the future of Philip Hammond, economic growth and the Conservatives' tax plans.

2 comments:

  1. Lest we forget...Marr was a very active extreme leftist Trot at uni. Was it Socialist Organiser? One of those sorts of groupuscles...He probably feels uncomfortable with McDonnell, someone who has stuck to the Trot Credo from youth to old age.

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  2. Of course Marr is pandering to Mason and the Corbynistas. Hasn't he received more complaints about anti-Corbyn bias than just about any other BBC show or Beeboid? It's the old numbers game, and 'balance' hath been provided. Job done, Complaints From Both Sides proof of, etc.

    Did anyone else notice that when Paul Mason explained why Corbyn is getting all these huge crowds, he was describing Trump supporters and the reasons why Trump won? Or he could have been describing Brexit voters and that result. Yet Mason hates the people who voted for both. The masses know best unless it's the wrong result, in which case, well, you know.....

    Not a bad segment with Pointless Paul Nuttall.

    Marr's economic illiteracy showed itself when he let McDonnell get away with saying that the OBR's multiplier states that one pound 'invested' creates one pound of return, so all borrowing in Labour's manifesto is covered, wipes its face. Marr protested that it can't be 'cost neutral' if the economy isn't growing. He completely misunderstood. He also didn't realize that what McDonnell was claiming said nothing about the existing debt. All future borrowing will pay for itself, so never mind about the current debt? Marr may be clever, but he's an utter moron all the same.

    Still, he shouldn't be getting any complaints about anti-Corbyn bias, anyway, as he was much more severe on Green (who, quite frankly, deserved it more). In fact, it was left to Green to bring it up afterwards when they faced off on the sofa.

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