Andrew Marr's Election Night I

As Andrew Marr's contributions to the BBC's election coverage have been widely discussed here, it made me helpful to transcribe some of his contributions, starting with the 7-7.30 am segment, where he discussed Boris Johnson's victory speech to his party.

7.00 am (leading up to Boris's speech)

Huw Edwards: This is where we are expecting the Prime Minister to emerge, look at that, look at that little motto there in the background, "The people's government",  Andrew. Would do you make of that? 
Andrew Marr: We don't like "the people's" used in that context, in this country. It's a bit French or even possibly Russian. "The people's - it's slightly odd...We have a parliamentary democracy and the people are represented by all sorts of other people. 

Andrew Marr: Well, I think the key word that you used there, Huw, is 'tone'. He has won this huge majority, comparatively speaking, from lots of areas of the country which once voted Labour.  There's a lot of hurt and very disappointed people, a lot of people worried about things like child poverty, and the closure of Sure Start centres, and libraries, and so on and so on. Is he going to reach out and address those people as well as those who voted for him? Is he going to talk about more than that singular Brexit promise? Is he going to start to flesh out what being a one nation Conservative means? Because it's a very kind of warm and cuddly phrase. Very often it doesn't mean very much. So we want to hear some detail from him. 
      It was a very thin manifesto. You're quite right. 
    Is he going to be open and winning, and encouraging people in, or is he going to be triumphalist and breast-beating and 'I did it, and that's that'? That's going to be really interesting.
    Huw, could we just dwell a little bit more on that phrase "the people's government"? Because if it means 'a government for all the people', then that's unexceptional, and warm and welcoming. But the problem with it is, if it's 'the people's government' and you disagree with it about something, are you disagreeing with the people, does that make you 'an enemy of the people'? It phrase that...it's loaded in different ways. Now, they haven't had very much time to sort this all out and get their phrase and so forth, but it rings slightly oddly in my ears.
    'Will of the people'. And if you are against the people, what does that make you?
  Vicky, above all, is it also not a rejection of Parliamentary paralysis and a lack of certainty? We've been hearing from the money markets. But it's not only the money markets. A lot of people looked at British politics over the last few years, endless, endless arguments and they just had enough.

7.15 am (after Michael Gove speaks)

Andrew Marr: Well, interesting that he talked about infrastructure and those parts of the country left out. One thing we know about Boris Johnson from his time as London Mayor is he likes building things. He likes commissioning big things. I think we are going to see a big infrastructure programme for the north. I think the political establishment - put it that way - have realised how much of England in particular has been left behind. All of those East Coast seats, those towns, those parts of the West Midlands which haven't had the investment and the attention they deserved over the last ten years, really since the financial crash of 2008, and I would imagine that kind of investment is going to be a big part of this new government. Now, if they put in the investment, if they really think about those seats - some of which they've won for the first time, then we could see the country coming together again. 
    And we should remember that for a lot of Conservatives, including very senior Conservatives, going for Boris Johnson, not that long ago, was a huge risk. He's taken big, big risks, not least in holding this election when he did. But they have taken a big risk in him. That may why there is an element of love-in going on at the moment. 

7.29 am (reacting to Boris's speech)

Andrew Marr: Well, apart from the obvious point that we need severe curbs on alliteration from the new people's government as soon as possible, I think a lot of...who knows? People make their own minds up...a lot of Boris-sceptics and even Boris-allergics will be looking at that and saying, actually, I'm beginning to hear what I was hoping for, I'm beginning to hear the more generous and open sided aspect to Boris Johnson, because the single biggest question in British politics this morning, is 'who is Boris Johnson politically'? One very close friend of his, very active Conservative who knows him well, who says, 'you know, he's much more Michael Heseltine than he is Margaret Thatcher'. And that sounded to me more Heseltine than Thatcher, and if that is an indication of where he's going to go, then there's a lot of the centre ground of politics who will be listening to him with their ears freshly cocked and a little bit more enthusiastic.             And, of course, it's Brexit that broke everything, broke all of those old allegiances. I mean, the real Michael Heseltine would not agree with what I've just said because he so disagrees with Boris Johnson about Brexit. That's the fissure that runs straight through the Conservative family. Boris Johnson was on one side, but now I think he is, visibly, audibly, reaching over to the others.