Nick Marr

As it's Sunday, how about a half-baked, Twitter-based post about The Andrew Marr Show? 

As I'm hearing (in my head) loud cries of 'Yes please!', here goes...

I've been out revisiting relatives today but, before I went out, I did keep an eye on how Twitter was reacting to this morning's Andrew Marr Show without actually watching the Andrew Marr Show myself.

(And I've still not watched it yet).

I gathered that Nick Robinson was standing in for Andrew Marr and that this was either (a) a good thing, in that Nick asked more incisive questions than Mr Marr, or (b) a bad thing, because Nick Robinson is a "Tory". 

I also gathered that Diane Abbott - despite a handful of Corbynistas claiming that she held her ground - was an absolute embarrassment for Labour (as ever).

The balance of opinion here was overwhelmingly negative for Labour's shadow foreign secretary (yes, she really is Labour's shadow foreign secretary - cue Dead Ringers)....

I also drew from that the suspicion that she must really have bombed for Twitter to be so overwhelmingly against her.

(She always bombs, of course. She's Diane Abbott after all). 

The only significant difference of opinion, as far as I could see, was over the question of whether she had suffered a car crash interview or a train wreck interview.

I also gathered that she'd come in the guise of Darth Vadar and that people were imagining John Williams's fascistic 'Imperial March' from 'Star Wars' whilst watching her.

Also from Twitter I gathered that the Corbynistas weren't happy about Tim Montgomerie of The Times and Sarah Baxter of The Sunday Times being on the paper review - or that the Tory Michael Fallon was on either.

Curiously - and I checked - most of those complainers didn't seem to register - or, to be more precise, didn't tweet about that fact - that both Owen Jones and Diane Abbott had also been on (i.e. there were two Corbyn-backing far-left-wingers on one BBC programme). I think that can be fairly described as 'confirmation bias' on their part.

Young Owen himself is in a funny position at the moment - if Twitter is anything to go by. By my reckoning, the overwhelming majority of Twitters weren't impressed by him. The bulk insulted him for being a left-wing 'tw*t' but a large minority thought he was a 'tw*t' for being less than wholly supportive of JC (Jeremy Corbyn).

A very small minority of left-wingers, however, either thanked the BBC for putting Owen Jones on or damned the BBC for besetting him against a pair of 'right-wingers'.

He does seem to have really fallen out of favour with devout Corbynistas though.

On the Brexit/Trump-bashing actresses - the luvvie spot - Twitter seems to have been pretty negative too. Most of the comments I saw expressed the view that (a) the spot is a waste of space and (b) that they don't want to hear luvvies spouting their views and (c) that they don't want The Andrew Marr Show to keep inviting such people to give their predictable (left-liberal) views. Some Remain-backing Twitter lefties were happy about the luvvie spot though.

On Michael Fallon, the views were mixed. Some found him reassuring. Others found him either boring or dangerous - and, interestingly, the the more left-wing or more right-wing the tweeter the less they liked what Mr Fallon had to say, especially over Syria. (I'm with the left-wing and the right-wing against Mr Fallon - and, if I may say so, the BBC -  here). 

I suppose I should watch the programme and see for myself. And, hopefully, Sue will have something different and more coherent to say.

(And she does! See above).