The Adventure of the Non-Existent Son

The BBC's Editor of Live Political Programmes, Rob Burley, has had the strangest few days. 

A Titania McGrath-style joke tweet claiming that the young man who appeared on Question Time this week and attacked Labour and the Liberal Democrats (to strong applause) was actually Rob's son and that Rob had cut his hair before planting him in the audience went viral - with 'viral' being very much the right word. 

Many people (humourless #fbpes, Corbynites, Cadwalladristas, especially) were all to ready to fall for it, and they've been making Rob's life a misery ever since. 

The fact that the young man does appear to be a Conservative activist - as the mob seems to have found out - isn't necessarily anything. The Question Time audience has long been full of party activists. 

It looks as if the lad's surname is 'Smith' so I'm presuming that's why the hoaxer called him 'Cyril'. And now people are furious at Rob and 'his son', Cyril Burley. 

And Rob may keep on saying that he hasn't got a son called Cyril, some people still think there's no smoke without fire. 

Now, yes, some are definitely just trolling him now. But many aren't. They are seriously serious. 

As Nick Robinson says, it's a funny old world. Not that any of this is actually funny.

The senior BBC man who engages most often with the BBC's audience doesn't deserve any of this. These people should be ashamed of themselves.