What was the real reason for the 2017 general election? Andrew Marr provides the answer

Is this common knowledge? Is it true?

P.S. Fans of Twitter exchanges might enjoy this, presently still ongoing:

Jim Al-Khalili: Reminds me of time on hol in Med when I was mistaken for @MarcusduSautoy. But then he was once mistaken for @ProfBrianCox. Go figure. 

Thomas Morris: When I worked at the BBC I was once approached in a bar and called a tw*t by a man who'd mistaken me for @bbcnickrobinson. 

Nick Robinson: Sorry. No-one has ever said that to me! Other things...Think someone approached @AndrewMarr9 to say "You look like Andrew Marr you poor sod". 

Andrew Marr: What happened was: Man in supermarket pursued me from aisle to aisle, silently. Then suddenly popped up at the cashier and said, "Ere you look just like that Andrew Marr (longish pause)... you poor sod!" Which I found curiously  difficult to respond to.

P.S.S. And for those who like Twitter rants from BBC journalists, here's BBC World's Julia MacFarlane describing her flight today (well, it made me laugh anyway):  

• No clearer sign of the decline of @British_Airways than their codesharing with Vueling, rickshaws of the skies. Makes EasyJet look luxurious. 
• So many children are screaming and a woman is fighting with a man because he clipped a hole in her jumper. It's like feeding time at the zoo. 
• Now a spotty Spanish teenager is testing my patience and sanity by playing the drums on the back of my seat with an empty drinks bottle.
• He's going to get a proper Scottish lamping if he doesn't cease and desist.
• If things couldn't get any worse, someone in the row behind sounds like he's contracted bubonic plague.
• He just coughed up a galleon of phlegm and I am searching for something I can use to end my life.
• If this plane crashes may my final tweets please be used in the court case to shut down this god awful airline.
• Never even heard of Vueling before today. Is it even real? The plane, judging by its state, appears to predate the magna carter.

Complaints from both sides (Episode 532)

She has a point.

Partisanship

The respectful pause between the announcement of the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and politicians and pundits' politicking over what his death means for the balance of power in the Supreme Court appears to have lasted all of a few minutes. 

Hillary and Bernie on one side and Donald and Ted on the other side have all, within hours, been making calls favouring their own side's control of the Supreme Court.

Some might call it a bit unseemly...though who they think is being unseemly appears to depend on their own politics.

Will 'the usual suspects' at the BBC betray selective 'outrage'? Well, stalwart BBC twitterer Julia MacFarlane has already got the ball rolling:

"I hope the @thetimes will apologise to the relatives of the recently dead in #Nepal for describing the #UK #election2015 as an earthquake"

Cripes! (or given the recent success of the SNP maybe that should be 'Crivens!').

Whether it's down to Murdochophobia or merely BBC prissiness, here's one heck of a bizarre tweet from BBC old-timer Hugh Sykes:

I hope the @thetimes will apologise to the relatives of the recently dead in #Nepal for describing the #UK #election2015 as an earthquake.

— HughSykes (@HughSykes) May 9, 2015

At least Hugh is willing to engage with his critics (i.e. B-BBC's irresistible force, DB):

DB ‏@4d2b 

DB retweeted HughSykes

WTF? 

HughSykes ‏@HughSykes 

@4d2b lazy insensitive metaphorising - ditto @guardian and probably others too.

DB ‏@4d2b  

@HughSykes Prissy and over-sensitive - expect it from the trigger-word babies who inhabit our universities nowadays, not a veteran newsman.

HughSykes ‏@HughSykes  

@4d2b #Nepal is so recent, I saw the word & thought of the dead. 'Prissy'? I remember helping get blankets to #Iran 1963 quake -12,000 dead.

DB ‏@4d2b  

@HughSykes I didn't expect to see this ridiculous trigger-word thing emerging from US academia into our media for a few years. I was wrong.

DB ‏@4d2b  

@HughSykes You were offended by a word - unrelated to the topic at hand - & want an apology. But you helped with blankets in 1963. Oh, OK.

HughSykes ‏@HughSykes  

@4d2b I think journalists should choose their words carefully, while thinking of others.

DB ‏@4d2b  

@HughSykes I think senior journalists shouldn't act like the overly-sensitive authoritarian word police of the modern-day campus.

HughSykes ‏@HughSykes 

@4d2b simply commenting not policing, and thanks for senior. Oh and for veteran!

DB ‏@4d2b  

@HughSykes re "veteran" and "senior" I was worried "old" might trigger you!


Update: Will Hugh be having words with one of his regular BBC Twitter-buddies, BBC News at Ten's Julia MacFarlane?:

Demonstrates how the earthquake and tsunami metaphors for #SNP surge aren't exactly exaggerations. Via @benrileysmith pic.twitter.com/ppgZEYWfea

— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) May 9, 2015

Julia herself, meanwhile, has been busy in the last few hours re-tweeting the Israel-hating Electronic Intifada and, yes, some Murdoch-bashing piece. Views hers, of course.

Oh, please!

DB at Biased BBC recently got himself involved in a Twitter exchange between BBC News at Six and News at Ten journalist Julia Macfarlane and BBC Newshour’s Nigel Henry Doran. 

DB concludes that Nigel "is not your typical BBC journo". Julia on the other hand...

Julia Macfarlane ‏@juliamacfarlane  Feb 20
Shamima Begum 15, Kadiza Sultana 16, and unnamed 15yo (Bethnal Green Academy) flew to Turkey during half-term break http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31554844 …

Nigel Henry Doran ‏@Nigello  Feb 20
@juliamacfarlane Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Julia Macfarlane ‏@juliamacfarlane  Feb 20
@Nigello Bit harsh..! Clearly these poor girls taken advantage of. And made appallingly stupid decision...hopefully they will live to learn

Nigel Henry Doran ‏@Nigello  Feb 20
@juliamacfarlane Oh, please! They'll know what IS is:  "people" who glory in death and horror. I have no sympathy for psychotic fundies.

DB ‏@4d2b  Feb 20
@Nigello @juliamacfarlane Well said Nigel.

Visit My Mosque Day

The BBC News Channel is making a lot of Visit My Mosque Day - an initiative promoted by the self-proclaimed Muslim Council of Britain to "reach out to fellow Britons following tensions around terrorism". The news summary on The Andrew Marr Show also found time for it, and it's among the headlines on the BBC News website too.

It's not a story that either Sky or ITV News are running with though. Or, doing a search on Google News, any of Britain's national newspapers other than the Guardian. So it's mainly the BBC, it seems, promoting this MCB initiative.

What does it involve? Well, if there's a participating mosque in your area you can pop along, have a cup of tea or coffee (but not a glass of wine) and discuss what Muslims believe.

The man behind it, Miqdaad Versi, was being interviewed by Nicholas Owen on the BBC News Channel just now (a repeat of an interview broadcast an hour or so earlier). According to Hadar at BBC Watch, Mr Versi "appears to have something of a penchant for Hizballah’s former ‘spiritual mentor’ Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah".

Here Miqdaad of the MCB was saying that the initiative was important because of "increasing Islamophobia" following the Paris massacres. Nick Owen didn't demur from his assessment.

Prolific BBC tweeter (and News at Ten journalist) Julia MacFarlane is enthusiastic:

Nothing more British than inviting guests to your home for tea, cakes and a natter. @MuslimCouncil's #VisitMyMosque pic.twitter.com/UP9JVKJLPS
— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) January 28, 2015