Andrew Marr the weak interviewer

There is nothing worse than a weak interviewer, one who it appears just wants to be friends with the person in the hot chair.  The so called hot chair then becomes tepid.  A great example of a tough interviewer is Jeremy Paxman, it is only a great shame he no longer does newsnight and it is our loss. On the other hand one of the weakest running interviewers is Andrew Mar.  I don't know if it is out of sympathy the BBC still keep him on, and still have a political program with his name, and his program should be a hell of a lot better than it is, but it's not.  I watch it and each time I do I get further disappointed at yet another opportunity lost. Another chance to really stick it to a politician and get a response. You can see them all lining up to be on his program because he is the easiest interviewer to have, we got a teddy bear when we need a shark.  There is no doubt this man is learned but he just does not have the ability to be cut throat in a cut throat political environment.  He must know all about false logical arguments but he doesn't use what he knows, he is a historian and yet he does not bring into play his knowledge base. How can a political program survive if it is not willing to go beyond the boundaries of niceness? In the case of Marr's show there must be someone in a powerful position who likes him.  For all intent and purpose this man needs to retire, or take on an alternative supporting roll. Perhaps as a political advisor, yes yet another one.  Then just maybe the job will be given to an interviewer who has guts.  BBC put this man out to pastures, green, gentle and away from what should be a gladiators arena, I'm sure he could handle a nice field somewhere.

Labour will lose Scotland

Today I saw a short interview with a Scottish Labour MP Jim Murphy and Andrew Marr it was by all intent a travesty to see Jim Murphy unable to accept Labour have lost Scotland. And they certainly have in mind and heart.  The reason behind this is their failure to emphasise the follow up to winning the No vote to independence.  Ed Miliband should of been in Scotland and telling the people exactly what he intends to do to support Scotland in the future, he should of spent time listening to their concerns and then formulating a firm Labour commitment to Scotland. He has not.  Jim stated the obvious, there were 2 million Scots who voted No and it is the Yes campaign who have taken it upon themselves to own the streets. It is like he doesn't understand why they would be on the streets.  So now the papers say Labour are going to lose Scotland, they will lose it bad and this will mean they can not rule in Parliament.  Not only have they lost Scotland they already have lost the next election and doomed it to a another hung parliament.  As Andrew remarked there are now 80,000 SNP members now, it is the biggest party in the country.  Jim has misread the lay of the land, he'll not be around after May 2015 and will live to regret it.  Given we are so close to an election he should of become the black sheep of the Labour party, he should of said Yes to independence and his metal would of been shown, instead Jim is a sheep, just like many MPs are.

Ed Milliband does not instil confidence in me, personally I don't think he should of been the leader of the Labour party, his brother would of been a better choice.  As for Scotland, it's as though he has no attachment to Scotland, I have not seen him in any interview talk about Scotland.  His profile in Scotland in non existent. So I don't know why it is he and his Labour party have taken such a broad assumption of winning 35 per cent of seats in Scotland. It is not going to happen.

The referendum in Scotland was as Alex Salmond said one which had been balanced on fear. The fear factor for pensioners.  In particular it was Gordon Brown who threw in the bucket this point. He rammed it home every time he was on TV, stating how pensions could never be guaranteed in Scotland if they voted Yes. As such he also became a representative of Labour in Scotland. The real problem for the Labour party on this issue is they were on a no winner from the start. The entire issue to them was a poison pill.  The only way they could of maintained any kind of influence would of been by keeping a neutral stand or saying Scottish people should of voted Yes. Maybe both of these views were not in their vocabulary. Yet, come May 2015 they will get a chance to feel it. Fundamentally labour will have to completely change their philosophy.  For some bland reason Miliband is trumping up the introduction of a new Lords, which he would call a Senate. This may very well be an important point, but it is not going to be a game changer and right now this is exactly what Labour need.

Scotland will be lost for Labour, and there is very shakey ground for the Tories taking a majority because their sleeping partners are about to be kicked into the long grass. For popping his head up and being quite often heard is Farage, who doesn't really care much at all for Scotland at all.  So the Scots have got to look after themselves they have to vote SNP and continue to the goal of independence which may not be decades away, well maybe one but not two.