The Leader Interviews: Boris Johnson - Tonight (STV)***
The BBC Prime Ministerial Debate (BBC1)**
SO this was it, the big one. No, hang on, that was Neil v Johnson, which the Prime Minister had ducked.
It could have been Etchingham v Johnson, but the blonde flirt had led the lovely Julie on too, saying of course he would be there on the big day for an interview, only to give her a dizzy at the last minute.
Denied his company, Etchingham was left with half an hour to fill, so what else to do but profile the bounder. It was all there, the women, the unlawful prorogation, the women, his chequered career, the women … It was like an 18 certificate version of This is Your Life.
The nation should have been grateful that he turned up in Maidstone where a pair of podiums, Nick Robinson, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and a studio audience were waiting.
Opening statements over it was time for the questions. As Corbyn gave his first answer the screen behind him turned black, as if sending some subliminal message about perpetual night under a Labour government. Blooming BBC bias.
On we went, through Brexit, trade deals, nurse numbers. It was all terribly civilised and more than a little tedious. Perhaps the country was suffering debate fatigue. Where was the anger, the passion? This was like two aged sheep jostling for position at the feed trough.
Despite the audience being asked to show restraint a couple of old boys, clearly Johnson supporters, applauded loudly at several points.
“What would you do to get the hate out of politics?” asked a young man in the audience. Neither man went for the simple answer - don’t let blokes called Dave hold EU referendums. Johnson accused Corbyn of a “failure of leadership” on anti-Semitism, then managed to turn this into an attack on Corbyn’s neutrality on a second referendum.
- READ MORE: Voters think Boris Johnson won final leaders' TV debate
The next question was what punishment was appropriate for politicians who did not tell the truth, which brought forth a mega chunter from Johnson, who started banging on about people being made to go on their knees and walk through the Commons chamber while flogging themselves with whatever dodgy document they were punting. Whatever lights your candle, mate. Corbyn hit back, reminding him of a certain statement on the side of a bus.
This was more like it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all that Andrew Neil was denied the chance to ask Johnson his searing questions, that Julie Etchingham had been snubbed. But no, a look at the clock revealed we were out of time. What a waste, of an hour, of an opportunity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel