Last month in Total Politics, I did my IN CONVERSATION interview with Adam Boulton. On Monday I will be interviewing Andrew Neil about his career in the media and his analysis of current events.
If you have any questions you think I should ask him, feel free to leave a comment.
41 comments:
Do you regret the fact that in your interview with LPUK leader Chris Mounsey you didn't ask him one question on policy?
As a public figure, you might ask him if he would like the expenses that he has claimed as a Journalist and/or for tax to be published and subject to scrutiny in the same way as those claimed by MPs.
Ask him if he thinks the BBC hiring a luxury cruiser and filling it with Z-list celebs to give their political views on election night was a good use of public money?
Did the BBC offer him the gig to sideline him from mainstream political discussion on the night?
andrew is a great journo,totally unbiased,sticks the boot into all politicians equally despite his own well known political convictions. the question we all want to ask him"when are you going to do something about the hair?"
Would you have done a better job of chairing the debates?
'Ask him if he thinks the BBC hiring a luxury cruiser and filling it with Z-list celebs to give their political views on election night was a good use of public money?'
Agreed. That was truly ghastly.
How did it feel being the only man to see Lord Ashcroft in public for many a long month? Did you enjoy your end-of-interview put-down, when Lord A said he was going to start paying tax as a full-dom and you said "that will probably solve the deficit crisis then"!
+1 for Charlotte Corday's questions.
Concurring with Ms Corday's comment. Why did the best political interviewer on the bbc, maybe it good be argued on tv in this country get sidelined to interview intoxicated "celebrities" on a hooray henry barge.
Mark Datko
It would certainly be worth asking him about election night. Why did the BBC have their best political interviewer asking questions of celebrities at a boat party. It's a shame it was him doing it but more importantly did those slots really have any place at all in the BBC's otherwise superb coverage?
One or two people had interesting insights but the rest of it just meant a few minutes watching Sky.
Then at 4am we got to see him interviewing Lord Ashcroft which showed perhaps what could have been.
Why did he sack Matthew d'Ancona?
Please ask him why he believes talking loudly over the responses of his guest is good interviewing technique.
Ask Brillo who in his opinion was able to offer the most valuable political insights on election night, Joan Collins or Dom Joly?
Does he aspire to become the leading political interviewer of the BBC and take over Question Time, Newsnight or Today?
He's clearly the most effective interviewer and always all over his brief, how does he do it?
Does he write his own scripts for The Daily Politics? They are truly shocking.
why can't the BBC get two chairs for Michael Portillo and Diane Abbot on This Week - why are they bizarrely sitting on top of each other.
Why the appalling and ignorant parade of yoof-friendly celebrities on This Week? It's one of the few intelligent programs on air and the constant parade of ignoramuses with their utterly facile and predictable views spoils the program.
I'd ask Neil, who was the most frustrating interviewee during the election?
In your autobiography, you talked a lot about the rise of Sky as an 'underdog' in the broadcasting world, breaking up the old duopoly. Obviously you now work for the BBC, Fox News has become a bit of a parody of itself and Sky has become a bit of a monopoly in the sports market. Has the television market revolution achieved what you wanted to achieve?
Why does Michael Portillo sit so close to Diane Abbott when there is plenty of room on the sofa
Please kindly ask him "Why does the BBC broadcast such an unbalanced view always biased to Zanu LieLabour agenda"
As Charlotte Corday noted, does he feel sidelined at the BBC? Despite being one of their most knowledgeable and toughest interviews, they keep denying him any important roles. His election coverage is either unimportant (Thursday) or non-existent (US Election 08, despite him knowing the US well).
He must feel bitter, not that he'd share it, that on Thursday night he was interviewing Joan Collins and Al Murray!
I know Andrew dislikes Private Eye's obsession with 'that' photo of him and that they deliberately misspell his name as Neill (also to annoy him!), but does he mind being referred to as 'Brillo', a nickname use reverentially by those, like me, who have been fans of his since from way back in the heyday of the Sunday Times when he was its editor?
Andrew Neil really is a national treasure - the longer dear old Brillo stays doing what he does the happier this particular North Briton will be.
Andrew Neil looked like King Dimbleby had banished him offshore and Prince Paxman to the attic (because they each needed to be Alpha male in their domain.)
Very disappointed in Jeremy Vine. "Dari Taylor could lose his seat." You'd think he'd have swotted up on the profiles since 1997. Is finding a Motson too much to ask for BBC news?
The BBC boat was so awful I kept flicking to Sky where Adam Boulton was getting hysterical every time anyone questioned the absolute partiality of Sky news.
"That's a very serious allegation" he would squeak, face squidged up in defiance, as if a single viewer hadn't noticed. Come on, Sky even seemed to be blaming Nick Clegg for the voter queues in Sheffield at 10pm.
There was more than one ugly confrontation which Boulton gracelessly blundered into where he was left denying the undeniable, sometimes as comic as Mr Toad but at moments creepy as Mr Griffin, which spoiled Sky's otherwise rather good coverage.
Sky wins though despite the inexpicable Kay Burley, despite the technical freezes, simply because they had the ticker going so you could see the last four results.
ITN's desperation to be "first" meant calling results absurdly early and adding them to the official numbers.
They were also over-reliant on their panel. The trouble with these panels is there's always someone you can't stand, so you end up flicking over.
But truly, Andrew Neil on the boat was worse than any of it.
What was it called? "The Blue Nun?"
Could you ask him how it feels to be the only closet centre-right member of the BBC staff?
Peter, Chris Mounsey got the going over he well deserved - his Devil's Kitchen swear blogging was funny for a short time, but even he couldn't, and didn't, defend his childish spewings when it was put to him by Brillo.
Chris Mounsey needs to understand that if he wants to be taken seriously (as he evidently does with his LPUK hobby horse) then he should have behaved seriously.
It's too late for him now - after exposing himself as the author of Devil's Kitchen he can't be taken seriously as the leader of a party with any credibility.
Too bad eh! Whatever justification or defence you or he come up with there's such a mountain of DK crap that can be thrown back at him whenever he tries to gain any kind of public support that his personal political efforts are rendered futile.
Who's the girl in the Private Eye photo?
Perhaps you could ask him why he persists with the 4th form attempts at humour in the This Week programme.
Mr Neil is probably the best political interviewer around and I know I am not alone in finding some of the attempts at humour to be embarrassing, detracting from some potentially interesting analysis.
Will you please ask him if he will get Caroline Flint to pose on the sofa with Portillo.
I really fancy the Thetford Forest.
Ask him if he thinks politics and politicians matter, and if he thinks they do, I would like to know why he feels the need to treat politics as a (lame) comedy act. Is it because as a wealthy man he is insulated from reality, and does not have to treat the world as a serious place?
Aye, when the leader of LPUK was being interviewed why were there no questions asked of LPUK policy?
Given your media committments, how do you maintain such as brilliant knowledge on all matters politics. For example, when your not in front of the cameras, how do you keep up to date with political matters, is it via newspapers, magazines, the internet, or a bit of everything?
CD,
"Peter, Chris Mounsey got the going over he well deserved - his Devil's Kitchen swear blogging was funny for a short time, but even he couldn't, and didn't, defend his childish spewings when it was put to him by Brillo."
On 18DoughtyStreet, I defended myself a number of times. Naively, I took the DP producer at her work when she said that we would discuss Libertarian Party policy; having not had to defend The Kitchen for some years—and being there as a representative of other people—I was unsure how to proceed.
Now I know how I should have proceeded—not least because the Libertarian Party NCC refused to accept my resignation and only expressed regret that I had not defended myself more robustly.
Should such a thing happen again, I am confident that you would see a far different reaction from myself.
Iain, perhaps you could ask Andrew Neil how he squares presenting the National Free Enterprise Award to the directors of the ASI one moment and taking a fee from an organisation funded by extortion (the BBC) the next...?
DK
I also agree with Charlotte Corday.
Whose idea was it to talk to run the bizarre party on the barge and how much did it cost?
Could you ask him if his views on the BBC have changed since his days as a Murdoch employee when the newspaper he edited was fanatically anti-BBC? Also, what does he think the Murdoch clan will try to do to the Beeb if Cameron becomes PM?
To answer Skynine's question the woman in the Private Eye photo with Andrew Neil is Pamella Bordes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamella_Bordes
He is a great broadcaster.
Do they have trouble getting guests for "This Week" ? It seems that some guests (particularly) Kevin McGuire is on every other week. He is rather tiresome.
Some more imagination in picking guests. Perhaps 5 live presenters would make some great guests.
Does he think that the BBC complies with it's obligations to impartiality?
...
I will not have a word said against that nice Mr Neill, the best recruiting sargeant the Libertarian Party has every had, and thanks for the donations you single handedly intiated in our favour.
Long may you be an arrogant, celeb obsessed 'political' interviewer.
Iain please ask him more questions that produce a torrent of abuse against the Libertarian Party, the members and funds are always welcome
The boat, if I'm not mistaken, was the Silver Sturgeon. Do we actually know if the BBC paid for it, as opposed to a marketing 'freebie' but its owners? Even if it did, it's actually very good value to hire it compared to most venues in London.
Why does he have such difficulty reading the teleprompter?
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