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| End of the road for yet another Andrew Neil vehicle |
When the BBC announced 520 job cuts in its news division it was perhaps no great surprise to see Andrew Neil's show was one of the casualties. His latest show was only commissioned last autumn and had not broadcast since March. In recent years Neil's presence on the Beeb has become increasingly sparse.
Daily Politics was canned in 2018,
This Week finished a year later and he is seldom seen at the helm of
Politics Live these days.
As is always the case when there is any suggestion Andrew Neil is binned, there has been a backlash. The BBC have stressed that they are in talks with him about a new venture, but there are rumours that the 71-year-old has been approached by other broadcasters. Presumably ITV are one of those clamouring for his services. We can only hope they are lining him up to replace the awful Robert Peston!
Prominent figures in journalism and across the political divide heaped praise on Neil following news of the BBC cancellation.
Some on the hard left were less complimentary, because their little spiteful minds can only recall instances when Neil has mauled their idols. But let's not forget that following his decimation of Jeremy Corbyn ahead of the election, Boris Johnson avoided Neil like the plague and never did sit down for an interview. He wouldn't have refused to meet Neil if he thought his interviewer was going to give him an easy ride.
Remain campaigner Femi Izawally invoked Neil's ire with a tweet in which he labelled the broadcaster "biased and scarily right-wing". Bad move.
As for Little Owen, who has been involved in a long-running spat with Andrew Neil, some would have expected a gloating response. However, Jones has his own problems worrying about job cuts at
The Guardian. Jones tweeted:
"Andrew Neil falsely claimed that I repeatedly tried to get his BBC career cancelled. He's still refused to withdraw this claim. So let me put on record that I don't support this decision, while standing by holding Neil to account for his public record".
The ever classy Neil later tweeted that
The Spectator was a broad church and didn't see why Jones couldn't work for the rag if he got the boot from
The Guardian.
This seems as good a time as any to revisit their famous bust-up on
This Week...
On Saturday morning Neil
tweeted that
The Spectator was booming while other media outlets are in decline. He notes that his newspaper now outsells weekday editions of
The Guardian. Brutal as ever.
