General election: Will Boris Johnson be bullied by Andrew Neil? – John McLellan

The open challenge by the BBC’s Andrew Neil to Boris Johnson makes a set-piece interview even less likely, writes John McLellan.
Boris Johnson appears unlikely to be interviewed by Andrew Neil anytime soon. Picture: PABoris Johnson appears unlikely to be interviewed by Andrew Neil anytime soon. Picture: PA
Boris Johnson appears unlikely to be interviewed by Andrew Neil anytime soon. Picture: PA

From the devil incarnate to national treasure; how attitudes have changed about Andrew Neil since his transformation from pilloried Scotsman publisher to Britain’s most feared political inquisitor, a reputation now firmly sealed by his series of pain-packed cross-examinations of the party leaders in the election campaign.

But his excoriating three-minute rhetorical soliloquy about Boris Johnson’s trustworthiness on his Thursday night BBC show, a series of questions intended for Mr Johnson presented to viewers with damning answers inferred, has elevated him beyond feared interviewer to agenda-setter in his own right.

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However, firing the shots suggested that Mr Neil and his producers knew Mr Johnson was not going to agree to be interviewed on the programme before next Thursday’s election and the open offer at the end was more in hope than expectation.

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Watch as Andrew Neil berates Boris Johnson for refusing BBC interview

The equation is the same as this time last week in that Mr Johnson’s team have to judge whether he loses more by a testy exchange, with potential for blunders, than he gains by agreeing to appear. In fact, Mr Neil’s challenge made it less likely to happen; he reasoned that if Mr Johnson was expected to stand up to presidents Putin, Trump and Xi, then surely he could go half an hour with him, but the question now becomes, “If can be bullied by Andrew Neil, what chance have you got against Putin, Trump and Xi?” Had the interview been done at the beginning of the campaign and before the manifesto launch, it would have been forgotten about by now, but a change of heart risks making him look weak on top of whatever an interview itself might throw up.

Whether it makes any difference to next week’s outcome is another matter. For all the clip was immediately whizzing round social media on Thursday night, it would merely confirm what opponents wanted to believe, be ignored by supporters and be missed by the majority of undecideds who are unlikely to be political news junkies. And in any case, questions of Mr Johnson’s judgement were already fully exposed in the leadership campaign in the summer. It’s nothing new.

A new study led by The Guardian newspaper confirms how modern voters who get their news from social media on their mobile phones are fed information based on automatic analysis of their preferences, and that entertainment plays as much a part in their choices. Essentially people are being fed what the algorithms say they want to see and political parties are finding cutting through that to change people’s minds is becoming increasingly difficult. If your mind is made up, with five days to go it’s made up.

Left-right political split aligning with constitution

With so many tight seats, how many minds are still open to persuasion is crucial to the result and while anecdotes among activists are hardly the most reliable evidence, tales from the frontline continue to illustrate the tailspin into which Labour has fallen.

The SNP in Edinburgh East are said to be detecting a shift from Labour to Conservative and with no chance of winning in Edinburgh South, the Lib Dems are said to be easing off because the unionist vote is splitting and Labour’s Ian Murray is in trouble. Edinburgh South-West might contain Wester Hailes but it’s a straight fight between the SNP’s Joanna Cherry and Conservative Callum Laidlaw.

Independence, Brexit and the prime ministerial qualities of Messrs Johnson and Corbyn are leaving important issues behind, which makes the Conservative and SNP options the clearest in most seats and for the first time since the late 50s canvassers are identifying significant numbers of working-class unionist votes shifting back from red to blue.

How this translates into seats is harder to tell but after the election the divide in Scottish politics will be deeper than ever as left-right politics and the constitution align for the first time.

Fixing the SPA’s flaws

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It’s as well for the SNP that other issues are overshadowed, particularly policing and justice, but shots have certainly been fired by former Scottish health minister Susan Deacon, resigning as chair of the Scottish Police Authority because she was “convinced that the governance and accountability arrangements for policing in Scotland are fundamentally flawed”. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Gill Imrie, has also criticised a lack of vision or strategy for the SPA and told MSPs this week that senior officers were also frustrated by the lack of scrutiny. Knowing Ms Deacon as I do, it’s impossible to believe that after two years in the job she did not have a plan for tackling these issues, so reading between the lines she is not so much frustrated by the flaws but an institutional unwillingness to do anything about them while she was expected to manage whatever was handed to her. That is something for Justice Minister Humza Yousaf to address.

I got teacher’s message, then the belt

It has been a rocky week for the SNP to say the least, with a survey showing falling public confidence in the SNP’s management of the NHS, education and justice. This will be dismissed as just one poll. But the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results cannot be brushed off, although Nicola Sturgeon did her best.

Scotland has gone from fifth to 31st for maths and ninth to 29th for science since 2000, while reading slid from sixth to 15th.

The accompanying survey of teachers suggests a deeper problem, with growing concern about truancy, attention problems, bullying and lack of respect. These are not new. I clearly recall a physics teacher saying in front of the class that if I didn’t have respect for him I should respect myself. I got the message. And then he belted me.

The wit of Bob Willis

School introduced me to cricket, and I was saddened to learn of the death this week of legendary England fast bowler Bob Willis who I was privileged to meet in 1998. It was not at a match, but at the Festival Theatre because while the obituaries focussed on his sporting and broadcasting career and his love of Bob Dylan, few cited his passion for Wagner.

So rarely are the massive operas given the full treatment that he travelled hundreds of miles to see them and came up for Scottish Opera’s five-hour Celtic epic Tristan und Isolde. During the interval, he was asked if there was a connection between cricket and Wagner. Quicker than one of his deliveries, he replied, “Have you ever sat through a test match?”

John McLellan is Conservative councillor in Edinburgh