Sunday 19 October 2008

Andrew Marr Show - Smooth Mandelson gets rattled.

Peter Mandelson RattledI enjoyed this weeks edition of the Andrew Marr show. Sophie Raworth filled in for Andrew and did quite a decent job of it. The show as a whole was entertaining but the highlight came right at the end (41 mins in). Sophie was interviewing Lord Mandelson on the current economic strife and smooth old Mandy looked like he had the better of her. However as the interview progressed Sophie gradually turned the screw. By the time Sophie got around to Mandelson's links with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska he was clearly rattled and quite angry. He demanded that Sophie should produce evidence of any wrong doing on his part and accused her of smearing his good name. Priceless!

Andrew will not be happy with Sophie for treating one of his Labour pals so roughly.

Well done Sophie.

You can watch this week's show by clicking HERE.

7 comments:

Richard Havers said...

It was a treat. About the only thing that the excellent Sophie missed was to point out it wasn't necessary to take your partner for a free holiday on a billionaire's yacht in order to have a meeting.

Anonymous said...

She did very well actually with the "smooth communicator one"..Shame for him he allowed the mask to drop and we saw a glimpse of what we've been told all along he's really like!..Marr would have given him the cosy fire side chat.

Anonymous said...

I thought you could see her flap when he said produce the evidence, she is such a weak interviewer in any case and was the programme was second rate this week.

Anonymous said...

The interview was a real disgrace, a pathetic attempt to trivialise a critical time for the economy and to press the minister on serious issues. I thought Mandelson's response to her insinuations about his business dealings was first-rate, and the interviewer went to pot after that - he wiped the floor with her about 'Lord Mandelson' too. Her only response that I could hear was to repeat the word "Man." The BBC has sunk very low.

Anonymous said...

Labour are so used to getting an easy ride from the BBC they get upset at focussed questioning.
Sophie Raworth voiced a common and widely held view that Mandelsons previous downfall arose from a lack of judgement in public/private relationships.
Why any difference this time?

Richard Havers said...

Third Anon...trivialise? Mandelson consistently refused to answer a straight question, spoke in platitudes and used the 'I' word far too often. The man is a disgrace who will once again fall from grace because he fails to understand what a politician should do and thinks far too much of himself. He is not a business man he was European trade commissioner - there is not a subtle difference there's a huge difference.

Talking down to people has always been his speciality; now he's a Lord he thinks he has a right to do it.

Andrew Allison said...

Mandelson was not happy at the end of that interview. He will fall from grace at some point. He likes the good life too much and can't help himself when it comes to freebies.