Robinson vs. Farage: the usual BS from the BBC

In the dangerously overcrowded stable of pretentious journalists, Nick Robinson must rank among the most gratingly smug and oozing in false omniscience. His every utterance – be it the glib put-down or smarmy retort – repeatedly indicates that Mr Robinson believes himself to be above the interviewee.

His interview with Nigel Farage, aired on 21^st June on the BBC, was a classic of the genre. I stumbled upon it by accident: having crippled myself recently at work I am spending more time rotting my brain in front of the television. Given that Saint Nige was to be interviewed, I simply had to watch.

Although one cannot Barrage the Farage, Mr Robinson certainly tried. Half an hour of predictably tiresome accusations dressed up as talking points, each delivered before a substantive answer could be given. Mr Robinson was searching for the ‘gotcha’ moment, the one that would put him down in the history books as the Man Who Stopped Farage.

It was pitiful to watch. Robinson’s puffed-up performance offered no intention of engaging on any topic or to deepen anyone’s understanding. It was a dull bid for political assassination. It was not conducted for the public’s benefit, but for the journalistic class’.

Its desperation reminded me of Cathy Newman’s disastrous interview with Jordan Peterson (which now has chalked up 48 million views). Sadly, Nigel did not land any killer blows on Robinson as Peterson did Newman, though one has the feeling that, had he wanted to, he could have stuck the boot in quite easily.

Saint Nigel, on best behaviour, however, remained above such things.

Nick Robinson perfectly embodies the utter irrelevance of institutions such as the BBC. The world has moved on and they are yet to realise. They are living dinosaurs.

Why, pray, should anyone suffer through an interminable interview where the interviewer is forever more concerned with proving themselves right rather than letting the subject talk freely?

It is why podcasts have exploded in popularity. Platforms – that also do not leech off the public purse like some fattened parasite – offer interviews over an hour or two (or three) held on the basis of good faith and intellectual inquiry. Joe Rogan, Triggernometry and the rest: their focus is the guest, the presenters are not attempting to prove to their listenership that they are the Good Guys.

One useful aspect of the interview with Farage, however, is that Mr Robinson is a perfect embodiment of the Establishment. As someone who has disengaged to a large degree from mainstream media, I find it handy once in a while to tune back in to hear the devil singing his same old tune. These are, after all, the exact types who occupy each and every institution across the land.

Whether such people are actually humans, or just avatars created by The Simulation designed to irritate us, remains unclear. Nevertheless, they are the defenders of each orthodoxy and each catechism of the modern elite.

Take, for example, Nigel’s statements on the Russia-Ukraine conflict: that NATO’s expansion eastwards gave Putin a pretext upon which to launch his invasion. Naturally, this is presented immediately as ‘Putin apologism’. Any attempt at nuance, any glance towards the viewpoint that maybe we are not always and forever blameless in our foreign policy dealings, is met with tiresome slurs.

I do not agree with Nigel on everything – he should be more forthright on the radical leftist ideology that underpins the cult of climate change, for example – but that he has moved the Overton Window on the issue of Russia-Ukraine is heartening.

It is a shame that our current political elite is so happy to see so many lives wasted, cities obliterated and dollars poured away in the pursuing of a pointless war. For the likes of Nick Robinson et al, the piles of corpses in eastern Europe serve merely as a handy adornment of their self-proclaimed moral superiority.

Easy to cheer on from NW1. Photo: Ivor Prickett, New York Times

Hopefully, this disastrous war will soon be over. The political elite and the likes of Robinson will find themselves robbed of a purpose, no longer able to egg on the deaths of others. No doubt they’ll find some other pet project to tie themselves in knots over. With any luck, and in due course, that will be the growing threat of Nigel Farage bearing down on Downing Street.

When that day becomes a realistic possibility, we will see the extremes to which the Establishment will go. Previous battles will look like mere skirmishes in comparison, as the entire apparatus of the progressive state will be hurled relentlessly against the usurpers. No doubt the likes of Nick Robinson will be at the forefront of such predictable efforts.