The Indy article on our present political elite has this wonderful snippet on Nick Robinson, who was also at Oxford in the ‘80’s:
It might be assumed, by the way, that the extroverted Boris Johnson was a shoe-in for the title of "pushiest fresher" when he arrived at Balliol in 1983, but in fact that accolade went to a contemporary who was judged to be a bigger attention-seeker and more publicly identified with the Conservative Party – Nick Robinson, now political editor of the BBC. Unusually for a student Tory, Robinson was not a Thatcherite but a "wet", which is why he was known to his Thatcherite contemporaries as "Red Robbo", or "Wet Nickers".
Well, Nick Robinson’s political judgment has not improved down the years. On the day that the Cabinet failed the Labour party and the country, not to mention leading members of the AJ4PM committee, Guido Fawkes brilliantly captured Robinson’s moment of madness:
Unfortunately, Guido failed to include the bit when Robinson went on to describe what could happen. Our Nick mentioned the ‘Bob Hawke scenario’. The brass neck of the man! Just where did he get that idea from?
At about the same time when what should have happened didn't, Iain Dale took it upon himself to conduct a survey on who should be the next BBC Political Editor. Laura Kuenssberg came top of the poll. Hmmm. Keep an eye out for Robert Peston.
Our Nick will be around for a while. We will have to put up with him as he sits alongside David Dimbleby on election night. It will be the sublime together with the ridiculous. Perhaps we should call it a balanced ticket.
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